There is a serious flaw in medical malpractice litigation, and it is not what you may think. My post about a hypothetical medical malpractice case is not hypothetical but emblematic of the flaw. Medical staff at a major hospital in Washington, DC, did depart from applicable standards of care regarding limb salvage. The patient is actually a 78-year-old family member who suffers septic shock and a left above-the-knee amputation. There …
In my research on the case selection criteria used by plaintiff medical malpractice attorneys, one very prominent plaintiff attorney in Maryland spills the beans. He proudly proclaims, “We, who are plaintiff attorneys, take on medical malpractice caused by doctors, but we only accept 1 out of every 37.5 cases we review.” This is done unselfishly and without appreciation.
Seen another way, 87,000 medical malpractice cases are filed every year in the …
In Gerald Green’s The Last Angry Man, Dr. Samuel Abelman is a general practitioner in the twilight of a career that spans fifty years of commitment to patients.
The time is the 1950s, and the place is Brooklyn, NY. The problem is the proliferation of medical specialties.
Although most of his colleagues regard specialization as a greater good because it promises better-trained physicians, Dr. Abelman sees specialization as antithetical to his …
Byrom vs. Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, a lawsuit tried in Maryland in July 2019, is this infamous case. It concerns the failure to perform a cesarean section and brain damage in a 25-week-old infant. It resulted in the largest malpractice verdict ever recorded in the United States, $229 million.
After the trial, a spokesperson for Johns Hopkins revealed that the discussion of some facts during the trial was limited by …
A patient presents to the emergency room of a major local hospital with ulcers on the heels of both feet. The patient is more than 40 years old, smokes, and has hypertension but is not a diabetic.
It is determined that the patient has peripheral artery disease. The patient is admitted to Dr. X’s service. Dr. X is a vascular surgeon with a special interest in endovascular devices for peripheral artery …
In the English Rule, the losing party in a lawsuit pays all legal costs. It is accepted worldwide; however, in the United States, it was replaced by the American Rule. In the American Rule, both the plaintiff and defendant in a lawsuit pay their own legal costs. Of course, there are exceptions.
In theory, the American Rule encourages meritorious lawsuits and discourages frivolous and even malicious ones. It is noteworthy that, …
In recent years, malpractice attorneys have intensified their efforts to target physicians, becoming more aggressive in their pursuit of legal action. This relentless pursuit can be likened to Captain Ahab’s relentless quest for the white whale in the famous novel Moby Dick. The landscape has become increasingly challenging for physicians, as recent tort reform legislation in numerous states is rolling back the protections they once enjoyed. This unsettling trend underscores …
The first book I ever read was The Last Angry Man. I could never have imagined then how it would influence me now.
It is about a fictional character, Dr. Samuel Abelman. He is a general practitioner practicing in New York City during the 1950s. He is in the twilight of a career that spans fifty years of commitment to the Hippocratic Oath.
In the 1950s, the emerging professional trend is specialization. …
Today, the conventional rules that medical experts use to evaluate the merits of a malpractice lawsuit are established by attorneys, not doctors. These rules are based on inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning is acceptable except for one thing; it forgives threats to validity. Although the premises are true, the conclusions are influenced by bias. The rules are as follows:
There are four categories of evidence:
…
When you are sued for medical malpractice, your malpractice carrier establishes your duties to it, and your lawyer establishes your duties to him or her. Let me be clear – when you are sued for medical malpractice, you have no greater duty than to yourself. A duty is a commitment or an expectation on you to perform properly in accordance with certain circumstances. A duty may arise from a system …
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!
Our guest, Scott Ellner, a general surgeon, shares insights and real-life stories that shed light on the challenges health care providers face when financial incentives clash with patient-centered care. We’ll explore the impact of wasteful spending, the …
ADVERTISEMENT
In a world of 24/7 news coverage often highlighting high-verdict medical malpractice cases, few physicians know about thousands of complaints that undergo review by state medical boards each year. Most complaints are filed by patients and/or family members, malpractice payment reports by insurance companies, and actions by other state medical boards. In North Carolina, where I practice, nearly 3,000 complaints were filed in 2021, 1,835 of which were filed …
I am an OB/GYN and no stranger to malpractice litigation. As beleaguered as you may feel when you are sued for medical malpractice, the next hurdle to conquer after you are served is when you realize that your own attorney is prepared to throw you under the bus.
You do not deserve this. Whether a complication is an error of nature or a medical error, a complication always precedes a lawsuit. …
I want to preface this story by stating that Sarah has given written authorization to share her story, allowing my colleague and me to transform a challenging experience into a valuable lesson in the inevitability of mistakes and the profound capacity for forgiveness and growth.
Ten years ago, I was approached by a distressed physician and colleague who had unintentionally harmed a patient during the course of an elective colon operation. …
There has always been a “fight club” because there have always been medical malpractice lawsuits. They are predicated on complications, either errors of nature or medical errors, and no doctor is immune. In the United States, roughly 85,000 medical malpractice lawsuits are filed per year, and there are 1 million doctors. For any doctor, the background risk for a medical malpractice lawsuit is 8.5% per year.
Are these statistics acceptable to …
There is no shortage of the problems that plague health care. Even so, health law gurus make problems worse by creating the medical liability litigation industry. Gurus deny creating this industry. They create health reforms and tort reforms to solve problems. That explains the Affordable Care Act, 100 tort reforms, the medical liability litigation industry, and difficulties.
Have you …
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
