Check out the effect out-of-control malpractice costs and trial lawyers are having on neurosurgeons.
Jim Masterson said his wife was left untreated for five hours and eventually died while doctors searched for an out-of-county physician who'd operate. Not a single local neurosurgeon would come in, Masterson said.The trial lawyers must see the big bucks slipping through their fingers, because they've got another theory."If you have a stroke in this part of the country then you're in deep trouble because the doctors won't see you," Masterson said.
Some neurosurgeons (search) aren't disputing his claim, saying they can't afford malpractice insurance and are afraid of being wiped out by lawsuits, so they reduce their risks by refusing emergency patients.
But some trial lawyers say there is no malpractice crisis and that patients are dying because doctors are playing the blame game instead of doing their job.Ah, right. Doctors go to school for decades and take out loans to pay for it because they don't want to perform surgery. It's malpractice if they screw up, and now the lawyers want it to be malpractice if they refuse to operate for fear of a lawsuit. Gee, do you think Mr. Kurzban has any ulterior motive other than the public health? Nah."I think its criminal," said trial attorney Marvin Kurzban. "I think its dereliction of duty. I think that's malpractice also."
It's getting really bad in some parts of the country, especially for Obstetrics. In our town, which has one of the highest pregnancy rates in our state, every OB's office is packed, you can hardly get an appointment any more even if you're an established patient. Nobody wants to go into business here as an OB because of the malpractice insurance. And there are places where women can't find a doctor at all to deliver their baby. I hope those sue-happy creeps and their lawyers who encourage them to sue over stupid stuff like shoulder distocia are pleased with their work. May they all have their next babies unmedicated and at home because they could not find a doctor.
And the trial lawyers will again legislate by lawsuit. All they will need is one dumb judge and jury to buy that theory that any doctor who refused to treat is guilty of malpractice, and the doctors will become de facto government employees.
More like slaves.
There's a ready made term for mandatory performance of your duties. It's called indentured servitude.
To Wacky Hermit
I would like to know what your experience with shoulder dystocia is that you could call it a "stupid" thing. Are you a doctor or a relative of a doctor who was sued for this sort of thing? Have you sat on a jury in a malpractice case involving shoulder dystocia?
One of the effects of ill-resolved shoulder dystocia is a permanent brachial plexus injury. Do you know that it takes 1000 pounds of force to pull a nerve root from the spinal cord? (My son had all 5 nerves of the brachial plexus pulled from the spinal cord.) Do you really believe that kind of force comes from uterine contractions? It is caused by excessive lateral force on the babies head during delivery.
The injuries can range in severity, but they are almost always preventable. This injury is statistically on the rise with an occurrence rate of 2-5 out of every 1000 live births. (The reason for the range is that there are no state regulations in how this injury gets reported or if it even gets reported). That is 2X the occurrence of Down's syndrome and nearly 3X the occurrence of cerebral palsy.
My son has suffered every day of his life for the last 5 years (and will for the rest of his life)because of the negligence of doctors in recognizing the signs of impending shoulder dystocia and then panicking and failing to effectively and safely resolve the shoulder dystocia. My son must live with a permanent (and severe) injury that involves no function or sensation from his shoulder to his fingertips. He has undergone 5 surgeries attempting to restore even a trace of function taken from him.
What I feel is "stupid" is that there are doctors who are allowed to injure multiple children over a course of 5 years. It's not like childbirth is a new phenomenon. Perhaps the medical community should censor their own and "weed out" those who are causing the malpractice insurance premiums to rise.