Death with dignity case ends when judge calls mistrial

A trial nine years in the making ended abruptly Monday after a death in the family of a doctor defending himself against allegations that he violated the wishes of a woman who wanted to die with dignity. Circuit Judge David Crow declared a mistrial and dismissed the jurors, who had heard only one day of testimony, after learning that the mother of Dr. Jaimy Bensimon had died Sunday. Bensimon had to travel to Israel for the burial, his attorney said. The trial against Bensimon and co-defendant Joseph L. Morse Geriatric Center will be reset at a later date. The lawsuit, filed in 1997 by the granddaughter of Madeline Neumann, claimed the 92-year-old woman had been intentionally battered when life-prolonging measures were taken at the West Palm Beach nursing home.  Linda Scheible, Neumann's granddaughter, was visibly distraught as it became clear the trial would not proceed Monday. "It's very difficult for the family," attorney Jack Scarola said. "They've been waiting for their day in court for a decade." One of the legal issues in the case is whether a patient must be diagnosed with a terminal condition before they can have a do-not-resuscitate order. Neumann, who died in October 1995, had a living will and advance directives indicating that life-prolonging treatments should be withheld if she were dying. Scheible's attorneys said Scheible was never told her grandmother needed a DNR order in her chart.

Read more in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.