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Pandemonium ensued.
Kramer saw a man in glasses, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, charge the fire exit, stiff-arming the lock-release bar on the door.
The high-decibel alarm on the door screamed as the EMS team clattered up the stairs and entered the courtroom.
Chapter 106
CINDY FELT JUMPY AND DISTRACTED as court resumed, the whole terrifying Friedlander scene repeating through her mind on a short loop: the cursing and screaming, the poor man collapsing, the shrill shriek of the alarm as her new friend, Whit Ewing of the Chicago Tribune, had crashed through the emergency exit.
The judge banged his gavel, and the rustle of whispers across the public gallery quieted.
“For the record,” Bevins said, “I’ve questioned each member of the jury individually, and I’m satisfied that their judgment of this case won’t be affected by the incident this morning.”
He looked over to the defense table. “Mr. Kramer, are you ready to continue?”
“I am, Your Honor.” Kramer walked to the lectern, his genial smile looking forced.
Cindy leaned forward in her seat, put her hand on Yuki’s thin shoulder. She whispered, “Here we go.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Kramer said. “I have a note here that Mr. Friedlander has been treated and is expected to recover fully from his heart attack.
“My clients and I feel very badly for him. The man lost his son, and he’s in a lot of pain right now.
“But as badly as we all feel, your charge as jurors is to decide this case based on the facts, not on emotions.
“I said earlier that it’s important to distinguish between mistakes and medical malpractice.
“It’s a mistake when a nurse mixes up medicine on a tray, or a doctor gets distracted by another emergency and forgets to mark up a chart, so the patient gets medicated again. Those are mistakes.
“Malpractice is gross negligence. For instance. And for your information, these are all real cases that I’m mentioning.
“A doctor leaves a patient on the operating table while he runs out to make a bank deposit.
“Or a surgical towel is left inside a patient’s body.
“A doctor treats a patient while drunk or on drugs, or withholds treatment because of a bias against a patient or a class of patients. Or knowingly recommends treatment the patient doesn’t need.
“That’s gross negligence. That’s malpractice.”
Kramer pushed off from the lectern and approached the jury, pacing before the railing as he spoke to them.
“It’s terrible what happened to the people cited in this action. I don’t have to tell you that. You know it already.
“But in every one of the situations you’ve heard about in this courtroom, doctors and nurses, and even the patients themselves, made the kind of errors that happen in hospitals all across this country, every day.
“Human errors. Honest mistakes.
“As much as we’d like to believe that doctors are infallible, that’s an unreasonable expectation.
“Doctors and nurses are human beings who want to help other people and try their damnedest to do it.
“Last year one hundred and fifty thousand patients came through Municipal Hospital’s doors with injuries and illnesses. And they received excellent medical care, as good as they would get at any hospital in this city.
“I’m asking you to strip away my opponent’s inflammatory rhetoric and focus on the difference between mistakes and malpractice, and find in favor of Municipal Hospital.
“The city of San Francisco, our city, needs this hospital.”
Chapter 107
