1. Liability for personal injury or death is not imposed upon any provider of health care based on alleged negligence in the performance of that care unless evidence consisting of expert medical testimony, material from recognized medical texts or treatises or the regulations of the licensed medical facility wherein the alleged negligence occurred is presented to demonstrate the alleged deviation from the accepted standard of care in the specific circumstances of the case and to prove causation of the alleged personal injury or death, except that such evidence is not required and a rebuttable presumption that the personal injury or death was caused by negligence arises where evidence is presented that the provider of health care caused the personal injury or death occurred in any one or more of the following circumstances:
(a) A foreign substance other than medication or a prosthetic device was unintentionally left within the body of a patient following surgery;
(b) An explosion or fire originating in a substance used in treatment occurred in the course of treatment;
(c) An unintended burn caused by heat, radiation or chemicals was suffered in the course of medical care;
(d) An injury was suffered during the course of treatment to a part of the body not directly involved in the treatment or proximate thereto; or
(e) A surgical procedure was performed on the wrong patient or the wrong organ, limb or part of a patient’s body.
2. Expert medical testimony provided pursuant to subsection 1 may only be given by a provider of health care who practices or has practiced in an area that is substantially similar to the type of practice engaged in at the time of the alleged negligence.
3. The rebuttable presumption pursuant to subsection 1 does not apply in an action in which a plaintiff submits an affidavit pursuant to NRS 41A.071, or otherwise designates an expert witness to establish that the specific provider of health care deviated from the accepted standard of care.
4. Nothing in this section shall be construed to preclude any party to the suit from designating and presenting expert testimony as to the legal or proximate cause of any alleged personal injury or death.
(Added to NRS by 1975, 406; A 1977, 955; 1985, 1754; 1997, 1219; 1999, 5; 2002 Special Session, 9; 2015, 2528)
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