"Failure to properly treat cancer" judgment is upheld; doctor's sexual advance to patient's daughter not "relevant."
Stephen William Robinson, Jr., M.D., apparently gave a note "inquiring about having a sexual encounter" to the daughter of Joyce Dale, during Dale's medical appointment at "Second Opinion, PC." Dale was being treated for adenocarcinoma. Robinson, his mind apparently on other things, allegedly did not note that the pathology report made a treatment change from radiation to chemotherapy appropriate; he failed to inform the specialists of the revised path report. Dale's daughter sued Robinson for malpractice wrongful death, but a jury entered judgment in his favor (probably concluding that the resulting delay had not changed Dale's outcome). She appealed the trial judge's grant of the Defendants' motion to exclude from evidence Robinson's note requesting sex. The Court of Appeals ruled that the lower court had properly excluded Robinson's note because it was not "relevant" to the question of whether failing to inform the specialists of the revised pathology report was a breach of the standard of care.