Ben Carson sued for malpractice at least 6 times

[DesertRat]

Surging presidential candidate Ben Carson was the target of at least six malpractice suits during his career as a neurosurgeon, according to a bombshell report published Wednesday, with one former patient alleging he left a sponge in her brain.

Carson, who practiced pediatric neurosurgery for more than 30 years before retiring in 2013, faced another five suits that all accused him of botching various operations, the National Enquirer reported.

One patient, 27-year-old Karly Bailey, said Carson's brain surgery on her when she was 9 left her paralyzed on her right side.

In yet another suit alleging a surgery gone awry, this one from 1999, a former Carson patient claimed the then-surgeon placed a shunt in her brain "upside down," resulting in severe post-operative pain.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/carson-sued-malpractice-times-surgeon-report-article-1.2388847

[COLGATE4]

1. As much as I strenuously dislike Carson I

don't think that having a few malpractice claims after 30 years doing surgery in a field as complicated and as fraught with imperfect outcomes as pediatric neurosurgery is indicative of anything (expect perhaps of his competence as a surgeon since there are so few suits).

[840high]

3. You get it. It speaks to his competence.

That's actually a very low number for the thousands of surgeries he performed.

[WillowTree]

11. And, according to the article, not all have been settled.

[etherealtruth]

5. Those were my first thoughts ....

I would absolutely hate this guy as president (hate is probably too mild a word). He was, by all accounts, an amazingly talented neurosurgeon.

When there is so much, to attack related to his political beliefs .... why attack this?

[Bucky]

7. Thank you. The last thing we need is Democratic swiftboaters

What would we call them... swiftscalpelers?

That said, I'm starting to like Dr Nutball's presence in the race. He's keeping potential Cruz supporters corralled until after the Donald (or more likely Rubio) can snag the nomination from a more viable candidate.

Jeezus what a cast of characters they assembled this year.

[left on green only]

2. I Think Song Writer/Actor Tom Waits Summed It Up Perfectly When He Said:

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." I think Waits should probably mount a campaign for the presidency. When he speaks, he makes way more sense than Carson does.

[Ex Lurker]

4. You'd be hard pressed to find a surgeon who's never been sued for malpractice

It comes with the territory. Carson was highly competent at what he did. He should have stuck with it instead of going into politics. Someone can be wrong politically without being inept or crazy.

[GGJohn]

6. So what?

Surgeons get sued all the time, this is actually a remarkably low number of lawsuits considering the field of practice he was in.
This is just plain stupid to attack him on his talent as a pediatric neurosurgeon, there's lot's of other things to attack him on.

[Bucky]

8. This thread really highlights a cultural difference between the parties

If a Democratic physician was in the lead for our nomination, Republicans would be hyping "MalpracticeGate" by now, if not sprouting murder lists and "Hospital Truther" websites. When Democrats are faced with an opportunity to slur a Republican, we get a string of posts saying, "There's no smoke here... our opponent is apparently a pretty decent guy in his personal life."

[COLGATE4]

9. The sad part is that this cultural difference only

works to our disadvantage at election time. Still, I'd rather be able to look at myself in the mirror.

[postulater]

10. Here's some facts about surgical malpractice.

"The proportion of physicians facing a claim each year ranged from 19.1% in neurosurgery, 18.9% in thoracic–cardiovascular surgery, and 15.3% in general surgery to 5.2% in family medicine, 3.1% in pediatrics, and 2.6% in psychiatry."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3204310/

I don't know if Carson's rate is unusual for his specialty.

[joeybee12]

12. The problem I have with him is he bcame a paid "expert"

after he retired...made probably hundreds of thousands testifying as an expert witness against the plaintiffs.