State v. McGee

Facts: ∆ shot the victim, who was hospitalized. The victim later died after medical treatment that may have contributed to or hastened death (gross medical malpractice / withdrawal of care).
Issue: Whether subsequent medical treatment was a superseding intervening cause that breaks the causal chain.
Rule: Ordinary medical negligence in treating an injury inflicted by ∆ is a dependent intervening cause and does not break the chain. Only gross malpractice that is the sole cause of death may supersede.
Analysis: The victim would not have needed treatment but for ∆'s gunshot wound. Where treatment is a foreseeable response to the injury, even if imperfect, ∆ remains the proximate cause. The malpractice here was within the foreseeable spectrum.
Judgment: Conviction affirmed.

Reading: pp. 186–88. See Ch. 4—Causation.