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Interview With Court TV's Lisa Bloom

Aired February 24, 2003 - 11:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it appears there could be a possibility that someone could end up going to prison over this nightclub fire. Let's talk about the possible legal aspects of this case with Court TV's Lisa Bloom. She is joining us from New York this morning -- Lisa, good morning.
LISA BLOOM, COURT TV: Good morning.

KAGAN: First of all, criminal charges -- do you think, indeed, somebody might indeed go to prison over this?

BLOOM: Well, it's certainly possible. After the Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston in the 1940s, the club owner went to prison for criminal involuntary manslaughter. That could certainly happen here if a court finds that the owners' negligence or the band's negligence was at such an extent that it caused these deaths.

KAGAN: Meanwhile, you have a lot of finger pointing going on. You have the band and their management pointing fingers at the club, and the club pointing fingers at the band. It might not matter. In fact, can't both be held liable?

BLOOM: Well, they certainly can. And Daryn, there's also the civil lawsuits which have already begun to be filed. And in that case, we're not talking just about the bands and the owners of the club, we're talking about the manufacturers of the sound proof -- the manufacturers of the pyrotechnics. We're going to see a lot of defendants, I think, in the civil lawsuit, and the court is going to have to sort out who is responsible for that deadly blaze.

KAGAN: So in the end, it might not be completely important who said OK to the pyrotechnics?

BLOOM: Absolutely. That's absolutely right. I mean, the court may say that the maker of the sound proofing, you need to have a warning up in that club that it was highly flammable, because it was likely that a club like that is going to have pyrotechnics. The owner of the pyrotechnics, the manufacturer, the distributor should have had a warning on those materials as well.

The court could find all of those owners and manufacturers and distributors are strictly liable, because when you have fire in a club that size, it's foreseeable that a blaze like this can happen. It's highly dangerous, and that may make it easier for the victims to sue.

KAGAN: Lisa, I want to turn a corner here and focus on a story, a different story, that we gave a lot of coverage to last week, and that is Jesica Santillan. She is the Mexican teenager who received the wrong transplant organs. Doctors at Duke went ahead and gave a second transplant operation, and she died over the weekend. A tragic story, not just for this teenager, but for her family who fought so long and so hard to find her the kind of medical treatment that she needed.

It appears -- you see that the family has hired a lawyer. We know that much. He was on CNN earlier today. No word yet on whether they will file a lawsuit, and yet it seems like this is headed that direction.

BLOOM: Well, it certainly looks like a new low in medical malpractice. This is the other side of the news story we saw a few weeks ago of doctors striking because of high medical malpractice premiums. This is a girl who died as a result of a very tragic and foreseeable fixable mistake, giving her the wrong blood type organs. I mean, that's the kind of thing, I think, Daryn, a jury can get behind, can see very clearly. That was an obvious mistake. It just should not have happened. I think it's an easy medical malpractice case for her family to win.

KAGAN: I think one thing that people are wondering about, the family has gone ahead and made sure that there was an autopsy on Jesica after she died. It seems kind of obvious to those of us who followed the story, and yet, if you are filing a malpractice case, is that just like crossing your T's and dotting your I's?

BLOOM: Well, that's absolutely essential. You want a medical examiner to examine a body, to gather all of the necessary forensic evidence just in case there is a trial. You never know what issues might come up at trial, and they want to cross all of their T's and dot all of their I's.

KAGAN: And just one more question about filing a medical malpractice. Isn't one of the bars you have to reach show that the doctors or the hospital followed procedures that are accepted across their profession? We had a surgeon on with us on Friday who said when he gets the call that a heart transplant is available, he doesn't ask what blood type it is, that it's just a given that he assumes -- and maybe this is the wrong thing it would appear -- but assumes that if it's gotten as far as to call the surgeon and the transplant team, that a computer or the organ donation society has already made that match.

BLOOM: Well, you're right. The standard is reasonable care. That is, is the doctor doing what's reasonable and expectable for doctors of his type in the community. In this case, I'm surprised the doctor has already said publicly he accepts full responsibility for the mistake, but Daryn, shouldn't a doctor check something as life or death as the blood type of an organ? That's going to be something for the jury to decide.

KAGAN: Well, right now it does seem just so obvious, given the tragic end to this girl's life. Lisa Bloom, with Court TV, thank you so much for your insight.

BLOOM: Thank you.

KAGAN: Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 24, 2003 - 11:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it appears there could be a possibility that someone could end up going to prison over this nightclub fire. Let's talk about the possible legal aspects of this case with Court TV's Lisa Bloom. She is joining us from New York this morning -- Lisa, good morning.
LISA BLOOM, COURT TV: Good morning.

KAGAN: First of all, criminal charges -- do you think, indeed, somebody might indeed go to prison over this?

BLOOM: Well, it's certainly possible. After the Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston in the 1940s, the club owner went to prison for criminal involuntary manslaughter. That could certainly happen here if a court finds that the owners' negligence or the band's negligence was at such an extent that it caused these deaths.

KAGAN: Meanwhile, you have a lot of finger pointing going on. You have the band and their management pointing fingers at the club, and the club pointing fingers at the band. It might not matter. In fact, can't both be held liable?

BLOOM: Well, they certainly can. And Daryn, there's also the civil lawsuits which have already begun to be filed. And in that case, we're not talking just about the bands and the owners of the club, we're talking about the manufacturers of the sound proof -- the manufacturers of the pyrotechnics. We're going to see a lot of defendants, I think, in the civil lawsuit, and the court is going to have to sort out who is responsible for that deadly blaze.

KAGAN: So in the end, it might not be completely important who said OK to the pyrotechnics?

BLOOM: Absolutely. That's absolutely right. I mean, the court may say that the maker of the sound proofing, you need to have a warning up in that club that it was highly flammable, because it was likely that a club like that is going to have pyrotechnics. The owner of the pyrotechnics, the manufacturer, the distributor should have had a warning on those materials as well.

The court could find all of those owners and manufacturers and distributors are strictly liable, because when you have fire in a club that size, it's foreseeable that a blaze like this can happen. It's highly dangerous, and that may make it easier for the victims to sue.

KAGAN: Lisa, I want to turn a corner here and focus on a story, a different story, that we gave a lot of coverage to last week, and that is Jesica Santillan. She is the Mexican teenager who received the wrong transplant organs. Doctors at Duke went ahead and gave a second transplant operation, and she died over the weekend. A tragic story, not just for this teenager, but for her family who fought so long and so hard to find her the kind of medical treatment that she needed.

It appears -- you see that the family has hired a lawyer. We know that much. He was on CNN earlier today. No word yet on whether they will file a lawsuit, and yet it seems like this is headed that direction.

BLOOM: Well, it certainly looks like a new low in medical malpractice. This is the other side of the news story we saw a few weeks ago of doctors striking because of high medical malpractice premiums. This is a girl who died as a result of a very tragic and foreseeable fixable mistake, giving her the wrong blood type organs. I mean, that's the kind of thing, I think, Daryn, a jury can get behind, can see very clearly. That was an obvious mistake. It just should not have happened. I think it's an easy medical malpractice case for her family to win.

KAGAN: I think one thing that people are wondering about, the family has gone ahead and made sure that there was an autopsy on Jesica after she died. It seems kind of obvious to those of us who followed the story, and yet, if you are filing a malpractice case, is that just like crossing your T's and dotting your I's?

BLOOM: Well, that's absolutely essential. You want a medical examiner to examine a body, to gather all of the necessary forensic evidence just in case there is a trial. You never know what issues might come up at trial, and they want to cross all of their T's and dot all of their I's.

KAGAN: And just one more question about filing a medical malpractice. Isn't one of the bars you have to reach show that the doctors or the hospital followed procedures that are accepted across their profession? We had a surgeon on with us on Friday who said when he gets the call that a heart transplant is available, he doesn't ask what blood type it is, that it's just a given that he assumes -- and maybe this is the wrong thing it would appear -- but assumes that if it's gotten as far as to call the surgeon and the transplant team, that a computer or the organ donation society has already made that match.

BLOOM: Well, you're right. The standard is reasonable care. That is, is the doctor doing what's reasonable and expectable for doctors of his type in the community. In this case, I'm surprised the doctor has already said publicly he accepts full responsibility for the mistake, but Daryn, shouldn't a doctor check something as life or death as the blood type of an organ? That's going to be something for the jury to decide.

KAGAN: Well, right now it does seem just so obvious, given the tragic end to this girl's life. Lisa Bloom, with Court TV, thank you so much for your insight.

BLOOM: Thank you.

KAGAN: Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com