Piacentini v. Bonnefil

In Piacentini v. Bonnefil, 69 Ill. App. 2d 433, 217 N.E.2d 507 (1966), a minor, by her mother, brought a malpractice action against a surgeon, alleging in part that he was negligent for allowing a surgical sponge to remain in her body after an appendectomy and also during and after a follow-up operation. At the close of the plaintiff's evidence, the trial court directed a verdict for the surgeon. However, the appellate court reversed the judgment and remanded the cause for a new trial. The court noted that there was evidence from which a jury could infer that the sponge was inserted into the plaintiff's body during the follow-up operation. The court continued: "If a sponge was left in the plaintiff's body she has established a prima facie case of negligence against the doctor and the burden of coming forth with the evidence then shifts to the defendant doctor. Hall v. Grosvenor, 267 Ill. App. 119 (1932)." Piacentini, 69 Ill. App. 2d at 447. Thus, the court in Piacentini held that the fact that a sponge was left inside a patient established a prima facie case of malpractice, but it did not hold that the fact was irrebuttable proof of a doctor's negligence. The hospital at which the operations occurred was also named as a defendant in Piacentini, but the plaintiff's attorney stipulated at trial that the hospital was not charged with any negligence related to the follow-up operation. Piacentini, 69 Ill. App. 2d at 446.