The truth about Malpractice insurance

[Dispatcher]

The REAL reason medical malpractice insurance is so high is because....there's so much malpractice.
Some people (with an agenda) would have you believe that's it's because juries award such large sums of money to victims.
My wife and myself have been the victims of malpractice many times.
We have never sued (maybe we should have).

Exhibit A: In 1990, I was admitted to the hospital with a serious lung infection. They gave me oxygen, antibiotics, and Prenisone....the latter drug was given to me to keep my immune system going because I am hypo adrenal.
I had taken Cortisone for years, and Prenisone is supposed to be the same thing, only man made. Only, to me, it isn't.
Within hours I felt like I had drank 4 pots of coffee, couldn't sleep, and I was going into a deep depression. Then came delusions, paranoia, and I was slipping into a psychosis.
It's called "Steroid Induced Psychosis", although I didn't know that at the time. Apparently, neither did the hospital staff.
I have no history of mental illness, but within days, I was crazy as a loon.
I thought the doctors and nurses were plotting to kill me, and I even made an escape attempt, but I was caught and put in restraints to the point I couldn't move at all. I was like this for days; never turned, and I developed huge bedsores on my back and buttocks.
Meanwhile, my brother (who knew I wasn't crazy when I entered the hospital) tried to figure out why I had gone from sane to froot loop in a manner of 48 hours. First, he had to convince me I WAS in fact crazy.
I had not eaten or drank anything for days because I was sure the food and water had been poisoned. So he ate my food and drank my water and convinced me I was nutty as a fruitcake. Once we were on the same page, we began trying to figure out just WHY I was crazy. On his advice, I started refusing medications one at a time. I first refused the Prenisone.
Just 24 hours later, I was back to my old sane self.
The thing that really alarms me is that the neither the doctor nor the nurses could figure it out...or even tried to. My doctor just told my brother to start looking for a mental institution to put me in.

Exhibit B: In 2004, my wife had just had knee replacement surgery. The nurse
had hooked her up to a pump that delivered pain medication whenever my wife pushed a button on a control. When I came in the room later, I found my wife in agony...the nurse had left the control on top of the pump where my wife couldn't possibly reach it.
Next day, I found my wife in agony once again. They had unplugged he pump in order to take her to physical therapy, but when she was brought back, they never plugged the pump back in and the battery died within a half hour.

Believe it or not, I could list at least 6 more examples of malpractice that have happened in my family. And that's just one family. And it's only going to get worse.

[7960]

Originally Posted by Dispatcher

The REAL reason medical malpractice insurance is so high is because....there's so much malpractice.
Some people (with an agenda) would have you believe that's it's because juries award such large sums of money to victims.
My wife and myself have been the victims of malpractice many times.
We have never sued (maybe we should have).

Exhibit A: In 1990, I was admitted to the hospital with a serious lung infection. They gave me oxygen, antibiotics, and Prenisone....the latter drug was given to me to keep my immune system going because I am hypo adrenal.
I had taken Cortisone for years, and Prenisone is supposed to be the same thing, only man made. Only, to me, it isn't.
Within hours I felt like I had drank 4 pots of coffee, couldn't sleep, and I was going into a deep depression. Then came delusions, paranoia, and I was slipping into a psychosis.
It's called "Steroid Induced Psychosis", although I didn't know that at the time. Apparently, neither did the hospital staff.
I have no history of mental illness, but within days, I was crazy as a loon.
I thought the doctors and nurses were plotting to kill me, and I even made an escape attempt, but I was caught and put in restraints to the point I couldn't move at all. I was like this for days; never turned, and I developed huge bedsores on my back and buttocks.
Meanwhile, my brother (who knew I wasn't crazy when I entered the hospital) tried to figure out why I had gone from sane to froot loop in a manner of 48 hours. First, he had to convince me I WAS in fact crazy.
I had not eaten or drank anything for days because I was sure the food and water had been poisoned. So he ate my food and drank my water and convinced me I was nutty as a fruitcake. Once we were on the same page, we began trying to figure out just WHY I was crazy. On his advice, I started refusing medications one at a time. I first refused the Prenisone.
Just 24 hours later, I was back to my old sane self.
The thing that really alarms me is that the neither the doctor nor the nurses could figure it out...or even tried to. My doctor just told my brother to start looking for a mental institution to put me in.

That is pretty bad, but it's malpractice? They should have settled it by giving you some gauze for the sores and $50 for dinner in the hospital cafe.

Exhibit B: In 2004, my wife had just had knee replacement surgery. The nurse
had hooked her up to a pump that delivered pain medication whenever my wife pushed a button on a control. When I came in the room later, I found my wife in agony...the nurse had left the control on top of the pump where my wife couldn't possibly reach it.
Next day, I found my wife in agony once again. They had unplugged he pump in order to take her to physical therapy, but when she was brought back, they never plugged the pump back in and the battery died within a half hour.

This is not malpractice. No wonder you think malpractice is so rampant....would it also be malpractice if she asked for green jello but they brought orange?

Believe it or not, I could list at least 6 more examples of malpractice that have happened in my family. And that's just one family. And it's only going to get worse.

Two thoughts rocket to mind.....

1. the hospital you're going to sucks
2. since only 1 of the 2 above is malpractice I can probably cut your list down to 3 pages pretty quick.

[WickedLou9]

I have a good friend who just had one of his vocal chords paralyzed by doctors when they did some exploratory surgery to check out a mass in his chest. The mass was benign but now he can't speak. shitty.

[A_C_E]

The reason malpractice insurance is so high is because of Americans' love of lawsuits and people like John Edwards trying to get rich by capitalizing on other people's mistakes.

Nothing more, nothing less.

[Dispatcher]

Originally Posted by 7960

That is pretty bad, but it's malpractice? They should have settled it by giving you some gauze for the sores and $50 for dinner in the hospital cafe.

This is not malpractice. No wonder you think malpractice is so rampant....would it also be malpractice if she asked for green jello but they brought orange?


Two thoughts rocket to mind.....

1. the hospital you're going to sucks
2. since only 1 of the 2 above is malpractice I can probably cut your list down to 3 pages pretty quick.

1. Actually, the first example happened in a relatively small town hospital (and yes, it sucks).
The second example happened in a larger city hospital that has a reputation for being once the best hospitals in the region.

2. How do you figure example #2 wasn't malpractice?
True, it doesn't rate with having the wrong limb cut off or a doctor leaving a sponge in someone's gut during surgery, but it's still malpractice.
How would you like to be in extreme pain after surgery because someone forgot to do something they were supposed to do?

[7960]

Originally Posted by Dispatcher

2. How do you figure example #2 wasn't malpractice?
True, it doesn't rate with having the wrong limb cut off or a doctor leaving a sponge in someone's gut during surgery, but it's still malpractice.
How would you like to be in extreme pain after surgery because someone forgot to do something they were supposed to do?

Discomfort is not damage.

[motivez]

Originally Posted by A_C_E

The reason malpractice insurance is so high is because of Americans' love of lawsuits and people like John Edwards trying to get rich by capitalizing on other people's mistakes.

Nothing more, nothing less.

That whole characterization of the issue really negates the suffering felt by people who've had to deal with serious malpractice and deserve big sums..

[A_C_E]

Originally Posted by motivez

That whole characterization of the issue really negates the suffering felt by people who've had to deal with serious malpractice and deserve big sums..

I certainly don't mean to say that a lot of people don't in fact deserve big sums from true malpractice suits.

However, at the same time, it seems tough to me to try and say that America isn't lawsuit-happy, and people like John Edwards are only exacerbating the problem.

Also, another factor is doctors performing unnecessary and risky surgeries to try and rake in more Medicare/insurance money. It happens far, FAR more often than any of you (or really anyone in America) is aware of, unfortunately

[Thorgrim]

Most doctors do not have a malpractice history, most of the rest have a very light history that is not due to serious negligence

However, there is a small section of doctors that have a HIGH rate of malpractice and examples of SERIOUS negligence...they are not barred from practicing medicine and make the insurance pool higher for anyone

(Imagine ten healthy 20 year olds who farm for a living, and they include a 70 year old chain smoking biker with cancer and thirty different meds...gee I wonder why their rates went up?)

Also, insurance companies are less profitable and there was some evidence (no links, so disbelieve at will) that they lost a lot of money in NASDAQ investments and have never made it up

Either way, you look at the cases that made John Edwards rich, those same cases would have all have started with big lawsuits even before insurance rates went up for doctors, there is no "well 20 years ago, that case never would have made it to court and tied up a companies legal bills and required insurance" Bull shit

[motivez]

Originally Posted by A_C_E

I certainly don't mean to say that a lot of people don't in fact deserve big sums from true malpractice suits.

However, at the same time, it seems tough to me to try and say that America isn't lawsuit-happy, and people like John Edwards are only exacerbating the problem.

Also, another factor is doctors performing unnecessary and risky surgeries to try and rake in more Medicare/insurance money. It happens far, FAR more often than any of you (or really anyone in America) is aware of, unfortunately

I wasn't saying America isn't lawsuit happy, I just reject that characterization of the issue.. it's offensive to anyone who's had family members or friends injured as a result of someone else's incompetence.. and it's one of the ways the insurance companies go after people.. calling them greedy, trying to go after their integrity as a person, insinuating they're lying...

[A_C_E]

Originally Posted by motivez

I wasn't saying America isn't lawsuit happy, I just reject that characterization of the issue.. it's offensive to anyone who's had family members or friends injured as a result of someone else's incompetence.. and it's one of the ways the insurance companies go after people.. calling them greedy, trying to go after their integrity as a person, insinuating they're lying...

My apologies, then.

[thewise1]

Those aren't malpractice.