What happens if, after a patient has been injured by the negligence of a physician, he or she goes to a second physician for treatment of the injury caused by the first doctor, and the injury is aggravated by the negligence of the second doctor? The answer may be surprising. Generally, the rule is that the first physician whose negligence caused injury is also liable for additional injury later caused by the negligent treatment that the patient received from the second physician, provided that the patient used ordinary care in selecting the second physician. The patient is not obligated to find the best physician available, but is only required to act with due care and good faith in selecting the second physician. Therefore, a negligent doctor is liable not only for the injury caused by his own acts but is also liable for any additional harm resulting from the manner in which reasonably required medical services are rendered.
Assessing liability against the original doctor may seem like a harsh result, but it is based on the legal theory that the negligence or unskillful treatment by the second physician is a result that reasonably should have been anticipated by the original doctor or that the injury caused by the second physician would not have occurred but for the original injury.
However, if the original physician is able to prove that the second physician's negligent conduct was intentional or willful or that his negligent actions could not have been reasonably foreseen by the first physician, then the second physician's negligence has created a separate cause of action for which the first doctor is in no way liable. In addition, the second physician may be liable for injuries resulting from his own negligence and not for injuries that were attributable solely to the original malpractice. If the nature of the subsequent negligent treatment is highly unusual, extraordinary or bizarre, such negligence would be unforeseeable as a matter of law and not attributable to the original negligent physician. Copyright 2009 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
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