Northern Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer - Medical Malpractice - Latest Comments

A comment on The Reality of the High Cost of Defensive Medicine

John Hopkins — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:57:23 GMT

It is certainly healthy to identify examples of problems and to have the opinion that our "med mal" tort system is not working, but that does not provide any solutions. It would be helpful if these opinions were based on real objective statistics. No fairly done study exists that illustrates medical malpractice as a problem for the tort system. It is an insurance regulation problem more than it is anything else. Our legislators simply refuse to address it as a regulation problem.

The approach of revising the tort system will do nothing but result in injured victims without legal recourse and insurance companies with easy profits. All you have to do in order to see the result of misguided tort reform is to look at Florida. Patients are injured and have minimal recourse in the courts. The result is that attorneys can not fund lawsuits requiring thousands and often hundreds of thousands in costs. Attorneys can not carry these costs for 2, 3, or 5 years until they can get a case to trial or get it settled.

I tell my tort reform friends that I am happy to have tort reform when they figure out how to justly treat an injured victim's claims. Arbitration is a system already proven to be a failure and damage caps simply act to bar the courthouse doors to these injured people.

Tort reform proponents are typically people who have not suffered tragedy at the hands of others and have led a pretty fortunate life; as I have been blessed to have had. Those that have suffered injuries have been forced to appreciate the compassion and justice that injured victims deserve.

A comment on The Reality of the High Cost of Defensive Medicine

Jeremy Engdahl-Johnson — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:45:13 GMT

The current medical malpractice(medmal) system is woefully inefficient, with only 39 cents on the dollar going to claimants. Find out more at More ...

A comment on The Reality of the High Cost of Defensive Medicine

Susan Browne — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:15:38 GMT

My husband with COPD went to the emergency room for an exacerbation. The treatment is always the same: hi dose of pregnazone, anti-anxiety pill, oxygen mask & clean hospital air. In two hours or so he is over it. Last trip: all those treatments, plus $4500 of additional testing paid for by medicare. The doctors when asked the reason for the additional tests said it is to defend against the possibility of a lawsuit.

A Doctor friend had a painful kidney stone episode in the middle of the night, and went to emergency for a pain pill to see him through until he could get to his physician in the AM. $5500 worth of tests later, he got his $25 pill.

We can't afford "nutty" medicine like this - where the common sense of the physicians is subject to constant legal scrutiny - no one can afford medical costs that presuppose a community of incompetent greedy physicians!!

Our professor friend from Harvard contends that the hard costs of Medical malpractice component of the medical equation is just a "drop in the bucket" - only 2% of a $2 trillion system!! I don't know Doctor, but my math tells me that is $44 Billion. $44 Billion here, $44 billion there, and you add up to real money.

That is just the estimate for hard costs! What if the Doctor's estimate of 30% - 50% of the testing they do being done to satisfy malpractice concerns are true. That is makes it between $700 billion to $1.1 trillion. Even our learned Harvard friend has to agree, that is some real money.

A comment on The Reality of the High Cost of Defensive Medicine

Susan Browne — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:15:31 GMT

A comment on The Reality of the High Cost of Defensive Medicine

Susan Browne — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:15:24 GMT

A comment on The Reality of the High Cost of Defensive Medicine

Mike Bryant — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:42:02 GMT

All very good points and all questions that need to be asked. The president was in Minnesota yesterday, another very good speech. But on the issue of the doctors that he's talked to, the question has to be asked "so how many times did you find something with these tests?" When you did wasn't it worth it? And when you didn't what was the cost? where did the money go? and could you send that list into Medicare so we have it when we need to get our money back for you going out side the standards of care. I would guess you are correct, there is far less of this in reality then they want to claim there is.

A comment on Live Baby Left in Trash from Botched Abortion

S.Newark — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:09:10 GMT

How or what could anyone say about such a henious crime other than the sociopaths are taking over.

A comment on Staten Island Man Receives Settlement

Anne Beckett — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:45:48 GMT

I had surgery to remove (all metal) Christensen jaw-joints at SIUH (staten island) and the surgeon, David Hoffman, "accidentally" cut through into my ear-canal. Since that surgery (July 2007), I had new joints implanted at Mass General (Jan 2008) and one, the right, had to be removed (April 2008) due to massive infection/osteomyelitis. I am currently without a jaw-joint, had a few months of atitbiotics deliveed via picc line (direct line to aorta). I am still waiting for new jaw and will be waiting unitl at least the summer, should the infections not come back. I may have lost part of my mandible. Thusfar, I have not spoken to the original surgeon, Hoffman, and really do think he should compensate for travel, etc..
Please contact me. I am in Austin, TX, and have to travel for surgeries as we have no surgeon in Austin or even Texas to do the surgeries required.
Thank you.

A comment on Q & A - Can a Pregnant Woman File Suit?

wayne parsons — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:14:03 GMT

Did this really happen? Good post. Thanks?

A comment on Emergency Room Medical Malpractice

wayne parsons — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:11:52 GMT

Great article Ben! I just read a good book on our visits to the hopsital: Critical Conditions: The Essential Hospital Guide to Get Your Loved One Out Alive. By Martine Ehrenclou

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