In Soto v. Frankford Hospital Mrs. Soto presented for emergency care after exposure to carbon monoxide and received an incorrect diagnosis of drug overdose. Mrs. Soto recovered uneventfully from her carbon monoxide exposure. Since the cause of her problem was not diagnosed, her furnace was not repaired and her husband later died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. Mrs. Soto claimed that since the treating physician did not make the correct diagnosis, she was not alerted to take appropriate steps to have a defective gas heater repaired, and that failure to warn was the cause of her husband's death.

Mrs. Soto brought this action on behalf of her husband, who was the deceased third party plaintiff. The court reviewed the body of case law and found several communicable disease cases, and cases involving injuries to third parties by violent patients. The court held that this case was distinguishable because there was no communicable disease and Mrs. Soto was not a dangerous or violent patient. The Court felt that the physician did not have a duty to a third party exposed, not to a contagious disease or a violent patient, but to a faulty furnace.

It is hard to predict what the court what have found if the physicians had diagnosed Mrs. Soto correctly, but simply failed to warn the family or the authorities. If an emergency physician diagnoses and treats a patient with carbon monoxide poisoning, and it is clear that family and other tenants are being exposed, a court may find an obligation to warn, or to report to the local authorities.