[4] The lawsuits and regulatory investigations following her death, and their implications for working conditions and supervision of interns and residents, were highly publicized in both lay media and medical journals.
[14] Libby Zion had been admitted to the hospital through the emergency room by the resident physician assigned to the ER on the night of March 4.
[15] Several years later, physicians concluded the combination of phenelzine and the pethidine given to her by Stone and Weinstein contributed to the development of serotonin syndrome, which led to increased agitation.
Sidney referred to Libby's death as a "murder", and wrote "They gave her a drug that was destined to kill her, then ignored her except to tie her down like a dog.
In a New York Times op-ed piece, he wrote: "You don't need kindergarten to know that a resident working a 36-hour shift is in no condition to make any kind of judgment call—forget about life-and-death.
[16][17] In May 1986, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau agreed to let a grand jury consider murder charges,[15] an unusual decision for a medical malpractice case.
The grand jury considered that a series of mistakes contributed to Zion's death, including the improper prescription of drugs and the failure to perform adequate diagnostic tests.
[15] Under New York law, the investigative body for these charges was the Hearing Committee of the State Board for Professional Medical Conduct.
[5] Under New York law, however, the final decision in this matter rested with another body, the Board of Regents, which was under no obligation to consider either the Commissioner's or the Hearing Committee's recommendations.
[17] In 1991, however, the state's appeals court completely cleared the records of the two doctors of findings that they had provided inadequate care to Zion.
The jury also found that Raymond Sherman, the primary care physician, had lied on the witness stand in denying he knew that Libby Zion was to be given pethidine.
[19] The emergency room physician, Maurice Leonard, as well as the hospital (as legal persona) were found not responsible for Zion's death in the civil trial.
[15] Formally known as the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on Emergency Services, and more commonly known as the Bell Commission, the committee evaluated the training and supervision of doctors in the state,[15] and developed a series of recommendations that addressed several patient-care issues, including restraint usage, medication systems, and resident work hours.