what are the legal consequences of patient abandoment ?
Best Answer:
I assume you mean patient abandonment as contained by when a medical professional "abandons" a patient by either withholding treatment or transferring a patient to the carefulness of another less qualified/trained medical professional who is not capable of providing the appropriate care. The permitted consequence of patient abandonment is most often a civil lawsuit for negligence. It is possible, contained by extreme cases, to face a criminal negligence charge (ie: criminally negligent homicide), or even both (civil & criminal). In order to establish negligence, the 4 components must be met. 1) Duty to deed (as in dr./pt. relationship) 2) Breach of that duty (ex: cardiologist has nurse read/diagnose ekg) 3) Causation/proximate cause (ex: the nurse misses a through heart block that doctor would have seen & as a result the pt died without treatment) 4) Injury (there must be an injury that be sustained, the mere "could have" doesn't cut it) As such, if a medical professional commits patient abandonment, the individual/employer could face a negligence charge (either tortuous or criminal).
Law student/ ex-medical professional
