The New York Times provides editorial comment on its article on medical malpractice reform. Everyone wants to have "no fault" medical malpractice claims. Setting aside that it is just not a fair system, no one every bothers to provide numbers on what it would cost. The answer: a lot more than our current system.
Recently in Legal News Category
According to ABC News, an doctor representing the AMA told President Obama that one reason doctors order so many unnecessary tests is because they fear malpractice lawsuits and are practicing "defensive medicine." The doctor asked the president if medical malpractice reform would be part of the solution; the president said he'd keep an open mind. The article notes the obvious: Democrats are in control and have historically opposed such efforts.
Still, this kind of talk - linking health care reform to malpractice tort reform - would impact not just Maryland malpractice lawsuits but the entire country.
The Cumberland Times-News in Maryland reports on a breach of contract lawsuit filed against a obstetrician and gynecologist at Tri-State
Community Health Center's women's center in Memorial Hospital who was fired n November. The doctor claims he was hired to fill a need and agreed to work for "the busiest OB practice in town." The doctor had complained that theobstetrician and gynecologist who ran the practice saw all of the patients leaving few for the plaintiff, according to the lawsuit.
One point of contention in the lawsuit: did the doctor lie to his new employer about whether he has even been the subject of a Maryland medical malpractice lawsuit? The letter that fired the doctor claimed that while the doctor indicated that he had never been the subject of a medical malpractice claim
"when, in fact, a legal action was commenced against [the doctor] on June 6, 2008." Apparently, the malpractice lawsuit was dropped and never even served on the doctor.
The blog post is hard to write because I would prefer just to name the doctors by name which makes for an easier read. But my preference is not to name people by name just because they filed a lawsuit. I would like my clients - and the doctors they for malpractice - to be afforded the same courtesy.
A Baltimore County found no negligence in a surgical malpractice lawsuit brought by a 72 year old man who had a perforated bowel during a colonoscopy. Perforations were found where the three polyps had been removed.
The surgeon told the Baltimore County jury this was his first perforation in 12,000 procedures and he did everything he could to reduce the risk of perforation. His malpractice lawyer argued that the Plaintiff's bowel preparation had been negligent.
I obviously can't speak to the merits of this case. But it is extremely difficult to get a recovery in a case where the alleged victim died of unrelated causes before the trial. Because claiming damages for someone else's medical bills and pain and suffering when the died for a reason completely unrelated to the negligence does not engender sympathy.