SUMMARY OF THE CASE

Lorenza Somera was found guilty of Negligent homicide, As the head Nurse was ordered by the
Operating Surgeon to prepare 10% cocaine with adrenaline for administrating to a Tonsillectomy
patient, which she did and even confirmed it back to the surgeon, The order should have been
10% procaine (not Cocaine), anyway the patient went into shock and died, the case was that with
her training she should have known the mistake and so she was negligent.

1. What are the ethical principles violated in the case?

The act of negligence, nurses cannot just depend on what the doctors say. They have
to know if what the doctor orders is correct.

2. Do you think justice was served in this case? justify your answer.
The justice is not served in the case because its clearly a negligence of both party. I
don’t think it’s fair, the court should have sentenced both party, with more weight to the
surgeons.

3. Who do you think should be accountable on the said case? (The Surgeon? The
Student Nurse? The Nurse?) justify your answer.
The one that should be held accountable on the said case is the surgeon. In the first place, it was
surgeon who gave the order. If you were to stick to the rules and leave out the fact that the order
was only verbal, the nurse had done her job of receiving the order and confirming it. Thus the
main culprit is the surgeon.

4. If you are Somera, how will you defend yourself? 

If I was Somera I would defend myself but at the same time I would be held accountable for the
mistake I did because I know for myself that it’s not only fault here but also for the surgeon. I
would fight for my right and I would not claim all the accusations and be held accountable for the
crime that I didn’t do.

5. What do you think Somera could have done?

Somera could have sued the surgeon because it’s clearly his fault.  The fact that it was not mainly
Somera’s fault, she had much lesser salary, she had just started her career, but she gets all the
blame while the surgeon goes free unscathed.