Jacobs v Great Yarmouth & Waveney Health Authority

(1995) 6 Med LR 192

COURT OF APPEAL

Lord Justice STEPHENSON, Lord Justice O'CONNOR, and Lord Justice GRIFFITHS

Professional liability — Anaesthesia — Alleged awareness of pre-operative procedures causing mental injury — Whether judge entitled, on medical evidence, to conclude that plaintiff's memory, after she had come round from anaesthetic, would be likely to be unreliable; or that plaintiff would have become unconscious after she had received nitrous oxide for two minute period — Whether plaintiff's memory could only be explained in terms of being pre-operative memory — Applicability of res ipsa loquitur