Medical Liability of Residents in Taiwan Criminal Court: An Analysis of Closed Malpractice Cases

Table 3

Summary of negligent behaviors in defendants found not guilty.

Specialty	Major disputed behavior and acquittal reason
Not guilty due to lack of causation
Neurology	Delay of four hours to detect abnormal troponin-I data performed in emergency department and delayed cardiology consultation in admitted stroke patient. Patient suddenly collapsed due to non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction three hours after data detection. No causation was judged by court because early consultation and diagnosis would have had minimal impact on the sudden cardiac arrest episode
General surgeon	84-year-old patient with history of diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease suffered from incarcerated hernia. Operation was delayed 12 hours due to full operation room capacity. Patient developed myocardial infarction with cardiogenic shock one-hour after operation and expired eight hours later. Court judged the delayed operation had no causation in the myocardial infarction occurrence
Internal medicine	Diabetes mellitus patient developed spiking fever and duty resident ordered antipyretic by telephone without evaluating patient. Defendant evaluated patient 1.75 hours later, but patient developed respiratory failure and sudden cardiac arrest during the management. Defendant was found not guilty because the cardiac arrest episode was inevitable even if the evaluation had been earlier
Not guilty due to supervision
Pediatrics	Resident prescribed high dose of valproic acid in seizure patient resulting in death caused by valproic acid overdose. The prescription was under the direct instructions of attending physician and was repeatedly confirmed by resident. The process of confirmation was well documented on the chart. Resident was acquitted while the attending physician was found guilty