Hicks v. United States

When Carol Greitens developed severe abdominal pain and continual vomiting, her husband took her to a medical facility on a naval base in Virginia. After a brief exam, a doctor diagnosed Greitens with gastroenteritis, sent her home with pain medication, and instructed her to return in eight hours due to possible complications with her diabetes. The doctor’s diagnosis was incorrect. Greitens had an intestinal obstruction that was lethal unless promptly operated upon. While at home, Greitens fell unconscious. She was rushed back to the medical facility but died. Harry Hicks (plaintiff), the executor of Greitens’s estate, sued the United States government (defendant), alleging that the doctor at the government’s medical facility was negligent in diagnosing and treating Greitens. Experts testified that gastroenteritis and intestinal obstructions present with similar symptoms and that although gastroenteritis is more common, standard practice was to ask whether a patient had diarrhea and perform a rectal exam to rule out an obstruction. The doctor on duty did neither. Hicks’s experts all asserted that the failure constituted negligence. Further, although the government’s expert made a conclusory statement that the doctor exercised ordinary care, the expert’s testimony effectively admitted that the doctor did not actually exercise the degree of care an ordinary physician would exercise under the circumstances. Despite the experts’ testimony, the district court ruled that the doctor’s misdiagnosis was merely an error of judgment, not negligence. It therefore dismissed the complaint. Hicks appealed.