Steve

I'm specifically saying that's not true. You failed to prevent the death.

Even with the lever being a working break. You'd be correctly blamed for it. But you still didn't cause it.

Failure to fulfill a "what if" scenario you imagined, doesn't create a cause.

It certainly is malpractice. They fucked up, and should be held accountable for those mistakes.

But if a person doesn't stop something, they had no part in starting, it doesn't make sense to say they "caused" the result.

It's really just that simple.

So you agree the doctors were useless in this case.

I agree they had no effect in this case.

They failed to serve their intended use. That may be worse than useless, because it comes with unfulfilled hope. Rather than offering no hope at all, with something that actually useless.

Well no. While that does happen often. Failing to save someone isn't causing their death.

In this specific case, they simply failed to save someone they could have. Nothing they did was the cause of this kids death.

The difference is, if the mother kept the kid home, it would have all played out the same.
When the healthcare system kills someone. They would have survived if they stayed home. Or at least died of something different.