Ceasar33 said:
Well Kimberly, I'm sorry for any personal misfortune that may have occured to you, but it is blame Doctor's for misdiagnosis after the fact.
1. Reading chest xrays or other films is very subjective. Pneumonia's are diagnosed on Chest xrays by identifying consolidating areas of lung. A new pneumonia WILL not always be present on initial chest xrays. The MD who on the third day is saying the previous 2 xrays showed the pneumonia is likely full of crap and practicing his own form of CYA (cover your ass). It is very easy to look back at previous films once you have a clear picture and second guess the readings from the last few days. You have an inherent bias in rereading films.
2. Are you really sure the medicine was the cause. Kinda hard to make a definite comment on this not knowing the actual medicine. People have this general thought that a new medicine or change of medicine is to blame or to cheer a change in any condition. For instance, i can't tell you how many calls i get for people blaming every thing undert the sun on a recent immunization. When in fact, immunizations RARELY have any side effect beyond pain in the area of injection (duh) or a slight fever. Yet, ppl continuosly blame constipation, swelling in their big toe, or w/e on those shots.
If your Grandmother broke her hip, she is in bad shape and is likely gonna be in bad shape no matter what care is provided for her. As peregrine mentioned earlier, Morbidity and Mortality for hip fractures in elderly is terrible.
3. I agree with peregrine about this. That many injuries screams congenital defect. It also follows the malpractice patterns of OB/GYN in that those doctors get sued for BAD OUTCOMES and not necessarily mistakes. People see a dead baby and they immediately think it has to be OB's fault. Why is that? Women are pregnant for 40 weeks, yet any problem with the baby OBVIOUSLY happens inthe 12-24 hours the baby is delivered in.......
4. LoL at this. An established hospital hired a med school dropout.... So this person isn't even an MD and is reading films. Right......
5. I don't see the mistake in there? How are MDs supposed to treat a patient in which the coroner/pathologist are unable to get a cause of death from a tissue diagnosis? Unexplained deaths happen all the time, once again this is a case of people being upset over a BAD OUTCOME v. a medical mistake.
Also, someone mentioned about how Dr.s are paid so well or w/e. Go to hell.
I've earned every right to my salary through 8 years of hard work in college and med school. In addition, right now, being a resident physician I make the equivalent of 8-10 bucks an hour for my 75-80 hr work week. I make hard decisions that carry huge financial liability every day. I make a mistake and you guys have your shark attorneys lining up outside my door the next day. I'll deserve my nice income in a few years and won't ever apologize for it.
I generally agree with your post.
But, I have to object to your characterization of "shark attorneys".
I do not personally handle medical malpractice cases. I do, however, take initial consultations and make referrals to attorneys who handle medical malpractice. I have talked to around 50 people with med mal complaints. Out of those 50 I have rejected 45. Out of the 5 I referred, the med mal attorney only accepted 1.
Attorneys generally do a very good job of weeding out the "bad outcome" cases from the actual malpractice cases. Bad cases that aren't weeded out by the attorneys are usually dismissed by the court or lost to the jury. Med mal attorneys generally have a low success rate.
There are some bad attorneys who file frivolous lawsuits. Unlike MDs, attorneys are not guaranteed a decent salary for our 7 years of hard work. Our profession is financially risky and we have to fight for every penny. My collection rate for privately retained cases is somewhere around 30%. These factors lead some unscrupulous attorneys to file frivolous suits hoping for a nuisance settlement, but they are a lot less common than doctors think and would have you believe.
I'm NOT saying doctors are over paid. I actually think they should make more than they do. I'm just saying it's a lot easier to collect your fee when it's usually an insurance company paying your bill.
There are also some bad doctors who slip through the cracks. Malpractice actually does happen occasionally, due to bad doctors, poor hospital policy established by non-M.D. administrators, over-worked staff, or any number of factors.
The one case I referred out was a mis-diagnosed brain tumor. I looked at the film and spotted the tumor very quickly. I'm not a doctor (and I do not play one on T.V.). The only relevant experience I had was one semester after undergrad working with a clinical neuropsychologist, wherein I had to read films from time to time. That radiologist's mistake was unexcusable.
Medical malpractice lawsuits are not designed to punish reasonable decisions made by doctors that unfortunately have a bad outcome. They are designed to compensate and deter future malpractice in cases where doctors actually act carelessly. Attorneys and courts understand that sometimes doctors have to make difficult decisions between courses of treatment. The case is decided on the facts known at the time of the decision/act, not in hindsight.