The Second Appellate District affirmed a judgment. The court held that family members’ observation of medical practitioners’ failure to intervene during a hospital patient’s post-surgical decline in health was insufficient to state a cause of action for negligent infliction of emotional distress, notwithstanding the family members’ claim to be “experienced in the medical field.”
Jessica Morton and Holly Brooks attended their mother as she recovered from surgery at Thousand Oaks Surgical Hospital. Unbeknownst to them, or to the hospital’s medical staff, their mother’s bowel had been nicked during the surgery, causing sepsis. The sisters observed their mother as she deteriorated, had trouble breathing, became unable to produce urine, and became increasingly confused. They begged hospital personnel to intervene, to no avail. Their mother lapsed into a coma before being treated successfully and eventually recovering.
