New York State Department of Health Code, Section 405, also known as the Libby Zion Law, is a regulation that limits the amount of resident physicians' work in New York State hospitals to roughly 80 hours per week.[1] The law was named after Libby Zion, the daughter of author Sidney Zion, who died in 1984 at the age of 18. Sidney blamed Libby's death on overworked resident physicians and intern physicians.[2] In July 2003, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education adopted similar regulations for all accredited medical training institutions in the United States.[1]
Although regulatory and civil proceedings found conflicting evidence about Zion's death,[3] today, her death is widely believed to have been caused by serotonin syndrome from the drug interaction between the phenelzine she was taking prior to her hospital visit, and the pethidine administered by a resident physician.[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.[5]
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After it became clear to everybody, including a New York County grand jury, that Libby's death was caused by overworked and unsupervised interns and residents, the Libby Zion law was passed: No more 36-hour shifts for interns and residents; from now on, attending physicians would be at the ready to supervise the young, inexperienced student-doctors.