A malpractice case of missed endocarditis. The physician charted appropriately, but the jury overlooked that and made their decision based on emotional testimony from the grieving widow. Lessons to learn from the case:
Jurors are charged with finding evidence of negligence before they proceed to assessing damages. The powerful emotional testimony of the young widow in this case was enough to tempt them to omit or minimize the liability question and simply award the needy family some money. Although all the experts in this case agreed that the diagnosis of SBE is difficult and evasive, the jury primarily heard the family’s tale and acted with compassion rather than according to the rigors of the law. Such an approach has become increasingly common in some communities and has led to a shortage of medical services as providers beat a hasty retreat to more physician-friendly areas.
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{ 11 comments }
If in fact there was evidence that a Jury agreed no factual fault was assignable to the defendant but found against him anyway simply because they felt sorry for the plaintiff and felt like giving away some insurance company’s money to “help” the plaintiff, the trial judge should have done his duty and reversed the jury or ordered a mistrial. Knowingly failing to do this is deserving of professional discipline of the trial judge.
You are dreaming. He is a lawyer first. There will be no discipline.
from the source:
“An expert internist reviewed the chart and blamed the patient’s death on Drs. A and B for missing an obvious diagnosis of SBE”
Please guys, I have been doing this for many years. There is rarely such thing as an “obvious diagnosis” of SBE. What a bunch of horseshit.
Yet another bad decision. This, however, is no different than the standard whining and crying seen in PI cases on a daily basis throughout the country. Yet more evidence showing that the whole system needs to be revamped such that the decisions are fact based and not based on emotion.
Approximately 6 days were wasted because two doctors did not appreciate what every other doctor knows. Any patient with heart murmurs is vulnerable to bacterial endocarditis.
It is beyond belief that tests were not ordered for this patient on the first visit. That is likely what the experts for the widow told the jury.
I’m curious how so many physicians are able to diagnose the lack of malpractice from a newspaper article.
Is their sympathy for their brethren regardless of the facts trumping medicine?
Yeah GTL statements like “Any patient with heart murmurs is vulnerable to bacterial endocarditis.” makes us all realize he is nothing but a hack looking for business.
“Yeah GTL statements like “Any patient with heart murmurs is vulnerable to bacterial endocarditis.” makes us all realize he is nothing but a hack looking for business.”
Unfortunately False statement s like this are taken as the Truth by juries and make guys like this $20 million bucks a year. They can say anything they want: “MI’s are common in 30 year olds with Epigastric pain”, “Cocaine and Heroin doesn’t contribute to sudden cardiac death”, A Short of breath, Healthy 19 year old has a Pulmonary Embolism until proven otherwise” “Urinary Retention in the elderly is an obvious sign of ruptured appendicitis”.
You can’t diagnose malpractice from a newspaper article, but apparently you can diagnose the LACK of malpractice.
Impressive. Bunch of Bill Frists on this site.
No what is impressive is your total lack of medical knowledge results in your total lack of understanding as to the difficulty of diagnosing SBE. But you John Edwards clones don’t care about getting it right now do you, just as you line your pockets.
hangon is there any chance of appeal?
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