Americans frequently get slammed for being too eager to run to court when life throws at them unpleasantness. But I'm not sure we can match Briton John Brandrick, who is considering suing his hospital because he did not die. Seems that two years ago Brandrick was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given a year to live. He took that to heart:
He quit his job, sold or gave away nearly all his possessions, stopped paying his mortgage and spent his savings dining out and going on holiday.As a result, after a year Brandrick was broke and, unfortunately, not dead. Turns out that the pancreatic cancer was actually just a non-fatal inflammation. He now wants compensation for all the cash he blew in order to resume his life. It makes some sense - the diagnosis was wrong (although the hospital says it would make the same call again, based on the info available at the time) and he has suffered some monetary loss due to his detrimental reliance on that diagnosis. It will be interesting to see if some sort of arrangement is worked out before Brandrick has to go to court.
1 comment:
I've heard of "wrongful life" arguments in American jurisprudence. This is interesting.
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