Medical Malpractice

[Fe 26]

Medical malpractice is an absolutely retarded, bogus, and shitty topic. Sometimes, it's a CLEAR violation of the medical professional, and they need to be punished if they've KNOWINGLY neglected something or messed up seriously.

My dad's a doctor, though, so I get defensive. He's been sued over 20 times, and not once has it ever made it to upper court or has he lost a claim. People sue doctors for EVERYTHING. A doctor can't predict exactly what's going to happen all the time, and it just gets absurd how some people think all their money is going to make them feel better. I know it's hard when something goes wrong, but ruining a good doctor's life isn't going to make anything change.

Now, when a doctor screws up, yes, action needs to be taken. We lost a family friend because a great doctor with an awesome history misdiagnosed a rare tumor that resulted in mistreatment and the woman's death. Should he have lost his job, lost all of his money and have his family destroyed because he missed something that three other doctors ALSO misdiagnosed before him? I don't think so. Yes, it's a tragedy, but doctors are not perfect. Not everyone can be saved, and medicine is so damn complex, I'm sick of all the frivolous suits as people think doctors can save everybody. If they can't, then they get sued. It's sick, and needs to stop. I don't think a doctor who has done everything within his power to help someone should lose all his money and his license because of one mistake that was not a result of poor practice. Shit happens, and it sucks, but suing a guy for 2 million dollars isn't going to change anything.

I have a lot of sympathy for those who have lost someone due to a medical procedure. A lot of times, doctors get sued even when it can't be concluded that it was entirely their fault. Technology isn't perfect, and most surgical procedures have SO many things that can go wrong...

I guess I'm just saying, it's not always the doc's fault, and filing a lawsuit won't fix anything. Make the doctor be suspended and attend heavy course training on whatever went wrong.

When they're jerks about it, won't talk to and don't provide proof of anything, then I fully say take action. Your trusting your well being to someone else, and they have a responsibility to do everything within their power to fix it, or direct you to someone better suited. I'm not ignorant to idiotic surgeons and medical mishaps, but they're in the minority of lawsuits. Do a lot of research, find all documentation involved with the case, and try to determine, hands down, that it was one man's mistake before you take legal action. Feeling bad about something going wrong or thinking they didn't do enough isn't enough evidence to lay such hard charges. Get records from everyone involve and talk to as many people as possible, and be thorough. You can find sometimes find out where things turned bad and what exactly happened, things they may not tell the family outright.

If it's 100% clearcut malpractice, take action, but just be smart about it.

I agree with said news very much.

T_T This sort of thing is horrible in Mississippi. We have county's in Mississippi that their largest source of income, comes from Mal Prac suits.

The cool thing to do right now, is if anyone, ever has side effects to a form of medication, you get everyone in the entire state to get together to sue in one large suit, regardless if 99% of those people have not had one bad side effect to said medication. Then they sue the Doctor, the Pharmacist, and the drug company. Why the Doc and the Pharm? Because the lawyer knows if they sue individuals they can keep the case inside the state court system, which helps to get cases to go their way. So essentially, two people are having their reputations and finances ruined so a bunch of people, who the majority of have not been hurt at all, can get money.

Malpractice law suits are destroying this state. Company's refuse to open factories here because they fear getting sued.

I agree with everything Nomi says, suing doctors in most cases is biting the hand that could save your life. Doctors are human and everybody makes mistakes at work, it's only their mistakes, sadly, may have fatal consequences. Sometimes it will be associations or the hospital that pick up the bill of a lawsuit, and in that case, suing is fucking counter intuitive. People should work more on lobbying hospitals to improve quality assurance procedures and preventative measures, rather than suing.

Those law suits are a big factor in the high cost of American health care. Hospitals create lots of red tape to help protect patience from getting hurt to help prevent malpractice. That cost money. Also, whose pocket do you think the money to pay off lawsuits comes from, ultimately?

[Jeremy]

Astro, they're mainly all to being born four and a half months premature. I had incubation that would later be known to cause retinal detachments, which is what happened to my right eye (fully), and my left eye, which could then, and likely could now, be come detached, or reattach without much provocation.

This conclusion was drawn after the latest detachment was noticed in June of 2002, two days before it would have become fully detached, according to my opthamologist. Luckily, I had a last-minute scleral buckle procedure done the next day, which through some miracle, actually worked.

That whole day in the hospital was an interesting one, and allowed me to realize how lucky I was to have gotten nearly 19 years of sight out of that eye (at that time), especially when an infant was going to have two of the surgeries I was going to have, with one having a 50/50 chance of working. That infant stopped breathing on the operating table, and was luckily revived. I just kept thinking about how this poor girl didn't even have a chance to really see life, and that I was fortunate to have gotten what I got out of the eye, if my number was up with it, it was.

The premature birth also led to some other eye issues, like glaucoma and cataracts, that are kept under control whenever possible. Luckily, the cataracts are only in the blind eye, which never grew after birth, leaving me with a neat-looking small eye. I'm also quite lucky to not have HIV, due to needing a minimum of four blood transfusions every day, which left some nice scars all over my hands and arms. I also clinically died a number of times, four were documented, and the rest were just the nurses coming it to revive me whenever I stopped showing vital signs. That incubation could only do so much, and while it cost me a good chunk of my sight, it did allow me to live, which still astounds me all things considered.

There are some other things that cropped up as well, but they've worked in my favor, like not having enough fat cells to actually get fat, which has given me a permanent six pack. Damn the luck on that one, hehe. The arthritis problems I developed about ten or so years ago were also attributed to the premature birth, but haven't been too big a problem so far.

[AstroBlue]

Astro, they're mainly all to being born four and a half months premature.

Woah...

[The_Meach]

legislation requiring a neutral third party to be present during all pre-surgical consultations.

This is completely impractical.

[Diff-chan]

Its gotten to the point where doctors are being sued for malpractice not for making a wrong diagnosis, but for making a treatment option and having it be ineffective. Its bullshit. Doctors really are the best and brightest in our society, and the most dedicated (it takes a shitload of time to get through medical school, not to mention the competitiveness of getting to medical school).

[arjue]

not to mention having to try and save unappreciative douchebag lives every day.

[Fe 26]

One good thing we would get by the US medical system going socalist, would be that all the sue happy bitches would be fucked.

You can't sue the Government, well you can, but good luck getting anywhere.

[JOEBIALEK]

Thank you for your kind words. Actually, we talked with several attorneys and each one declined to file a lawsuit because of the "high effort to low reward ratio"...
My mother was not one to take risks and if she knew that one of the potential complications from the surgery was a jejunostomy, she would not have gone along.

[Drewbacca]

I nearly lost my life due to mis-diagnosis. When I was 2, my appendix burst, and all the doctors said I was complaining about nappie rash because its ridiculously unlikely to be my appendix at that age. luckily they caught on eventually and did an emergency operation.

You're a hero among peons (besides myself of course).

[Cowdisease]

I also clinically died a number of times, four were documented, and the rest were just the nurses coming it to revive me whenever I stopped showing vital signs. That incubation could only do so much, and while it cost me a good chunk of my sight, it did allow me to live, which still astounds me all things considered.

As hard as you try,

YOU CANNOT KILL TEH JEREMY!!!

That's pretty amazing that you survived all that nearly intact. I had a somewhat similar experience when I was two months old. I came down with bronchitis and an intestine infection, and I had such a hard time breathing, that my tiny heart stopped beating. The hospital staff thankfully took very good care of me and my mother told me that it was miracle that I survived that because she was convinced that I was going to die.

Doctors are amazing. I too detest these stupid lawsuits.