No action for injury or death against a chiropractor, clinical laboratory technologist or technician, dentist, naturopath, nurse, nursing home administrator, dispensing optician, optometrist, osteopath, physician or surgeon, physical therapist, podiatrist, psychologist, or veterinarian duly licensed or registered under the laws of the State, or a licensed hospital as the employer of any such person, based upon such person's alleged, professional negligence, or for rendering professional service without consent, or for error or omission in such person's practice, shall be brought more than two years after the plaintiff discovers, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have discovered, the injury, but in any event not more than six years after the date of the alleged act or omission causing the injury or death. This six year time limitation shall be tolled for any period during which the person has failed to disclose any act, error, or omission upon which the action is based and which is known to the person.
Jacoby v. Kaiser Found. Hosp., 622 P.2d 613 (Haw. Ct. App. 1981). (The two-year limitation contained in Hawaii Rev. Stat. § 657-7.3 commences to run when the plaintiff discovers or should have discovered the damage, the violation of duty, and the causal connection between the violation of duty and the damage. The court distinguished between this rule and the rule applicable to actions under the Federal Tort Claims Act.)
Yamaguchi v. Queen's Medical Ctr., 648 P.2d 689 (Haw. 1982). (Summary judgment for the defendant on the basis of the statute of limitations is improper where an issue exists as to whether the tortfeasor (hospital's employee) knew or should have known of the excess radiation treatment given to the plaintiff and failed to disclose that fact to the plaintiff. The plaintiff alleged malignant post-radiation cancer in the right femur.)