Can a hospital be liable if they send away a patient while she is labor?
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Can a hospital be liable if they send away a patient while she is labor?
I took my wife the hospital because she was having contractions; they kept her there for few hours. Afterwards, the staff told us that she was not ready to give birth, so to go home and then go to the public hospital in 48 hours when she would be ready to give birth. However, I refused to take her home. I took her to another hospital where she gave birth 3 hours later.
Asked on June 19, 2019 under Malpractice Law, New York
Answers:
S.L,. Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 4 years ago | Contributor
Medical malpractice is negligence. Negligence on the part of the hospital is the failure to exercise due care (that degree of care that a reasonable hospital would have exercised under the same or similar circumstances to prevent foreseeable harm). There must be an injury which resulted in medical treatment to establish malpractice/negligence. That did not occur. Your wife did not sustain any injury because the first hospital did not accurately determine when the baby would be born.
Therefore, there is no medical malpractice case.
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