The death of one of the world's shortest twins during a surgical procedure has led to an unusual Florida lawsuit in which the surviving twin is arguing that his “unique bond” with his brother entitles him to damages for emotional distress.

Greg (left) and John Rice

In Florida, only spouses or children under 25 can sue for wrongful death in a medical malpractice case. But Greg Rice is suing a Palm Beach hospital on a tort claim of outrage, alleging an anesthesiologist and officials at Tenet Good Samaritan conspired to conceal the true cause of his brother John's death.

“In light of the closeness between these twins, both 'little people,' sharing a unique bond, who were each other's best friends, confidants and business partners, the actions by the Defendants in this case were indeed outrageous,” Greg Rice's lawyer, Kevin C. Smith (Lytal, Reiter, Clark, Fountain & Williams, West Palm Beach), says in a court brief.

Circuit Court Judge Thomas Barkdull last month denied defense motions to dismiss, allowing the case to proceed to discovery.

The "Guinness Book of World Records" listed the 2-foot-10 Rice brothers as the world's shortest twins. They became local celebrities around Palm Beach County, starting their own successful real-estate business and appearing in campy ads for a pest control company.

John Rice, 53, died at Good Samaritan on Nov. 5, 2005, after being admitted for surgery on a broken femur. According to Greg Rice's complaint, the hospital told him that his brother had suffered a heart attack on the way to the operating room.

A post-mortem report later revealed, the plaintiff alleges, that John Rice went into cardiac arrest during surgery after the anesthesiologist, Dr. Wayne Weidenbaum, failed to properly insert a breathing tube to increase his oxygen level.

While Greg Rice was already dealing with the emotional distress of his loss, “the Defendants attempted to cover up the true cause of John Rice's death,” the complaint says.

In moving to dismiss, the defendants argued that Greg Rice could not meet the high threshold standard for a claim of outrage. Making a false statement about a family member's death, Weidenbaum said in his motion,

could be perceived as an inappropriate act, but not to such a heinous level so as to lead someone to say that it goes beyond all possible bounds of decency.

But in his response to the motions, Smith cited a case in which a Delaware judge held that a hospital acted outrageously in concealing the cause of an 82-year-old woman's death from her family.

Like the plaintiffs in Ciarlo v. St. Francis Hospital (1994), Smith said, Greg Rice suffered the distress of finding out that his brother's death was not “natural and unavoidable.” And due to “his extremely tight bond” with his twin,

Greg Rice may be analogized to the 'eggshell skull' plaintiff ... who would be considered to be exceptionally sensitive to the outrageousness of these Defendants' conduct.

It's a very sympathetic argument, of course, but the closeness of a relationship between siblings might be a more appropriate measure of damages in an outrage case than a basis for liability.

By Matthew Heller
10/15/06