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From: weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener)
Newsgroups: net.sci,net.legal,net.med
Subject: Psychic Damages
Message-ID: <12833@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Mon, 31-Mar-86 21:35:34 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.12833
Posted: Mon Mar 31 21:35:34 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Apr-86 08:17:39 EST
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The following story is reprinted (without permission) in its
entirety from the 29 March 1986 _San Francisco Chronicle_.
------------------------------------------------------------
            PSYCHIC WINS DAMAGE AWARD FOR CAT SCAN

Philadelphia

A woman who sued her hospital and doctor on allegations that their
treatment destroyed her psychic powers has been awarded more than
$1 million in damages, bu a "shocked" hospital attorney said yesterday
that he will appeal the verdict.

Judith Richardson Haimes, 42, of Clearwater, Fla., contended that
as a result of a CAT scan, she suffered severe headaches when she
tried to concentrate to use her psychic powers.  Her attorney, Joel
Lieberman, said Haimes had earned her living as a psychic and had
been able to read people's auras and help police solve crimes.

A jury deliberated about 45 minutes Thursday before awarding Haimes
$600,000, plus $418,000 in delay damages.  She was undergoing diagnosis
for brain tumors at Temple University Hospital in 1976.

"If the verdict is allowed to stand, it's an outrage and an example of
why the American tort system has to be changed," said Richard Galli,
an attorney for Temple University Hospital, where the CAT scan was
performed.

After the jury heard Haimes' case, Court of Common Pleas Judge Leon
Katz ordered the jury to disregard Haimes' allegations about her lost
psychic powers and to consider only her testimony about the negative
allergic reaction she suffered from a dye injected during the CAT scan.

Galli said the jury either did not listen to the judge's instructions,
did not understand them or disregarded them in reaching its verdict.

"I was shocked," Galli said.  "There's no basis for it."

							United Press

ucbvax!brahms!weemba	Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720