In an action against a sanatorium and its superintendent it appeared
that the plaintiff had employed the superintendent to perform an
operation for hernia. After the operation was performed the doctor
carried the plaintiff to the room assigned to him and placed him in bed
while still under the influence of an anesthetic. A rubber bottle,
filled with very hot water, had been placed in the bed, and the
unconscious man was laid upon it, and was burned on his back severely.
The witnesses described the wound as being 15 to 18 inches in diameter.
He also received a smaller burn on his side; the attendants, believing
that his struggles on becoming conscious were due to delirium, having
held him down on the bed for a time and then turned him on his side. He
was under treatment from the burns for a number of months and suffered
excruciating pain. The jury found the doctor, but not the sanatorium,
guilty, and rendered a verdict for $5,000, which the trial court reduced
to $2,500. On appeal, the court said that it did not mean to condemn the
doctor, nor even to say that he was in fact negligent; but, taking the
situation as it found it, and as the jury observed it, there was
evidence to justify them in finding that the doctor had not exercised
proper care; and, having so found, the court had no right to dispute the
verdict. It also held that the damages awarded were not
excessive.—Grosshart v. Shaffer, Oklahoma Supreme Court, 152 Pac.
441.—_Medical Record._