Medical Issues In The Verdict

A young woman by the name of Karen Ann Quinlan experienced a variety of medical issues after entering into a ten-year coma from consuming a mixture of alcohol and tranquilizers. Quinlan’s parents filed a lawsuit regarding the definition of life and the right for an individual to die in 1976 ("FOCUS OF '76 RIGHT TO DIE CASE"). Quinlan’s story loosely inspired the creation of a novel by Barry Reed to then be adapted into a film, The Verdict (Simon). The Verdict follows the story of a medical malpractice case in Boston many predicted would not be successful. The alcoholic lawyer Frank Galvin experiences a variety of hardships during the trial. From the beginning of the movie, we are given an inside look at Frank Galvin’s life as an ambulance
Frank is seen scoping out obituaries in the local paper and jumping from funeral parlor to funeral parlor trying to receive cases. Frank’s routine of ambulance chasing is finally broken when an old associate, Mickey, sends Frank a medical malpractice case concerning a young woman now on a respirator due to complications during childbirth. Frank quickly becomes emotionally invested in the case as he begins to visit the young woman in the hospital. After turning down a large settlement, Frank begins to scramble to find expert witnesses and pull together a strong case for the young woman. It wasn’t until Frank finally located Kaitlyn Costello, a nurse formerly employed by the hospital, that things finally started looking up for the case. Kaitlyn was working on the night of the surgery and completed the paperwork prior to the young woman going under anesthesia. The young woman consumed food approximately an hour before