01 Aug 2003 Doctors Sued for Helping Woman

Several doctors in California were sued because two adult women saw their mother being rushed to emergency surgery.

The women sued for “emotional distress.” They apparently thought doctors should have diverted some of the time they were spending saving their mothers’ life to their patient’s daughters’ emotional needs.

The mother was in the hospital for 33 days, but recovered. The legal case, Bird v. Saenz, took eight years to resolve and made it all the way to the California Supreme Court before being resolved in the doctors’ favor.

–Tanya Albert, “Women ‘Distressed’ By Seeing Doctors Rush to Help Mom,” Amednews.com, September 2, 2002, brought to our attention by power-of-attorneys.com.