Issues that occur when a woman is pregnant are now known to cause many problems with the fetus that she is carrying. A pregnant woman has more rights now to investigate this type of medical issue than she did in the 1960’s. In the 1960’s, medical records were not as easy for a person to obtain, even if they were their own records. Laws in recent years, have made obtaining your own medical records much easier. However, when there is a possible case of medical malpractice involved, it can still be difficult for a person to obtain the medical records that they need to prove their case.
In 1964, on July 22, a woman who was early in her pregnancy was hospitalized following a serious automobile accident. She was taken to the Lutheran Medical Center in New York for treatment. She remained in the hospital for two months while she was treated for her injuries. When she was discharged two months later and sent home, she had no reason to believe that there was anything wrong with the baby that she carried. However, on October 22, 1964, she was brought to Kings County Hospital where she was admitted in preterm labor. The infant died shortly after birth.
The mother was convinced that the cause of her infant’s death related to the traffic accident in July. However when she requested copies of the medical records from her hospital stay and treatment, the hospital would not provide her with the information that she needed. She discovered that in order to obtain the records, she would have to execute an assignment of lien against the hospital. The woman filed the lien. The Long Island hospital provided the documents, but requested that the court make the woman pay them more than $600.00 for their costs in obtaining the records. The hospital contends that they have the right to the payment because the assignment of the lien that was executed by the mother and her attorney served to form a binding contract between the woman and the hospital. The records that the hospital provided to the mother claim that the injuries that she sustained in the car accident and the treatment that she received in the hospital had no bearing on the loss of her child less than one month after being discharged from their care.
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