PEDIATRICS Vol. 59 No. 5 May 1977, pp. 781-782
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Blind justice

W. A. S.

On November 18, 1976, a jury in New York City decided in favor of the defense's argument that a retrolental fibroplasia (RLF)-blinded 22-year-old woman had been treated with oxygen according to the accepted standard of care at the time of her birth in the summer of 1954. This notable event was ignored by the news media. Several days earlier there had been prominent news coverage of a $400,000 out-of-court settlement in a similar (summer of 1954 birth) RLF-suit brought against another New York hospital. Apart from what this says about the fourth estate, these events point up some curious facets of the mindset in both the legal and the medical communities concerning the great epidemic of infantile blindness that began in 1942 and ended dramatically in 1954 to 1955.