Third Party Allegedly Injured by Doctor’s Act Can Sue in Indiana

A nonpatient can bring a claim under Indiana’s Medical Malpractice Act to recover damages for injuries allegedly caused by a health-care provider’s treatment of someone else because the law includes nonpatients in its definition, the state’s top court said.

The law expressly applies to “a person having a claim of any kind, whether derivative or otherwise, as a result of alleged malpractice on the part of a health care provider,” the Indiana Supreme Court said.

Jeffrey Cutchin, whose wife and daughter were killed in a car accident allegedly caused by a doctor’s negligent prescribing of medication, thus may pursue an ...