Medical Futility at Yale

I am speaking at Yale Medicine and at Yale Law later this month.  One of the talks is on medical futility.  So, I started brushing up on the local statutory and judicial landscape.  Boy was I surprised to find so many litigated medical futility cases in such a small state.  And the most recent one is against Yale itself.



In late 2013, in a 15-page written memorandum, a Superior Court denied Yale's motion to dismiss an intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) claim brought by the family of Helen Marsala.  



The family alleges that clinicians removed her ventilator without consent and over their objections.  The court ruled that a jury could find that "terminating a patient's life support with an awareness of her contrary wishes constitutes unacceptable behavior and would readily be considered extreme and outrageous."



Moreover, while completely unnecessary on a motion to dismiss (and this pure dicta), the court strongly indicated that the hospital would not qualify for civil immunity under Connecticut's 1991 statutory immunity section.