Hall v. Hilbun- The four D’s of negligence

The four D’s of negligence are duty, dereliction of duty, direct or proximate cause, and

damages. In order to obtain a judgment of negligence against a doctor the patient has to be able

to show all four D’s in the case. In the case Hall v. Hilbun, Mrs. Hall was the patient and Dr.

Hilbun was her surgeon.

Duty is the responsibility that a doctor has to a patient. A patient has to prove that a

relationship with the doctor has been established. In the case Hall v. Hilbun there was a

relationship established when Mrs. Hall was admitted to the Singing River Hospital complaining

of discomfort in her abdomen, and Dr. Hilbun was asked to examine her. On examination, Mrs.

Hall was told by Dr. Hilbun that the pain was probably from a small bowel obstruction and that

she would need surgery to fix it.

Dereliction of duty is when a doctor doesn’t act as another ordinary doctor would under

the same circumstances. To prove dereliction of duty, a patient would have to prove that the

doctor’s performance or treatment was not up to par with the acceptable standard of care. After

surgery, at 1:35 pm, Mrs. Hall was moved to the recovery room where Dr. Hilbun monitored her

until 2:50 pm. Everything seemed fine at the time and Mrs. Hall was moved to a private room.

After that Dr. Hilbun made no follow ups with Mrs. Hall or ask about her anytime after. He

wasn’t in contact with Mrs. Hall until 5:00 the next morning when Mr. Hall called him. It was

already too late, and Mrs. Hall had already passed away.

Direct cause is the continuous sequence of events, unbroken by any intervening cause,

that produces an injury and without which the injury would not have occurred. Direct cause

means that the injury was closely related to the physician’s negligence. Mr. Hall had