Sixth Circuit reinstates death claim against Providence Hospital

The family of Marie Irons sued Providence Hospital after it failed to admit Irons' estranged husband to a psychiatric unit.  A phyisican who examined the husband in the Providence E.R. had recommended admission, but apparently a second doctor counter-manded the order and the husband was discharged.  Ten days later, he murdered Irons with an axe.  The case had been dismissed in 2007 by the trial court after the St. John Health System, which runs Providence, contested the Estate's standing to sue and the application of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor law.  The appellate judges of the Sixth Circuit concluded that the lower court was in error in deciding factual questions that should have been considered by the jury.