The practitioner is liable where a patient suffers from his want of ordinary skill and diligence, even though the carelessness of those nursing the patient may have aggravated the case and rendered the ultimate condition of the patient worse than it otherwise would have been. Although this carelessness in nursing may be proved in mitigation of the damages sought against the physician, it will not serve to bar the right of action [171]. And where two surgeons, who gave their services gratuitously to the sick in a hospital, were sued by one Perionowsky, for maltreatment there by causing him to be placed in a bath so hot that he was scalded and injured, and it was proved that the bath, though ordered by the defendants, was actually administered by the nurses, and that the defendants were not present when it was given, and that it was no part of their duty personally to superintend such things. Cockburn, C.J., in summing up, told the jury that the surgeons would not be liable for the neglect of the nurses unless near enough to be aware of it and to prevent it [172]. And, in another case, the court held that if a jury were to find that the parents of the patient (a boy) were in charge of and nursed him during his sickness, and that they did not obey the directions of the physician in regard to the treatment and care of their son during such time, but disregarded the same, and thereby contributed to the several injuries of which he complains, he could not recover. If the injuries were |71| the result of mutual and concurring neglect of the parties no action to recover damages therefor will lie [173].