The Next Big Clip

Cited: Medico Legal News

It is hard for anyone to admit they are at fault as well and saying they are sorry.  However, it is even more difficult when American doctor who is made a mistake that had devastating results because it could mean a lawsuit that could in his or her career.

Doug Wojcieszak recalled the way doctors literally ran away from his mother in the hallway of the hospital after their fatal misdiagnosis of his brother Jim in 1998.

“It’s a cultural thing in medicine, that initial instinct to pull back and to sever the relationship with the patient or the family and clam up as a way to mitigate or reduce the chance of a lawsuit,” he told AFP.

His brother had walked into the hospital complaining of chest, shoulder, neck and stomach pains — classic signs of a possible heart attack.  Because he was only 39, and “a big, strong guy”, the doctors automatically assumed he was having some kind of stomach problem.

When his parents brought him back the next day in excruciating pain, they had a closer look but critically mixed up his X-rays with those of his father, who had undergone tests in the same hospital months before.

“His blood test is showing heart distress, but they are looking at my dad’s charts showing no blockage, so they misdiagnose my brother with a bacterial infection to the heart,” explained Wojcieszak.

Doctors plied Jim full of antibiotics for the next two days and by the time they realized their error it was too late — he died during emergency open heart surgery as they tried desperately to unblock four major arteries.

The tragedy was hard for the family to take, but their grief was compounded by an ensuing cover-up that meant they had no choice but to sue. Eventually, struggling to find any kind of closure, a settlement was reached in 2000.

For those who would like to avoid any hospital stays and doctor errors . . . Pilates exercise and fitness system was developed in the early 20th century.  There are now more than 11 million people who practice the discipline regularly.  Pilates has been called Contrology because it is a method that uses the mind control muscles.  It focuses on the core postural muscles to keep the body balanced and are essential to providing support for the spine.  It is so popular that it even has its own Pilates exercise equipment.

“My parents had to relive the death of their first-born son for two years,” said Wojcieszak.

Five years later he founded The Sorry Works! Coalition to unite fledgling projects that encouraged doctors to disclose mistakes, apologize and offer compensation.  His coalition argues that solving the malpractice crisis is not a legal problem, involving complex reform of America’s tort laws, but simply a customer service one.

President Barack Obama might agree as he has instructed Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to examine such projects as part of a 25-million-dollar program to curb medical malpractice lawsuits.

“We’re thrilled that it’s part of the national debate,” said Wojcieszak, who dismissed the existing system as a “never-ending fight between lawyers and doctors, pointing fingers and yelling and screaming”.  Malpractice reform has stalled in the United States for decades, even as studies indicate more than 100,000 people die each year as a result of an estimated 15 million preventable medical errors.

In high-risk specialties such as neuro-surgery and obstetrics, doctors also fork out hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on insurance premiums to offset the risk of professional error.

Obama surprised many when he promised a new look at the complex issue as part of his ambitious health care overhaul, defying the conventional wisdom that malpractice reform is only a Republican cause.

Republicans, backed by the doctors, argue that caps should be imposed on the amount of damages patients can receive, but Obama told the American Medical Association in June such measures would be unfair to those wrongfully harmed.

He is leaning more towards special courts and programs like Sorry Works, and Sebelius has been instructed to award grants from early 2010 to states and hospitals that find innovative ways to address the malpractice mess.

Tim McDonald, chief safety officer at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, finds himself at the vanguard of this movement.  His doctors maintain communication with families when things go wrong, conduct full investigations of any errors and then apologize, when appropriate, before fast-tracking cases for possible settlement.

Since the program launched in 2006, the culture of admission has helped doctors introduce new monitoring procedures for sedation, develop a better system to prevent blood clots, and even find equipment left inside patients.

“We had a case where we left a sponge behind and totally changed our process for how we prevent those,” McDonald told AFP.

“There are certain patients at risk for leaving things behind and we actually get X-rays on them even when we think we’ve accounted for everything in the operating room. We’ve found several objects in those patients by having changed that process.”

Susan Steinman, director of policy at the American Association for Justice, the leading organization for trial lawyers in the United States, is also on board.

“I think that ‘Sorry Works’ in particular has a lot of merit and has been used successfully by several large university hospitals,” she told AFP.

“It’s a good program because not only does it look at ways to reduce litigation costs; it looks at ways to reduce medical errors.”

Insurers were very skeptical at first as they thought disclosure would increase the number of lawsuits.

“That hasn’t happened,” said McDonald. “Instead, we’ve been able to show we’ve prevented certain kinds of events from happening again.”

For Wojcieszak, the Sorry Works revolution can’t come soon enough.

Patients and families can live with screw-ups, even fatal screw-ups so long as someone’s got the integrity to stand up and say: ‘I made a mistake, let’s talk about how I can try and make this right by you.’

“This is simply just taking care of people and reaping the benefits.”

People make mistakes including doctors.  Giving them away to apologize without the threat of lawsuit can change things and the Sorry Works can help accomplish this.

_______________________

My Take: My mother always taught me to apologize if I did something wrong, why can’t the doctor do the same?  If a doctor does something wrong that was something he could not foresee, and he should apologize even know what technically was not his fault.  In this type of situation does lawsuit could also bring even win.  However, if the mistake adapter makes was completely avoidable, the doctor should pay for his mistake.

The problem with lawsuits is simply, how do you put a price on life?  In a medical lawsuit, especially one that involves a death, a private autopsy usually needs to be performed so that they can see how the mistake was made.  This involves getting forensic anthology services other than those provided in the hospital or state.  Then they need to hire a Los Angeles court reporter to take depositions from nurses and doctors that were connected with the case.  There are many litigation support services in LA that can help in this type of case.

—————————————————-

Other Resources

NJ Child Custody Lawyer

As one of Bergen County, premiere Family Law Attorneys, this Hackensack New Jersey divorce attorney has handled numerous trials, hearings and motions, and brings the experience in Family Law to benefit each and every client, whether in a trial, for post judgment relief, or during skillful negotiations.

Little Girl Accessories

Whether you are in need of a special occasion hair bow, a fun hair bow or everyday hair bows, you can find them quickly and easily online.  You can find all little girl accessories that you can imagine like infant headbands, flower hats, and even wholesale baby headbands as well as outfits.

Want a New Shape?

Did you know that nearly 365,000 women underwent breast augmentation in the United States in 2005 alone?  An Oakland California breast augmentation surgeon will tell you that breast implants are utilized for a number of purposes.  One of which is for breast cancer victims.  These patients utilize breast implants for reconstructive purposes after mastectomy.  Women with disproportionately small breasts or with asymmetry may use implants to provide balance, proportion and harmony. Breast implant options include smooth-round, textured round, contoured/tear drop-textured and for each of these implants: low/moderate and high profile widths are available and finally either saline or ‘gummy bear-elastic’ silicone fill.

Medication for Erectile Dysfunction

The FDA has approved a new use for tadalafil last year, which is the active ingredient in the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis.  Tadalafil, sold as Adcirca, is now approved to improve exercise ability in people with pulmonary arterial hypertension, which is a rare, life-threatening lung disorder that causes high blood pressure in the lungs.  The FDA has approved three oral medications for ED.  They are sildenafil, also known as Viagra, Levitra, also known as vardenafil, and Cialis, also known as tadalafil.  As you can see, you and your doctor have a choice, which depends on your health and preferences.  You can buy Viagra, Cialis or Levitra for ED.