Kidney Patient’s Alleged Negligence Must Be Considered

A kidney patient’s medical malpractice case must be reassessed to determine if his own actions, when viewed from the perspective of a reasonable person, caused or contributed to his injuries, the Seventh Circuit ruled.

Kevin Clanton won nearly $30 million in a Federal Tort Claims Act suit alleging a federal public health service nurse practitioner negligently failed to warn him his uncontrolled hypertension could damage his kidneys. Clanton later was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease and has had dialysis treatments and a kidney transplant.

Clanton ignored nurse practitioner Denise Jordan’s instructions to return for follow-up care after his first visit, ...