Connecticut attorney general wants malpractice lawsuit dismissed

The estate of a woman who was killed by her mentally ill son has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the state of Connecticut. The woman was stabbed to death the day after Christmas in 2013. Her son was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the woman’s murder.

In August, the son was sentenced to the maximum-security mental hospital in Middletown, Connecticut, for 60 years. On Oct. 22, the estate of the late woman filed the lawsuit claiming the personnel at River Valley Services, which is a state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services facility were negligent when they approved the son’s visit to his mother’s home in Deep River, Connecticut. It was an unsupervised visit, according to the lawsuit.

The state attorney general said that the complaint should be thrown out because in order to sue for medical malpractice, the plaintiff has be the one that received treatment. Since the woman’s son was the one who received treatment, the attorney general says that the lawsuit should not move forward. He said, “Connecticut law does not recognize a medical malpractice cause of action brought by a non-patient third-party, and in fact expressly rejects such an action.”

Medical malpractice lawsuits can be very complicated and the laws governing such actions can be difficult to interpret. An experienced attorney is needed for these types of cases and while many may be settled before going to court, others may need to be litigated. If you have questions about filing a medical malpractice lawsuit, an attorney can provide you with the answers you need.

Source: courant.com, “Attorney General Seeks Rejection Of Lawsuit In Case Of Mentally Ill Patient Who Killed Mother,” Jon Lender, Dec. 16, 2015