Collins v. Davis
| Decision Date | 04 December 1964 |
| Citation | 44 Misc.2d 622,254 N.Y.S.2d 666 |
| Parties | Application of James F. COLLINS, M.D., Superintendent of Meadowbrook Hospital, of the County of Nassau, Petitioner, v. Ruby DAVIS, Respondent. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court |
Jack B. Weinstein, County Atty., Nassau County, Mineola, for petitioner.
The Superintendent of Meadowbrook Hospital, a county institution, applies for an order permitting and allowing a surgical operation upon a patient, husband of the respondent, on the ground that without such an operation the patient would die within a few hours, that the operation might save his life, that the patient was in a comatose state and could not give his consent, and that his wife refused to give her consent for reasons that she felt justified refusal, but were medically unsound. The order has been signed.
I am convinced by the affidavits of Dr. James F. Collins, the Superintendent, and of Dr. Robert J. Michtom, Assistant Chairman of the Division of Internal Medicine at Meadowbrook Hospital, and also by the hospital records, that if the operation were not performed the patient would die, but that if the operation were performed the patient would have a good chance to live.
Before proceeding to state reasons for this decision, it may be useful to state that this case does not involve a person who for religious or other reasons has refused to seek medical attention. It does involve a patient who sought medical attention from the hospital and placed on the hospital the legal responsibility for his proper care. In its dilemma, not of its own making, the hospital sought legal direction.
Once this patient came into the hospital, it was the responsibility of the hospital and its doctors to treat him. Without a consent, the hospital doctors had the choice of performing the operation or letting him die for want of consent. It cannot reasonably be said that the comatose patient and his wife should or could put the hospital to this impossible choice. Life hung in the balance. In the language of Judge J. Skelly Wright (Application of the President, etc., of Georgetown College, Inc., D.C.Cir., 331 F.2d 1000, 1009, 1010, cert. den. 377 U.S. 978, 84 S.Ct. 1883, 12 L.Ed.2d 746), 'Death could have mooted the cause in a matter of minutes, if action were not taken * * *.' To refuse to act, only to find later that the law required action, was a risk I was unwilling to accept. I determined to act on the side of...
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In re Green
... ... 599, 81 S.Ct. 1144, 6 L.Ed.2d ... 563 (1961); Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, ... 303--04, 60 S.Ct. 900, 84 L.Ed. 1213 (1940); Davis v ... Beason, 133 U.S. 333, 10 S.Ct. 299, 33 L.Ed. 637 (1890) ... Thus, it was stated in Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 ... U.S. 158, 166--67, ... Hospital v. Anderson, 42 N.J. 421, 201 A.2d 537, cert ... denied, 377 U.S. 985, 84 S.Ct. 1894, 12 L.Ed.2d 1032 (1964) ... Cf., Collins v. Davis, 44 Misc.2d 622, 254 N.Y.S.2d ... 666 (1964). On the other hand, the Illinois Supreme Court ... reversed an ordered [448 Pa. 344] blood ... ...
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Green, In re
...v. Anderson, 42 N.J. 421, 201 A.2d 537, cert. denied, 377 U.S. 985, 84 S.Ct. 1894, 12 L.Ed.2d 1032 (1964). Cf., Collins v. Davis, 44 Misc.2d 622, 254 N.Y.S.2d 666 (1964). On the other hand, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed an ordered blood transfusion where the emergency patient had no c......
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