Alaska physician wins case on ignored medical advice

The state Legislature fails to pass a bill that would have protected doctors from such lawsuits.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. June 7, 2004.

Jurors for the second time ruled in a physician defendant's favor in a case that caused doctors in Alaska to question whether to take after-hours calls and that also spurred legislation.

Using the state's "reasonable patient" standard, the jury in the case found that Anchorage general surgeon James O'Malley, MD, had given enough information to patient Vicki Marsingill over the phone for her to make an informed decision about whether to go to the hospital emergency department.

Marsingill experienced complications after she decided not to follow Dr. O'Malley's advice. In her lawsuit, first filed in 1995, she said Dr. O'Malley had breached his duty to give her enough information to make an informed choice.

Marsingill appealed the first verdict in favor of Dr. O'Malley to the Alaska Supreme Court. The high court in 2002 sent the case back to the trial court and asked the judge to give better jury instructions.

The case sparked debate in Alaska over how much information doctors should give patients over the phone and how much responsibility falls to patients. Some physicians have stopped taking phone calls after hours and instead instruct patients to go to an emergency department or call 911.

Alaska physicians also were concerned about the lawsuit's potential impact on telemedicine, which is often used because of the state's large geographic size.

"The entire state can breathe a little easier," Dr. O'Malley said after the verdict.

His attorney, Howard A. Lazar, added: "Justice was again done appropriately."