Judges Stay Med Exam Ruling

Two days before a Harvard medical student was scheduled to take her certification exam, Massachusetts’ appeals court temporarily voided an earlier ruling that would have given her extra break time to pump breast milk.

Sophie C. Currier, the MD-PhD student at Harvard Medical School (HMS), who is currently nursing a five-month-old infant, will postpone taking the exam until the three-judge appeals panel rules, said her spokeswoman, Alex Zaroulis.

Currier cannot graduate from HMS or begin her scheduled residency until she passes the eight-hour licensing exam.

“Things are up in the air right now,” Currier said in a telephone interview last night.

In yesterday’s stay, the judges wrote they planned to issue a final ruling by Oct. 10, according to Zaroulis.

Last week, the National Board of Medical Examiners appealed a judge’s order to grant Currier one hour of break time per day on top of the 45 minutes students normally have for the entire exam. The board previously agreed to grant Currier a second day of test time because she has dyslexia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Board spokeswoman Carol Thompson said last week that the board appealed in order to “maintain fairness for all examinees and the integrity of the test.”

Gary S. Katzmann, the judge who awarded Currier the break time last week, rejected the board’s argument and cited the potential for pain or medical injury from infection or breast engorgement if Currier were not given extra break time.

“Such physical pain constitutes an unfair burden on the mental energies required for this examination,” he wrote in last week’s decision.

That opinion overturned a ruling the week before by Judge Patrick F. Brady of Norfolk Superior Court, who ruled in favor of the Board.

Zaroulis added that Currier would take the exam on October 10 and 11 in the event of a favorable decision.

She would not say whether Currier would appeal an unfavorable ruling.

—Staff writer Clifford M. Marks can be reached at cmarks@fas.harvard.edu.