I guess the family needs the money so that they can quit their jobs and Pioneer.
http://www.canada.com/halifax/news/story.asp?id={49CB73C1-27A2-48F8-A3FB-6127FCC41A9E}
Family of Jehovah's Witness gives up lawsuit against doctors over her death
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| By ANDREA MacDONALD | |
| The Daily News |
Monday, August 26, 2002
The family of a Jehovahs Witness who died giving birth in Halifax still believes the womans caregivers are at fault.
But the family has run out of money to continue legal action against her doctors, forcing the Nova Scotia Supreme Court to dump the lawsuit.
I hope the hospital and the doctors have all realized that this was a mistake, regardless of what they admit in legal proceedings, Ontario lawyer Daniel Pole said yesterday.
Poles sister, Janiece Deborah Carter, died in April 1996, at Halifaxs old Victoria General Hospital after losing an estimated four to five litres of blood.
She refused a transfusion because of her religious beliefs.
Jehovahs Witnesses have interpreted passages of the Old and New testaments to mean people should not get blood transfusions.
Carter, 32, had delivered a healthy baby the afternoon before she died, but her blood pressure dropped rapidly after she received a spinal anaesthetic.
The Queens County woman had a history of unusual bleeding. Doctors had also diagnosed her with a rare premature separation of the placenta from the uterine wall.
Late on April 15, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the then-Grace Maternity Hospital diagnosed Carter with Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation.
She died the following morning.
A year later, Carters family sued her five doctors, the Salvation Army and the hospitals in which she was treated.
The family argues that the doctors knew of Carters religion months in advance, but did nothing to prepare for an emergency.
Pole believes that either an unusual blood disorder arose, or Carters bleeding vessels werent properly tied off during her caesarean section.
The family says doctors could have saved Carters life by planning for other medical treatments that didnt involve a transfusion.
Nova Scotia Supreme Court threw out the lawsuit Thursday because it has been on the shelf so long with no movement.
Pole said the trial, which was scheduled to last three weeks, would likely have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Joey Palov, the doctors lawyer refused comment yesterday.
Pole told The Daily News yesterday the hospitals and doctors have a moral liability for what happened.
I hope theyve learned from this lesson that they can prevent other people from dying, he said.
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Copyright 2002 The Daily News
