A doctor committed suicide after missing a fatal diagnosis in a young female patient
“Father-of-two Dr Paul Goodson, 44, had examined new mother Alison Webster when she went to his surgery complaining of stomach pains. She returned home with painkillers but Alison, 23, was later admitted to hospital where she died of post-natal complications.
It is believed Dr Goodson took a fatal drugs overdose at a remote woodland beauty spot the next day . . .
. . . But care worker Alison began suffering severe abdominal pain and went to her local surgery in Pembroke Dock.
She was seen by Dr Goodson and then went home to her modern detached house in the village of Sageston. But her condition worsened and she was taken to Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest, where she died on August 9.
An inquest was opened and heard the cause of death was severe abdominal infection puerperal sepsis which can affect women after childbirth.”
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{ 20 comments }
Did he save himself a lawsuit by killing himself? How does this affect plaintiff’s ability to recover damages?
No, his estate will be sued. The typical plaintiff’s lawyer will be happy that the doc killed himself because 1) it can be construed as an indirect admission of guilt and 2) the doc can’t defend himself. Ka-ching!!!
You doctors are so utterly unhinged when it comes to these issues. The incident occurred in Wales–that’s in the UK and remember it’s a state-run healthcare system where medmal is virtually unknown
But don’t get the fact get in the way of your hysteria
You are wrong, the UK has plenty of med-mal cases.
I am a Norwegian obstetrician; in this country we have a no-fault compensation system. So disgruntled patients, being reimbursed by the taxpayer for their ills and woes, are turning to the political institution called The Norwegian Medical Council to get their pound of flesh. The system, being administrative, political and incompetent, deprives the Norwegian doctors of any vestige of “due process”.
I’d take the US system of tort reform ANYTIME
How interesting. I’ve always been an advocate of no-fault malpractice. Now there is a physician who actually would prefer the US-style system to no-fault.
I’d be interested in hearing the ills of a no-fault system.
Thanks,
Kevin
The main ill with the no-fault compensation is that the system functions like a free lottery, funded by the Norwegian taxpayer.Originally the system was created to recompensate patients who had been further injured while in the medical system (e.g. amputated the wrong leg, operated upon by a drunk surgeon, given overdoses of chemotherapeutics &c). The vast majority of claimants I have seen (and I have seen plenty, I used to work for the agency) are trying to get compensation for their original diseases; not for any further injury they have experienced at the hands of doctors or nurses.
All this is costly, the taxpayers are shelling out increasing millions; as long at it is completely free to apply for compensation within the system (you don’t even have to pay for stamps for mail your claim) an increasing number of gold-diggers, aggravants, malingerers and psychopaths will try to get theirs.
On the sideline of this racket is the Norwegian Medical Board (Helsetilsynet), likewise composed of a few doctors held hostage by an army of legal bureaucrats. always ready to take action against any doctor based on rumours, political considerations or pure spite; in closed session they decide over your licence’s fate, like Henry VIII’s Star Chambers they can ponder your professional future for months without your knowing what’s going on, before handing you the verdict from on high. unappellable.
The US system, however unappetizing, is attractive for three reasons:
- the defendant is allowed to speak up in his defense
- the defendant is told that there actually is a case
- the judges/juries are presumably neutral, at least at the outset
Interesting. Sounds like your system is beleaguered by bureaucrats, money grabbers, and malingerers, much like other failing liberal social programs (welfare, food stamps, workers comp, medicaid, etc.)
Is there any doctor readers out there from Sweden or New Zealand that would like to comment on your no fault system?
I have worked in Canada, where there is the remote possibility of suing your physician (though less “lottery-like” and less lucrative for the patient and attorney). Though the healthcare system has other faults (waiting lists, etc.) the system is much less antagonistic than the US, thus patients just don’t sue very often. Most patients have respect for physicians, and physicians earn this respect because the patient’s well-being always comes first. It’s hard to engender this relationship in the US, because ordering defensive tests always comes first. This also creates suspiciousness between patient and physician.
You doctors exist in your paranoid world in which you’re all a bunch of Albert Schweitzers in Lexuses who should be exempt from any system of accountability. It’s quite puzzling.
First, as to Isberg’s that there is “plenty of” medmal in the UK. The fact is that relative to the US lawsuits in the UK are only a fraction both in number and payout. See “Health Spending In The United States And The Rest Of The Industrialized World” Anderson et al. Health Affairs.2005; 24: 903-914. “Virtually unknown” may be slightly hyperbolic–but gets close enuf to the truth as we currently know it.
Second, any human endeavor is prone to error and condemned to imperfection. Thus, medmal or worker’s comp systems will both perform suboptimally at times. In that sense, law and medicine are quite similar. If doctors are willing to accept that once in awhile they’ll amputate the wrong limb, why should they be so upset about a once in a while outrageous judgment?
Third, our Canadian commenter provides us with the saccharine insight that “Most patients have respect for physicians, and physicians earn this respect because the patient’s well-being always comes first.” I’m not what that means–if you “respect” someone, do you not hold him or her accountable?
Can’t conclude if it’s mailpractice before knowing all the facts:
- what were her complaints and how did she present them?
- did he an internal exam?
etc.
Here in The Netherlands a patient can complain
- to the doc himself
- to the groupspractice or hospital
They will investigate the matter and after concluded that something is wrong can refer to a special medical board that acts like a court of justice, only the outcome is up to either months of years of no practice or no practice anymore at all.
Or the patient can go to that medical board him/herself.
One might try the normal legal system, but people here don’t often get compensation money.
“You doctors exist in your paranoid world in which you’re all a bunch of Albert Schweitzers in Lexuses who should be exempt from any system of accountability.”
I’m not sure why physicians are so hated for training for 12 years and then earning a good living. If I eraned my living after I got an MBA nobody seems to resent me. I don’t resent my HVAC tech for earning 80K although he did a 2 year associates degree. By the way, I drive a 1998 Buick in need of repairs.
No one resents anyone’s salary–altho I find bizarre doctors’ notion that they are entitled to salaries because they went to school for a long time — hmmmm tell that to all those Ph.D. in literature or Classics
What is resented is the notion that doctors should be exempt from responsibility.
“you’re all a bunch of Albert Schweitzers in Lexuses”
“altho I find bizarre doctors’ notion that they are entitled to salaries because they went to school for a long time — hmmmm tell that to all those Ph.D. in literature or Classics”
Hmmmm. Have stumbled upon the root of the problem? Namely, physician envy.
42 y/o MD in a 1992 dodge pick-up
How typical of an arrogant doctor–engage in arm chair psychologizing for which he (or anyone else) is completely unqualified. respond to arguments; don’t commit genetic fallacies
Hmmmm… Anon 9:00pm is critical of the doctor for drawing conclusions about the psyche of a poster who… drew conclusions about the psyche of the doctor.
I guess it’s only ok for non-physicians to be unqualified arm-chair psychologists.
Genetic fallacies? I haven’t had one of those since they came out with the Christie Brinkley SI Swimsuit issue when I was in the 3rd grade!
“No one resents anyone’s salary–altho I find bizarre doctors’ notion that they are entitled to salaries because they went to school for a long time — hmmmm tell that to all those Ph.D. in literature or Classics”
1) PhDs in literature and classics dont save lives
2) Your life/health is vastly more important than what some ivy league stiff thinks about shakespeare
3) Doctors serve a community need, an “essential commodity” so to speak. PhDs in classics/literature is not such a commodity therefore its not valued nearly as much, therefore PhDs in classics dont get paid as much as doctors, nor should they.
If the “serving a community need” test was true, plaintiff’s attorneys would be paying society a million bucks a year to practice their buffoonery, and bartenders would all be millionares.
In case you people are interested the coroner hasn’t returned a verdict on either death and until he does no conclusions can be drawn.
On top of this nobody at the doctors surgery were aware of the patients death until after the doctors death so it is highly unlikely that he would have known.
The two deaths are not linked. Refer to inquest report. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4271412.stm
Two families are in mourning – have some respect.
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