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694 S.W.2d 233

Martin v. Petta

Court of Appeals of Texas

Decided July 24, 1985

Court of Appeals of Texas · decided 1985-07-24

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1985-07-24

How this case has been cited

Cited by 21 later decisions — most recently June 2016

21 state decisions

1501985199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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ASHWORTH, Justice,

¶1dissenting.

¶2I respectfully dissent to that portion of the majority opinion which holds there is no fact question as to whether Dr. Petta’s negligent use of an instrumentality caused appellant’s injury.

¶3While the “captain of the ship” doctrine has been abolished, medical doctors still remain liable for their own acts of negligence within the confines of the Medical Liability Act. Under the unusual circumstances of this case, the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur applies.

¶4The patient has placed herself under the complete control of the doctor. She sustains a broken toe while undergoing a hemorrhoidectomy, an injury completely unrelated to the treatment authorized. In these circumstances, such an injury would not be sustained in the absence of negligence. The patient has no personal knowledge of what occurred while she was unconscious. In this instance the doctor’s statement of no negligence on his part presents a fact question to be resolved by the fact finder; his credibility is a fact issue.

¶5*241Appellant’s fourth, fifth, and sixth points of error should be sustained.

¶6Joined by BURDOCK and HOPKINS, JJ.

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