:02:05
Folks, we've been here
for a long time now,
:02:08
listening to people talk
for months.
:02:13
Complicated medical testimony.
:02:18
A lot of emotion in this case.
:02:22
There is not a person
in this room who isn't sorry
:02:25
about what happened
to Mr. Matthews.
:02:27
It's a tragedy.
:02:32
And when something
like this happens,
:02:34
you desperately want
to blame someone, don't you?
:02:37
Someone else.
:02:39
We understand that.
It's natural.
:02:45
But what have we got here?
What's the bottom line?
:02:49
It's Mr. Matthews' word
:02:51
against the East Shore Hospital,
isn't it?
:02:56
That's exactly what it is.
:03:00
Now, obviously,
any decent human being
:03:03
would want to believe
Mr. Matthews...
:03:06
believe that he told the
admitting nurse, Mrs. Valdez
:03:10
that he was diabetic.
:03:12
It would seem... poetic
that someone else was to blame.
:03:16
It would feel right.
:03:18
But it wouldn't be fair.
:03:22
Let's-let's think for a second.
:03:23
Who's being blamed here?
:03:25
It's not some, some big bad
hospital corporation.
:03:29
We're talking
about human beings.
:03:32
Four doctors, five nurses,
:03:34
the hospital chief of staff
present at the time.
:03:37
All of them there
for no other purpose
:03:40
than to try and save
Jonathan Matthews' life.
:03:44
Now, this is painful,
and I don't like doing this,
:03:47
but if we're all going to do
our jobs,
:03:49
I've got to bring this up again.
:03:51
Mr. Matthews is an alcoholic.
:03:53
In July of 1979,
he tried to commit suicide.
:03:57
And, you know, even I was
surprised to learn
:03:59
from the plaintiff's
own doctors, ironically,