Brain Death - Court Allows Lawsuit for Wrongful Declaration

Pamela Wright was receiving medical care from Hackensack University Medical Center in March 2022. During that hospitalization, clinicians declared Wright brain dead despite her religious objections as earlier represented to the hospital. 

Her family sued the hospital for violating the New Jersey Declaration of Death Act and asserting other common law causes of action including negligence and wrongful death. In contrast to every other U.S. jurisdiction, New Jersey uniquely provides that "death of an individual shall not be declared upon the basis of neurological criteria . . . when the licensed physician authorized to declare death, has reason to believe, on the basis of information in the individual's available medical records, or information provided by a member of the individual's family or any other person knowledgeable about the individual's personal religious beliefs that such a declaration would violate the personal religious beliefs of the individual."  

This week an appellate court ruled that the NJDDA does not permit a private cause of action. But the court permitted the family to proceed with their common law claims.