Edelman

The question in this medical malpractice case is whether a res ipsa loquitur instruction should have been given. Appellants, plaintiffs, do not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support the defense verdict, if the charge to the jury be judged correct. Appellants offered two instructions on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, of which one would unqualifiedly apply the doctrine, and the other would apply the doctrine only if the jury should find that the injury is of a kind which ordinarily does not occur in the absence of someone’s negligence (and the conditions of defendant’s exclusive control and lack of plaintiffs’ contribution exist, elements unquestioned here). Appellants’ reliance is on the validity and necessity of the latter of these instructions, that of conditional res ipsa loquitur.

During a laparotomy, or surgical section of the abdominal wall, in the course of which a ruptured appendix was discovered and excised, appellant Jo Ann Edelman, a 37-year-old woman, suffered a cardiac arrest. Her brain was without sufficient oxygen during four to six minutes. She suffered brain damage of such severity that she has been bedridden and incapacitated for every human…