1 Chairman, American Academy of Pediatrics, Provisional Committee on Medical Liability
In Reply.
Dr Curtis presents an interesting approach to malpractice defense. In a society so concerned as ours with child abuse and neglect, it may indeed be reasonable to ask what kind of care the injured child has received, perhaps permitting a more aggressive defense than is sometimes possible.
The defendant physician is too often a victim of the hindsight available to the plaintiff's attorney, when it is difficult, if not impossible, to put the judge and jury in the hospital room, the intensive care nursery, or the delivery room where critical decisions must be made if a child's life is to be saved.