Not So Frivolous
By BOB HERBERT
Published: June 18, 2004, New York Times
ALLIANCE, Ohio
President Bush traveled to Youngstown, Ohio, a few weeks ago to talk about health care, and before long he was reprising his complaint about "junk and frivolous" malpractice suits, which he said are discouraging good doctors from practicing medicine.
As he often does, the president called for reforms to make it more difficult for patients to seek compensation and to restrict the amount of damages that could be paid to those who prove they have been harmed.
To bolster his argument Mr. Bush introduced a local doctor, Compton Girdharry, to an audience at Youngstown State University. Dr. Girdharry, an obstetrician/gynecologist, said he had been driven from a practice of 21 years by the high cost of malpractice insurance. The president praised Dr. Girdharry and thanked him for his "compassion."
If Mr. Bush was looking for an example of a doctor who was victimized by frivolous lawsuits, Dr. Girdharry was not a great choice. Since the early 1990's, he has settled lawsuits and agreed to the payment of damages in a number of malpractice cases in which patients suffered horrible injuries.
"It's been four years since my son passed away, and I don't feel any stronger or any happier than the day I lost him," said Lisa Vitale, whose suit against Dr. Girdharry and a hospital was settled out of court.
During an interview in her home in Alliance, Ms. Vitale said she went into Alliance Community Hospital on the morning of Aug. 17, 1993, for the delivery of her second child.
Her first delivery had been by Caesarean section, but Ms. Vitale said she was told that a vaginal delivery this time would not be a problem. While she was in the delivery room, however, the fetal monitoring strip was not properly checked and, she said, she was left alone and in pain for long periods. Dr. Girdharry stopped by around 6 p.m. and then went to dinner. No one noticed that the baby was in serious distress.
Dr. Girdharry blamed the ensuing tragedy on the nurse. Ms. Vitale, he told me, "was being monitored by a nurse who was what they call a casual part-time nurse, who was not very well trained in reading fetal monitor strips."
By the time he was called back from dinner, he said, it was "too late"
to take the steps, including a Caesarean delivery, that might have prevented
permanent injury.
The baby was born with severe brain damage. He was unable to even drink from a bottle. He lived six years and four months, requiring nursing care the entire time.
Judy Mays, another patient of Dr. Girdharry, delivered a son by Caesarean section on March 26, 1999. The baby was fine. But, as alleged in a suit filed by Ms. Mays, when the incision was closed, a sponge with a cord and a ring attached to it was left inside.
Ms. Mays said she complained repeatedly to Dr. Girdharry about the pain she experienced, which at times was incapacitating. "When I brought it to the doctor's attention," she said, "he told me, `Well, you just had major surgery. You've got to heal."
After four and a half agonizing months, Ms. Mays felt a bulging growth beneath the skin, "about the size of a grapefruit."
She was petrified, she said, thinking it was a tumor. She said an associate of Dr. Girdharry ordered tests, including a CAT scan. The sponge was spotted, but by that time it had adhered to her internal organs and her intestines were surrounding it.
Dr. Girdharry told me he began operating to remove the sponge but found the damage was worse than he had expected. Another surgeon was called to complete the surgery.
Ms. Mays said she learned after the surgery that part of her large and small intestines had been removed, and that she probably would have died if the sponge had stayed inside her for another month. The surgery, she said, has left her with a variety of permanent ailments.
These are just two of the cases settled by Dr. Girdharry, who told me that his appearance in Youngstown with President Bush was "a dream come true."
Yesterday a White House spokesman said the president had not been aware of the problems in Dr. Girdharry's background. "Had this doctor provided that information," the spokesman said, "he would not have been at that event."
E-mail: bobherb@nytimes.com
June 7th, 2004--Johns Hopkins University Study Finds Pediatric-care Errors are Common in Hospitals
Researchers from Department of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University released a study on June 7th, 2004 finding 51,000 medical errors in the treatment of children in hospitals in just 27 states during the year 2000. The study confirmed that medical errors are a significant problem in the care of children and documented 4,483 unnecessary deaths of children from preventable medical mistakes from the 5.7 million records that they reviewed.
Click here to download the article
April 21st, 2004--Insurance payouts in Pennsylvania DROPPED from 2001-2003
An article in the online edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer provides additional evidence that the med mal "crisis" is over. According to the National Practitioner Database, insurance payouts in Pennsylvania fell from $424 million in 2001 to $394.5 million in 2003. Despite this 7% drop in payouts, the Inquirer reports that Medical Protective Co. increased its premiums by 15% in 2003 and 45% in 2002.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/8485563.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
April 19th, 2004--Diagnosis of the numbers shows doctors NOT leaving state in droves
A 3-year campaign has demanded caps on malpractice suits and claimed that physicians are going elsewhere. Yet statistics show their ranks here are probably growing. Click here to download the article by John M.R. Bull of The Morning Call
April 15th, 2004-- Public Citizen Study indicates that PA's Board of Medicine is one of the worst oversight agecies in the nation in disciplining its doctors.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/news/s_189395.html
March 5th, 2004--Pennsylvania Doctors Not Facing a Medical Malpractice Insurance Crisis, Public Citizen Report Shows
Lawsuits Not Responsible for Insurance Rate Spike, Malpractice Awards Are Flat or Declining and No Evidence of a Doctor Exodus
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Contrary to claims by the Pennsylvania Medical Society and its allies in the state legislature, physicians in Pennsylvania are not facing a "crisis" in medical malpractice insurance rates caused by a rash of patient lawsuits and skyrocketing jury awards, according to a Public Citizen report released today.
Click here to download press release (pdf format).
Click here to download full report (pdf format).
Click here to download executive summary report (pdf format)
February 19, 2004--Tragic Evidence That Caps Aren’t the Answer
Delaware County Daily Times, Editorial
To stem the outrageous costs of liability insurance, the government should impose caps on the amount of damages juries can award in cases of negligence.
That’s the argument frequently heard these days during discussions of the medical –malpractice crisis. It’s been made before during other debates on the so-called “tort reform.” And it sounds just fine. Until it collides with cold reality.
Meet Natalie Robley. In January 1998, the New Jersey woman was a 27-year-ld with bright plans for the future. She was to be married that summer. The invitations had already been mailed. She was driving to the Upper Darby home of her maid of honor – they planned to go shopping for a wedding veil – when tragedy struck.
Natalie was in a two-car collision at Church and Long Lanes and Pembroke Avenue in East Lansdowne. She was left a quadriplegic and doctors said she would never walk again. Her wedding was called off and she was left facing a lifetime of pain, medical treatments and bills.
The intersection where the crash occurred had long been a source of concern for local officials. Dating to the 1970’s, East Lansdowne Borough Manager Marius Russo admitted, official were asking Penn DOT for some kind of traffic controls at the site. PennDOT refused. Two months after the day that changed Natalie’s life, the state agency relented. But it still took until March 2002 to install a traffic light at the intersection.
By then, Natalie Robley had filed a lawsuit. Her case came to trial this month in Delaware County Common Please Court. At its end, jurors found PennDOT 50 percent responsible for the accident, and East Lansdowne 3 percent responsible. The driver of the car in which Natalie was riding, who had no insurance, was judged 32 percent responsible an the driver of the other car, who had minimal insurance, 15 percent.
The jury awarded $38.2 million in damages, the largest of its kind in Delaware County history. Juror determined that amount was justified to cover future medical costs, lost wages, emotional distress, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life and pain and suffering.
What jurors didn’t know is that Pennsylvania has a “sovereign immunity” law that caps damage awards against state agencies and municipalities. Because of that law, Robley and her parents who care for her will collect only $250,000 from PennDOT and $500,000 from the borough of East Lansdowne – barring appeals (and East Lansdowne, at least, plans to file one).
That capped amount, minus legal costs and other fees, won’t cover a month of Natalie’s medical expenses.
“This is just a measly amount of money that is not going to help me at all,” Natalie said. “What I’m trying to do is bring it to the attention of people that when you travel through Pennsylvania, you never know what can happen, and if something does happen and there’s a problem, the state and the borough won’t have to pay out the amount of money needed to take care of you.”
“I want to live just like anyone else, and they have taken that away from me.”
When it comes to the negligent actions by states and municipalities, then, injured citizens have little hope of redress. Do we want to extend that freedom from liability to the medical profession, as well?
When someone suggests caps as the solution for the ills of the legal system, just think of Natalie Robley. And remember that sometimes the cure is deadlier than the disease.
Oct. 1, 2003, the Commonweal Institute issued a report: "The Attack on Tort Law and Trial Lawyers,"
This report outlines the vast and systematic efforts over the past 30 years by the right to undermine our civil justice system. This is a MUST READ for everyone fighting tort reform. Click here to download the report.
August 5th, 2001--A popular surgery, a young life lost.
The Philadelphia Enquirer.
Click here to download a Special Report on Amy Fledderman, a college freshman who died from complications after having liposuction.
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