SCC clarification hoped for in medical malpractice case

Plaintiff personal injury lawyers are hoping that the Supreme Court of Canada will clarify the issue of causation involving multiple defendants in medical malpractice cases in a leave to appeal filed in Sacks v. Ross.

At issue is a negligence claim made by Jordan Sacks, who in 2008 suffered an anastomotic leak after bowel surgery, resulting in bowel contents spilling into his abdominal cavity. According to the fall Ontario Court of Appeal ruling, discovery and treatment of the leak was delayed and Sacks went into septic shock and fell into a coma. He then required the amputation of both legs below his knees and all of his fingertips.

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Kate Cahill, a partner with Thomson Rogers in Toronto whose personal injury practice focuses largely on medical malpractice, believes clarification is essential.

In the context of medical malpractice cases, it’s a really, really important issue that needs to be sorted out because it’s not uncommon in medical malpractice cases that you have multiple care providers who may have been negligent either by act or omission and on a global basis caused harm to a patient, ” she says.

View the full article by Marg. Bruineman as it originally appeared in the June 25, 2018, issue of Law Times:  SCC clarification hoped for in medical malpractice case