Texas court dismisses battery charge in resuscitation case

The narrow ruling is said to keep the door closed to setting a precedent for wrongful living lawsuits.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. Nov. 10, 2003.

Charges of battery and negligence against a Houston hospital were dismissed by the Texas Supreme Court in a high-profile case in which the outcome had been much anticipated by medical ethicists and disabled rights activists.

The court ruled 7-0 that The Woman's Hospital of Texas had not committed battery when staff put Sidney Miller on life support against her parents' wishes after she was born four months early in August 1990, and that hospital owner HCA was not negligent; the hospital had no policies to prevent the child from being treated without parental consent.

"It means we're allowing another level of intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship," said Jeffrey P. Bishop, MD, associate professor and ethics instructor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. "My personal opinion is the decision by the family is the decision by which everyone should abide."

The Millers' lawyer, David Keltner of Forth Worth, said he agreed with the court's finding that doctors can act without consent during emergencies, but said the decision to resuscitate Sidney was made before she was born. "This just wasn't an emergency," Keltner said. "They knew they were going to resuscitate."

HCA spokesman Jeff Prescott said the company was pleased with the ruling but would not comment. "It will be a topic of much discussion among the ethicists, as it should be, but we don't want to weigh in on that," he said.

Doctors had told the parents that, if born alive, Sidney likely would have cerebral palsy, blindness, mental retardation and other problems, court documents state. About 11 hours before she was born, the Millers requested that no heroic measures be taken. But because she was born alive and had a reasonable chance of living, physicians said they placed Sidney on a ventilator, court records said.