Libby Zion’s Case that Stunned Doctors Undergoing Training

1. Libby Zion’s Case that Stunned Doctors Undergoing Training The history of bioethics is indeed amazing. Libby Zion's Case is one of the best examples that sheds light on it. It brought a great change in the doctors' lives. ✓Who was Libby Zion, and What Case is associated with Her? The death of Libby Zion has changed medical history. It has been twenty-five years since she died at eighteen years of age. Her aggrieved and furious father, Sidney Zion, set into motion a sequence of reforms to the system of medical education that he believed killed his daughter. The exact cause of her was never found, but many facts are known related to her.

2. When she was brought and admitted to New York Hospital on the evening of March 4, 1984, with a high fever and jerking movements, she was diagnosed with a history of depression and was taking phenelzine, an antidepressant. The physicians said that she should be subjected to hydration and observation, suspecting of her being afflicted with a viral syndrome. She was administered Meperidine, an opiate drug used to stop the shaking movements of her body. The physicians who diagnosed her were doctors undergoing training as residents. But Libby Zion was not calm at all and became more and more agitated and restless. When it was notified, the first-year resident who evaluated her, Dr. Luise L. Weinstein, ordered physical restraints and a shot of haloperidol, a highly effective sedating medication. Being busy with the patients, Dr. Weinstein did not spare time to evaluate Libby again. Dr. Gregg Stone, the second- year resident on the case, had gone across the street to try to get a few hours of sleep, as was customary at the time. Later, the nurses reported that Libby finally calmed down, but when her vital signs were rechecked at six that morning, her temperature rose to 107 degrees. Seeing this, the staff immediately tried to pacify her. But she soon had a cardiac arrest, and in spite of extensive attempts at resuscitation, she collapsed.

3. Being grief-stricken, her father Sidney Zion and mother, Elsa, hired a lawyer and began a campaign for the investigation of their daughter's death. But when Mr. Zion came to know that his daughter had not been re-evaluated, that the only doctors who had seen her were undergoing training. And the attending physician had never come into the hospital, his response turned to fury. He decided to make his daughter's death a crusade for reform. A former lawyer and a powerful journalist, who had worked for The New York Times and other newspapers, enlisted fellow reporters across the country to tell his daughter's story. He even persuaded the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, to take the highly unusual step of convening a grand jury to consider murder charges against the physicians involved. Contact Us Ph. No: + 914-433-6118 Address: Bellevue 462 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Website:https://drbarronlerner.com/