Wow.
Congratulations to everyone on making yesterday’s post the most popular blog post I’ve had in a while. The only time I can remember having more hits in one day is when one of my vaccination posts got picked up by Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.
I appreciate everyone’s good wishes. The blogosphere is a great place where I’ve made a lot of friends and probably a few enemies, but the former far outnumber the latter.
Nurse K, ERP and Ten are right. The trial is over. I know all about Flea and don’t intend to repeat history.
Medical malpractice is a game where neither side wins. On one side, patients suffer bad outcomes – some due to medical negligence, some not. On the other side, an accusation of medical malpractice cuts to the soul of any medical provider (read this story about Philip Ticktin to see what I’m talking about). During the many years inherent to any malpractice litigation, both sides are forced to relive these bad moments over and over again. Both sides are forced to listen to other people question their actions and accuse them for being at fault. It isn’t a matter of who wins in a lawsuit, it’s a matter of who loses least.
The death of a patient is especially troubling because many people, physicians included, fail to remember that death is a part of life. Death is not some abberancy that we can stave off with a futuristic handheld scanner dreamed up by Gene Roddenberry. Death can happen at any time and in any place. Just because death happens does not necessarily mean that someone else is to blame.
The story I will tell is a story that needs to be told. I’m past it now. I’ve licked my wounds and they are healed. It isn’t about me any more. It’s about every other health care professional who has been on the receiving end of a summons who doesn’t know what to feel and who doesn’t know where to turn. You aren’t a bad person. Even if you made an error, you’re human. Sometimes I wish patients could understand that more.
So to those worried that what I write will be used against me by some future plaintiff attorney, let them try. You’ll be reading about them in this blog in the future.
To those who think the HIPAA police will come and lead me away in handcuffs, file a complaint. Here’s the link. The information in this case has been de-identified, facts have been changed, and it is no longer subject to HIPAA laws.
Defamation? Truth is an absolute defense. What isn’t true hasn’t harmed anyone and my observations and opinions aren’t actionable.
Legal scholars want to debate whether it is “unethical” for me to talk about a malpractice trial? Go for it. The more discussion, the better. If this series is what it takes to bring the issues involved in medical blogging to the next level, I’ll be the fall guy. I won’t live my life in fear of what some evil attorney might sue me for.
So …
I’ll try to put up at least a post a week about what happened. I was going to put them all up back-to-back, but thought that readers would become bored. There are a lot of twists and turns in the whole series of events, and I took good notes.
Now stop worrying so much and enjoy reading, will ya?
Here is a question for the few lawyers here: How much needs to be changed before the story is just fiction based on WC’s experiences, rather than the account of a real trial?
I am looking forward to the series, as someone who was villified for months in filings before being dropped when I didn’t turn on the others It strikes a cord.
Thank you for telling me I don’t need to worry about you, because I was.
WC-I don’t think I can wait for the next installment! Having gone through a law suit 4 years ago, my wounds have never healed, only scarred. Unfortunately, it changed the way I look at patients and health care. Keep ‘em coming!
wouldn’t be boring to me to do it back to back..bring it on. I think a lot of people would find comfort in a shared experience as Pookie M.D. said.
BTW I’ve started reviewing charts for a law firm that represents docs and nurses…nothing fancy, just simple little stuff that people get their panties all in a wad over.
I’m new to this so I guess Ican’t give specifics but the crap that people sue over is AMAZING!!!
Now I’ll sleep better!
I’m Very much looking forward to your series.I have no doubt it will be cathartic for you and the commentators …being able to vent about your collective experiences.
And perhaps people will learn.. both professionals and patients… and perhaps you will have helped some people in the present or bring enlightenment that helps someone to avoid falling into a professional calamity ..or you will give a would be litigious patient some pause to reevaluate their perspectives.
Like Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life”… through that movie we saw the impact on other lives for the present and future one person can have. You never know.
There’s power in words.
Okay..I hit my sappy quota for the day and now going to vacuum the pool again. (I’m the one with the brown hair on the ZILLOW satellite.)
I’m with Blacksails; if the trial is over, isn’t it all a matter of public record now? Can’t anyone go look up the details if they wished? If that’s the case, then you have little to worry about. However, I’m a nurse, not a lawyer, and what the heck do I know.
Damn fella, you got me there for a second! O.o
Well, I am a malpractice defense lawyer, and assuming you value our contributions a tad more than your blog colleague Dr. Henry (”Two useless people are a law firm …” — Thanks, Greg!), I can confirm GuitarGirl’s view that anything that came into evidence at trial became part of the public record and is no longer considered privileged or confidential, unless the judge issued a specific protective order sealing some aspect of the record or evidence. You should be reasonably safe from the HIPAA Hysterics.
What sank Flea, I believe, was not so much discussion of the facts or merits of the case, because he really didn’t go into those in much detail, but rather his thinly-veiled contempt for the jury system and especially the plaintiff’s counsel. If your account includes much in that vein, you might hear about it in future litigation: “So, Dr. Whitecoat, it’s your opinion that these jurors are too stupid and ignorant to decide your case, isn’t that what you wrote in your blog?”
There usually are ways to head this off and keep such irrelevancies out of evidence, but that was Flea’s other big mistake: not telling his attorney about his blog.
am looking forward to reading. thanks for sharing your (hipaa compliant) story.
If it’s any consolation, I had no doubts & knew you wouldn’t put yourself in a hairy predicament when you created the previous post, and found it very refreshing to hear the case from a physician’s point of view. Great job, WC.
Thank you for sharing your story, WC – I’m definitely looking forward to reading about it! As a future physician likely going into EM, it’s great to hear about these things from your perspective.
I won’t be bored. Do tell. Details please…..
I am back from vacation and catching up on your blog. A big Thank You for keeping it real. Enjoy your posts and missed them!
I was reading the Flea saga when it all came down. I couldn’t believe he was stupid enough to live blog his trial and write those things. Flea is an arrogant ass. That contempt shown through, and that is what really stung him.
I work for a med mal plaintiffs’ firm, and I couldn’t agree more with your sum-up of the process. Nobody wins. The plaintiffs are dragged through the minute and intimate details of the loss they suffered over and over, for years, and the doctor is in the worst career situation possible.
The story you are telling is compelling and visceral. Can our organization, Medical Justice, have permission to send a copy of it to our member physicians? We count over 2,000 doctors as plan members. Our goal is to keep physicians from being sued for frivolous reasons. We resognize that malpractice does occur and negligently injured patients deserve a reasonable remedy. But, the current system works poorly for both patients and doctors. By the way, I say that as a neurtosurgeon who was sued one time. The sole expert was another neurosurgeon who had been suspended and then expelled from our professional society for delivering “unethical” testimony.
“Even if you made an error, you’re human. Sometimes I wish patients could understand that more.”
In many cases, the patients don’t understand that because the hospital and physician don’t treat them as humans. They clam up, and don’t say a word.
As for ethical, it’s not unethical in the least, so kudos to you for having the courage to write about it. Hopefully you can do it without the usual doctor nonsense about how everyone who files is just greedy, etc. etc. It’s a shame we can’t get a patient who has been the victim of malpractice to do the same, so both of the parties involved could explain their thoughts about the process.
I think most people can imagine how stressful it is for a physician to battle a lawsuit and face potentially losing reputation and assets. In the same vein, I think the popular perception is that [i]all[/i] plaintiffs are acting strictly out of greed and malice, cackling at the thought of ruining someone’s character and livelihood. As you said, it’s a matter of “who loses least.” However, it can be argued that most plaintiffs have “lost” before they ever contact an attorney – even if they win the case, their life will never be what it was before the alleged incident.
[...] The Trial of a Whitecoat [...]