Intussusception in Children

I ought perhaps to add one further observation about the litigation of such claims. In a recent case the claim was brought against the surgeon and the sister who had been responsible for the counting of the swabs. I suppose that this was done on the basis that the combined duties of the two of them together covered the whole field of activity, within which any negligence connected with the non-extraction of the swab must have occurred. A similar joinder of defendants would be likely to be made in any similar case. If more than two persons may be involved in the negligence, more than two may be brought in as defendants. This is, after all, a natural procedure, if it is certain or almost certain that, assuming negligence to have occurred, one or more of (say) three persons are guilty of the negligence, but it is still uncertain to which the blame is to be attributed, and only the investigation of the facts at the trial will settle the matter. The plaintiff will have good reason for being cautious about joining as defendants persons against whom he is not likely to succeed, inasmuch as he may have to pay their costs. The questions of the assessment of the damages which a successful plaintiff is entitled to recover, and of the apportionment of damages if the plaintiff succeeds against more than one defendant, do not fall within the scope of this article.