Main Content
James E. Hawkins and Ellen Hawkins f/n/a Ellen Shaw, his wife, Appellants, v. George R. Pizzaro, M.D., Appellee.
"The Failure to Correctly Report Hepatitis C Test Results"
Should doctors be liable to a third party if their failure to warn a patient about their disease leads to harm?
A doctor screens the plaintiff for hepatitis C, and erroneously tells her that the results were negative. While unaware of her infection, plaintiff marries and unknowingly transmits the virus to her husband. At no time was the doctor ever aware of the plaintiff’s (eventual) husband. Plaintiff argued that had she been informed of her disease, she and her husband could have taken steps to prevent its transmission.
This book, and all H2O books, are Creative Commons licensed for sharing and re-use with the exception of certain excerpts. Any excerpts from the Restatements of the Law, Principles of the Law, and the Model Penal Code are copyright by The American Law Institute. Excerpts are reproduced with permission, not as part of a Creative Commons license.