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Canesi v. Wilson6/17/1999
Argued November 3, 1997
On certification to the Superior Court, Appellate Division, whose opinion is reported at 295 N.J. Super. 354 (1996).
In this medical malpractice case, parents brought suit against two obstetricians after their child was born with the congenital defect of bilateral limb reduction. The parents' principal allegation was that the doctors were negligent in failing to warn them that a drug prescribed for the plaintiff mother posed the specific risk of fetal limb reduction and that the prescribed drug caused this defect. They also alleged other acts of negligence, including the failure to warn of general, unspecified fetal risks posed by the prescribed drug, and to take diagnostic measures during the mother's pregnancy that would have disclosed the presence of a fetal defect. They assert that as a result of defendants' negligence they were deprived of their right as parents to decide whether or not to terminate the pregnancy, they would have terminated the pregnancy had they been warned, and they are entitled to the damages allowable in a wrongful birth cause of action. The doctors, focusing on the parents' allegation that the prescribed drug caused their child's birth defect, characterize plaintiffs' claims as based on the doctrine of informed consent and contend, accordingly, that they cannot be found liable because the parents cannot prove medical causation, that is, that the drug was the medical cause of the child's congenital impairment.
In light of the contentions of the parties and the determinations of the lower courts, the basic issue that must be addressed is whether it is necessary to establish medical causation in a wrongful birth action that involves the prescription of drugs without adequate warning of the fetal risks posed by those drugs.
I.
On July 1, 1991, plaintiff Melissa Canesi, then twenty-nine years old, consulted defendant Dr. James A. Wilson, a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, concerned that she might be pregnant because she had been amenorrheic for eleven days. A urinalysis yielded the same results as a home pregnancy test had: plaintiff was not pregnant. Thereafter, Dr. Wilson prescribed for plaintiff Provera, a progestational agent designed to induce menstruation. Dr. Wilson did not provide any information to plaintiff concerning the potential side effects and contraindications of the drug. At the time, the Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR) warned that if a woman was or became pregnant while taking Provera, she should be advised that there was a risk that the fetus would suffer from congenital anomalies, including limb reduction, and a risk that she would retain a defective ovum instead of spontaneously aborting it.
Provera did not succeed in inducing menstruation and, on July 15, Dr. Wilson gave plaintiff a blood serum test to determine if she was pregnant. This time, the test was positive. Upon learning that she was pregnant with twins, plaintiff asked Dr. Wilson if her ingestion of Provera would have a deleterious impact on the fetuses or the course of her pregnancy. Dr. Wilson told plaintiff not to worry.
Because Dr. Wilson was not a participating physician in plaintiff's health insurance plan, she needed to look elsewhere for pregnancy care. On July 25, she saw Dr. Ronald Loewe for the first time and informed him both of her pregnancy and of the fact that she had taken Provera. Dr. Loewe told her that she should not be concerned that she had taken the drug.
Plaintiff's pregnancy was not without incident. She began spotting, one of the fetal twins died, and an amniocentesis revealed excessive amniotic fluid, an indication that the remaining fetus might be
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