Some realities of malpractice limits....Texas

[AnnInLa]

In Brownsville, Texas, Jose Cantu has been seeking an attorney since his wife died after routine surgery to open a blocked artery in her leg.

Last year, Texas voters approved Proposition 12, which limited to $250,000 the amount defendants of medical malpractice lawsuits would have to pay for non-economic damages. Since then, doctors report they've enjoyed lower malpractice insurance premiums but consumers find no improved access to health care and fewer options if they suffer a medical injury, said Dan Lambe, executive director of Texas Watch, an Austin-based nonprofit group.

After Cantu left his wife's side for a few hours the night of her surgery, a nurse ignored his daughter’s plea for help when she noticed her mother’s heart rate slowing, Cantu said. Other health workers ignored her circulation problems and bed sores and treated her poorly, he said.

Attorneys have told Cantu that with the $250,000 limit, they can't afford to try the case, the Brownsville Herald reported. Malpractice cases are among the most expensive to try. Expert witnesses alone can cost more than $150,000.

For more on what we can expect: www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/malpractice_limits.html

[iamjoy]

1. It Makes Me Sad...

and what some people don't realize is how hard it can sometimes be to measure economic damages. Not in the case of a death, but in the case of catastrophic injury. And sometimes, the only thing that prompts a change in procedures is when companies, etc are held accountable. What about the surgeon who was supposed to insert a metal rod in some man's spine, forgot the apparatus and used a screwdriver instead. Oh, whoops, that's it?

To an extent I feel bad for medical providers (doctors, nurses, etc) Obstetrics and Nuerosurgery are high risk practices. Another part of me thinks doctors should have done a better job of policing their own.

I also worry that these limits on medical liability could extend to products. What was DICK Cheney saying about how this factory couldn't hire as many people because of their liability insurance? So that will be next. And of course, Republicans don't believe the government should interfere with the way companies do business, so do you think they would make sure products are safe? And then companies like Sta-Rite drain covers will have even less incentive to make sure their products are safe because they aren't really accountable when dozens of people are injured or killed because they were lazy or sloppy or worse, CHEAP.

Anyway, whatever happened to free market principles?

[stevebreeze]

2. free markets are only for the common folk. corporations need

government protection.

[iamjoy]

3. Thank You For Clarifying That

I mean, I forgot, the Republican party who had one of its foundation members once speak of a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" now wants a goverment "of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations"