10 years in legal hell

Are we supposed to feel sorry for this guy? He clearly made an inexcusable error that harmed a patient. He was less than fullsome with the patient, his wife/bookeeper, etc. and brought his troubles on his own head.

If this is supposed to be a good example of why the tort system is out of control, I’d hate to see a bad one.

Well gasman, How can you doubt the error hurt the pt.? He still had the same pains and symptoms, he sought out another doctor, he had another surgery. I feel bad every time there is a big discussion here about malpractice. I agree many of them seem like they are without good cause. But, on the other hand, I have seen enough represented here that it is no secret whatsoever that those of you in the medical profession have no sympathy or compassion for wronged patients when the facts clearly show that malpractice did occur. What’s up with that?

Like you said in your above post, you guys had me all along until you proved that you bond together like a group of rattlesnakes, no matter what the cost is to human life.

I’m anon11:25 (not gasman).

I won’t pretend to know for sure either way what caused what; I didn’t sit in on the entire trial and hear the testimony, nor have I treated him personally. Of course, neither have any of you. That said, my reply was in response to anon 11:09, who said the error “clearly” harmed a patient. I am only saying that it is not so clear to me.

To begin with, the patient lied about the extent of his resultant disabilities. That is indisputable. Given that he had a strong motive to lie about the extent of his pain (which is nearly impossible to prove or disprove as pain is a subjective construct) for the purposes of this lawsuit, and that he had already been exposed as a liar in other parts of his testimony, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched that he has either lied about or exagerrated his resultant pain.

TAdditionally, the patient had the surgery (which did include the primary damaged disc) and continued with pain and so saught the services of a second surgeon: this type of outcome happens all the time even in spinal surgeries that are performed correctly. It is entirely possible that he would have continued to suffer from a similar level of pain even if the other disc was operated on initially (after all, he apparently had no relief after his second surgery either).

Let me reiterate- I am in no way claiming to know for sure either way what the truth is. I am only pointing out that there is room for doubt, especially given that the patient was caught in several lies under oath regarding his physical abilities following surgery.