Comments on: It Didn’t Feel Like A “Win”

By: Dee

Dee — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:13:58 +0000

Waaa, poor doctors. The truth is the deck is stacked against victims of medical malpractice. in 2008 a surgeon completely screwed up my life, almost killed me, left me disfigured and disabled for the rest of my life. I went from having a very successful, productive 25 year career to taking disability retirement and being poor. I nearly lost my home, I had to sell just about everything, I lost my career, my health and my self esteem. The medical malpractice case is STILL pending. Finally, discovery is nearly completed. I realize this has been an inconvenience for the poor physician but for me, it has been utter destruction. I have learned that it is nearly impossible to get a medical malpractice (specialist) attorney to take your case unless you have a really good case and you have been really hurt bad. That most medical malpractice is never taken up by a specialist attorney and the random slip and fall attorney can not handle a medmal case competently. In my case, it seems the insurance carrier and attorney for the defense have a strategy to delay and to drag it out as long as possible. To hell with right and wrong and making my life any easier. This process is criminal. What was done to me was criminal. There will never be justice for what I have had to endure. Furthermore treating physicians are told by the insurance carrier not to speak to any attorneys and I am treated like a hot potato. All of the doctors know what happened to me. A few have straight out told me it was medical malpractice. Still they do not want to be involved. Their records speak to my condition after the malpractice occurred. They do not want to be involved more then that in any action against another doctor. That is not what they do. My attorney has to spend thousands of dollars to get experts from out of this area to support what is obvious medical malpractice. He has to get an economist to account for my lost income, benefits, pension etc etc. Also, the physician lied repeatedly in his deposition. His lies are not supported by records or biopsies. But still he lies. That is his story and he is sticking to it. He had the audacity to cry during his deposition. waaa poor poor him. So I continue to suffer because this “doctor” couldn’t be bothered to perform the correct procedure/operation and because he couldn’t be bothered to read the instructions on the product he incorrectly administered to my unconscious body during surgery. (I have no other explanation except he must have been on drugs or insane) he performed unnecessary procedures without consent (written or verbal), I have lost everything. I had a once full life and I have darn near gone bankrupt waiting on the system that will never adequately compensate me. I am angry. My life had tremendous value. My work was meaningful and I was good at it. I did more for society in my career then this incompetent board certified surgeon will ever do. He has since left this state to go about his incompetence in another state. The insurance for an electrician who used substandard wiring that caused a house to burn down would have to pay and relatively quickly for a trade persons negligence. If someone was seriously injured that electrician may even have to go to jail. Doctors, well there is a whole different standard applied to their negligence. Medical malpractice isn’t slip and fall in a walmart and get a check, personal injury crap. This is medical malpractice performed by a trusted doctors, that can destroy someone as surely as a bomb. It leaves victims without options. It costs everyone in medicare and SSDI because the reckless physician and their insurance are frequently never held accountable and their victim ends up ruined, disabled or dead and without options. This kind of thing (opps so sorry I ruined your life) can happen to anyone. That includes you doctors, lawyers and politicians, except doctors may have the inside information about who is good, who is on drugs and who is bad. Information that the general population is not privy to.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:31:14 +0000

I guess arguing with what you want people to say is easier and more fun than arguing with what they actually did say.

By: DensityDuck

DensityDuck — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:05:17 +0000

I love it. “There are all these people saying that thousands and thousands of baseless lawsuits are filed. This is obviously false and those people are idiots, because if the parties settle out of court then by definition there was no lawsuit.”

By: Doc in a state with a panel

Doc in a state with a panel — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:37:13 +0000

Indiana has had a medical review panel system in place since the mid 70s thanks to a physician governor at the time. While the panel doesn’t have an absolute say on whether a case can move forward or not, what they decide seems to be weighted pretty heavily. I think something like 80% of the cases are weeded out by the process.

The panel, combined with caps on payouts, a state patient compensation fund, and a 15% cap on attorney fees, makes the malpractice environment here fairly reasonable. The lawyers really, really hate the system and have been trying to get it overturned for years.

Some of the initial ACA versions actually had a “tort reform” section. Their version of “tort reform” was to withhold federal funds to any state that capped payouts or attorney fees. Yes, the lawyers are MUCH better at politics than we are. They put their own in office and give tons of money.

If you push trial lawyers hard enough you can eventually get the truth out. I have had many heated discussions with my significant other’s father who is a trial lawyer that does a lot of personal injury/malpractice work. Usually he loves to talk about “justice”, “helping the little guy”, or “checks and balances” when defending what he does. It was a personal victory when one day I got him to admit that “yes, they are all greed cases”.

By: Retired because of this kind of crap.

Retired because of this kind of crap. — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:40:58 +0000

I’m with you Joebob, and as I said far, far above: “…that is very, very sad. Sad for physicians, sad for the profession of medicine, and sad for patients. Dangerous and wasteful too.”

By: joebob

joebob — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 03:04:08 +0000

In a way I’m glad i got dragged in to my 1 and only lawsuit. It played an important role in giving me the resolve to leave clinical practice. I now work nonclinically, get paid the same salary as when I was an emergency physician, work no overnights, take vacation when I want to without worrying about being turned down due to insufficient staffing, and have ZERO risk of being accused of malpractice.

The endless debate being had here about how to reform the medmal system, and the powerful forces that will keep any reform from happening, is rendered wonderfully meaningless to me. This f**ked up system has no effect on me at this point. Suck it, America! My services are no longer available to you.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:43:25 +0000

Ed, while there aren’t a lot of them, there are lawyers who specialize in legal malpractice. With any specialty, it’s going to depend on what the population of where you live is as far as how many. It’s no different than finding an expert physician to testify for a plaintiff.

I don’t know why you would assume the trial would be presided over by a lawyer (judge) who knows the lawyer party. Many legal malpractice claims are against lawyers who never see a courtroom. And in big jurisdictions there will be many who have never laid eyes on a particular judge. In smaller ones, you can get a recusal – in fact the judge will probably want to recuse if he knows the attorney. I would.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:40:03 +0000

Never seen someone so fussy because another agrees with them, Thor.

By: ThorMD

ThorMD — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:14:14 +0000

Quod erat demonstrandum

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:10:38 +0000

There’s one wrinkle to this, though. One has to find a lawyer who is willing to go against another lawyer.

Having tried this, I can assure you it is quite difficult.

Add to that that the trial is presided over by a lawyer who likely knows all lawyer parties well.