Whoa, guys!

I was just saying where my doctor disappeared to yesterday. No opinions of my own were voiced in that entry. Really. Honestly. Cross my heart and hope to die.

As I told MRG, something is wrong when a surgeon has to pay in excess of $180,000 in annual malpractice insurance and another is turned down for coverage (both have absolutely clean records). I don’t know who’s to blame. I don’t know how to fix it. I know my own personal feelings about suing doctors, but they will govern only my own actions; I certainly won’t become an advocate for others to follow my beliefs.

dons kevlar jacket and ducks back into the foxhole

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10 Comments

  1. You are right, that dream is a doozy. I’ve found a dream interpretation site that has a pretty good dictionary. It’s swoon.com. It might at least let you relax for the rest of the day.

    ~Cali

  2. –I looked down and a cougar was slinking past the back of the overstuffed sofa, purring. I looked at The Socialist and said, "He left that?"–

    Best laugh I’ve had all morning. 🙂 And i needed one.

  3. I work for an attorney that handles medical malpractice. The definition of malpractice is:

    “A dereliction of professional duty or a failure of professional skill that results in injury, loss or damage.”

    Are these doctors saying that they do not have to stand by a certain standard of care in the community? I’m tired of the trail attorneys and the injured parties getting a bad rap because the doctors do not want to take responsibility for their actions. The are not GODS.

    Juries rarely award huge sums of money to a person that has been injured by a negligent doctor. When the awards are large, that is because there is out and out negligence involved. Generally GROSS negligence. What these doctors do not say is that their premiums go up when they are negligent. Their premiums are not raised if they have done nothing wrong. Just like people that are involved in traffic accidents and it is their fault. Their premiums go up, but I have yet to hear any outcry about those premiums.

    Accidents do happen. Do not get me wrong. However, when a doctor amputates the wrong leg or arm, or removes the wrong kidney, scars a patient by carving his initials into her stomach after delivering her child, that is out and out negligence. There are 100s of examples and these are some of the larger ones.

    What doctors do not tell the general public is that another doctor (of the same speciality) has to testify that malpractice is involved. 9 times out of 10 a jury does not even hear a case. They are settled out of court or dismissed after the discovery process.

    The doctors are not telling the general public is that malpractice cases are very expensive to litigate and the injured party has pay many costs in order to litigate a case. If a jury hears the case, the Plaintiff, (the injured person) foots that bill and it can cost anywhere from $7,500.00 to $10,000.00. Believe me, if there was not negligence involved, a trial attorney would NOT take it to trial. As generally those costs are either totally or partially paid up front by the attorney. Would you risk that much money if you truly did not believe there was negligence, medical malpractice involved? No way in HELL!

    I apologize for “venting” in your diary, however, there are always two sides to each story. I’ll understand if you “delete” me.

  4. hey Pali,

    i’ve got a hershey’s chocolate bar and a snickers…which one would you like?

    sometimes a fox hole is the best damned place to be.

  5. (pat pat) -I- didn’t accuse you of anything. 🙂 My "other side" was in response to the opinions of the doctors in the article, not yours. Personally, I’m not that polarized on the issue–I think there are good points on both sides.

  6. Weird dream is right!

    During my clinicals I saw some things that I did not write about, but left lasting impressions regarding doctors and patient care. Some doctors are scary and they are the ones bringing to good ones down.Much of it was pointed out to me by excellent nurses who saved the doctor’s butt. During my OR shifts I noticed many limbs that were written with red ink "NO!!" and green ink saying "YES! This one!" In Oregon, many family doctors will not being delivering babies after September (I think) due to the huge, huge increase in malpractice insurance.

    Makes you think…

    Glad you are continuing to enjoy your car.

  7. I apologize. Perhaps the doctors should be talking to the insurance companies then as to why their premiums are so high and put the blame where it should be, on the insurance companies and their greed. Just a thought.

  8. If you want to know who to blame, there’s plenty to go around. Insurance companies making record profits, lawyers pushing huge malpractice amounts in lawsuits, and ordinary citizens for awarding huge amounts while on juries.

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