ABA Family Legal Guide

Personal Injury

Negligence

Some Special Situations

We recently got a call from the hospital where someone had taken my mother. The hospital told us that she had died of a heart attack. In fact, she had not died or suffered a heart attack, and the hospital was simply mistaken. The hospital's false report devastated us. What can we do?

The circumstances you describe are rare. Nonetheless, you may be able to recover from the hospital for the negligent infliction of emotional distress. That is, you may be able to sue the hospital for negligently causing you to endure emotional pain. Courts generally have maintained that a person must have physical injuries to recover in such cases, but courts in some states have allowed recovery when there are no physical injuries. Other successful emotional distress suits have involved bystanders. For example, a court allowed a mother who saw her child fatally hit by a car to recover money damages against the driver of the car.