Bourne v. Valdes, 140 Nev. Adv. Op. 74 (Nov. 27, 2024)

Nevada’s professional negligence statute—NRS 41A—is the governing law for malpractice cases where a patient dies by suicide. Nevada has no suicide rule that alleviates a medical provider from liability if a patient dies of suicide outside of the provider’s control and custody. Instead, the court must make factual findings to determine ordinary medical malpractice elements for a suicide case, including Duty, Breach, Foreseeability, and Proximate Causation. If a provider’s actions could foreseeably lead a patient to commit suicide, they can be held liable.