Simon Dockswell, Petitioners v. Bethesda Memorial Hospital, Inc.

Summary

The court held that the statutory foreign-body presumption of negligence applies whenever an unintended foreign body is discovered inside a patient, regardless of whether direct evidence identifies the responsible actor or explains how the object was left. The presumption is mandatory but rebuttable, and the trial court therefore erred by refusing the standard instruction and by giving a misleading nonstandard instruction; those errors were harmful and required a new trial. Justice Polston, dissenting and joined by Justice Canady, would have dismissed the review because the district court decisions did not expressly and directly conflict.