Medical Malpractice: Fear has its Price

Miami, FLThey're only human, after all. And like us, medical practitioners can have a bad day. A sleepless night, trouble with the kids, a bitter divorce. However, when someone in the medical community has a bad day, for whatever reason, it's often the patient that pays for it, in what is sometimes a lifelong struggle. And that could mean medical malpractice.

Most people know someone in the medical community -- a doctor, a nurse, a surgeon giving years of their lives in pursuit of a licence to practise medicine. An honourable profession, and one which attracts some very special people whom, most would suggest, are compensated more than adequately for their skills and their sacrifice.

The problem: unlike a mechanic that botches the repair job on the car, or a roofer that attaches the shingles improperly, doctors and nurses and hospitals deal in lives - living, breathing tissue. And unlike the car, or the roof, sometimes when living tissue is compromised, it can't be fixed.

We like to think that we don't live in an overly litigious society. Sometimes things happen. A surgical sponge is inadvertently left behind in the abdominal cavity, but quickly reclaimed after inventory is double-checked.

Things happen...

Tell that to 23-year-old Brock Higham. He underwent surgery in 2002 for a minor wrist injury. He came out of it with a speech disorder and tremors he didn't go in with. His attorneys allege negligence by the nursing staff involved in his case at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Centre. The trial is currently underway.

The parents of a baby born with severe brain damage at Carlisle Hospital in Pennsylvania in 1999 wouldn't have much cared about the reason behind the midwife's failure to recognize obvious signs of fetal distress during labour. And they would much rather have their son, who would be a bouncing boy of eight today, rather than a grave marker and the U.S. $2.7 million dollar award handed down in April.

A class-action lawsuit filed against Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Centre, alleging that one of its' cardiologists performed a host of unnecessary procedures, has been partially settled with an agreement by Lafayette General Hospital, where the cardiologist also practised, to pay out U.S. $7.4 million dollars to settle its part of the class action lawsuit. While the award means, on average, U.S. $12,000 per each patient affected, the cardiologist still faces 94 criminal counts involving 78 patients.

It's not about the money. The issue, in reality, is responsibility. Standing behind one's work, and being accountable.

And it's not easy being a doctor today. Malpractice insurance premiums have jumped dramatically since the beginning of the decade, and while levels are beginning to moderate according to sources in the industry, a stabilization in rates is dependant upon significant reforms in the delivery of medical care that increases the focus on patient safety.

While incidents of medical practitioners denying a patient proper care over fears of reprisal are extremely rare, it is not without precedent.

In 2005, a woman was rushed to a Palm Beach County hospital in southern Florida after suffering a serious stroke. On the brink of death, she lingered in the hospital for five hours and eventually died. The reason, according to her husband, was that the hospital could not locate a neurosurgeon from outside the county. No one from the immediate area would consent to treat the woman, a fact not undisputed by some surgeons at the time, who feared malpractice litigation and the higher premiums -- high enough already -- which could wipe them out financially.

It's a vicious cycle that has seen some insurers get out of the malpractice business altogether, their profits negated by rising settlement awards. Those that remain are charging higher premiums. The situation only serves to further stress a health care system already pushed to the max. Doctors and surgeons retire with little hope to fully replace themselves with new blood, if fewer people are willing to accept the risk and join the ranks.

That leaves everyone working harder -- some tirelessly, some working tired -- in an effort to meet the need. That's an environment, some say, that's ripe for errors to occur.
There will always be the odd bad apple that tries to take advantage of the system, or tries to get by with a sloppy work ethic. By and large, however, most are trying to uphold their Hippocratic oath, and get through to the end of their careers in one financial piece, without a lawsuit.

And yet with no end in sight, it's a situation that might, ironically, be settled in the courts.