Without reading what was agreed to and signed off on before the surgery, it is hard to say if defendants are liable. But the hospital has a responsibility to make sure that the instruments they use do not fail. Should a surgeon drop a scalpel on the floor, he needs to be prepared for that contingency. Suppose the machine that pumps gases through the tracheal tube fails, should the surgeon proceed without oxygen or anesthesia and finish the surgery the best he can? Baloney! The hospital agreed to perform surgery on JW using a machine that was essential to keep the patient alive; the machine failed and the JW patient died because their machine essential to the life of the patient failed. The hospital is liable. But if the JW patient signed something releasing the hospital prior to the surgery, that agreement has to be considered. But whether a patient is JW or otherwise or is a allergic to blood or something else or needs some special machine for his condition or just the regular machine they use on everybody or any paraphernalia needed to keep the patient alive -the hospital is liable to make sure nothing fails. It ain't an excuse to say "too bad the medicine that we had for the patient fell on the floor and broke, it is his fault, he is allergic to regular medicine,cause that's all we have, so we will just have to do our best and if he dies, it is his fault because we agreed to use special medicine and we don't have any more and it is his fault he does not want regular standard, medicine."
The JW patient died because the machine used, essential to his life, failed.