In an effort to prove malpractice, sometimes the victim is unable to testify on their behalf because of the incapacity the malpractice caused. For example, a 50 year-old woman was operated on to remove an enlarged goiter, a thyroid gland found in the neck. The known post-operative treatment is to be given calcium because if levels of calcium fall too low a patient’s swallowing and breathing become difficult. In this case the operating surgeon ordered calcium to be given, but she never received it. The next morning the patient was very agitated and had difficulty swallowing. Later, she complained of shortness of breath and increased swelling in the operated area of her neck. After continuing to struggle to breathe she went into respiratory failure; eventually sustaining brain anoxic encephalopathy (brain damage caused by lack of oxygen) and fell into a coma. The family of the woman understandably decided to bring a malpractice lawsuit to the hospital. During trial, she was unable to testify because she was in an incapacitated state and because of this the case had to rely on experts’ testimony and the analysis of hospital records and pretrial depositions by the hospital employees. During the deposition proceedings it was found that a second year resident, who had been at the hospital for three weeks, checked on the patient the night of the surgery but failed to administer the appropriate tests and instead told the nurse she was fine. The implications are intuitive, thankfully her family had the resources of a plaintiff’s attorney.