This Makes Me Sick

Doc Sues Chicago Sun-Times

Doc wants $125 million from newspaper, tv station for calling him crap MD Read [Chicago Tribune]

Our work is done? West Virginia Democrat says med-mal crisis is history Read [Register-Herald]

Facing 'suits in W. Va, doc gets fined in 'Bama for filing phony med license application Read [Huntsville Times]

Med Boards Hide Info and Jersey Helps Docs

Garden Variety Solution? New Jersey cutting check for docs' insurance bills Read [Newark Star-Ledger]

Note: Docs and lawyers amongst folks paying into the state fund. Good sense? BS? Chime in, here.

www.CrappyDocInfo.com: Report says Michigan's state medical website blows, as do most states. They look pretty, but provide scant info on doc's disciplinary records. Check your state's grade, here. This should be an easy thing to put up, no? Come on, people.

A Doc's Double VIsion

According to prosecutors in a case in Arizona, Dr. Bradley Schwartz  grew to detest  Dr. David Brian Stidham, his former associate. The reason: Schwartz was forced into drug rehab by the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners in the fall of 2002 and he thought Stidham would keep their practice going while he was "gone." He didn't, and started his own practice leaving Schwartz in the cold. What happened next was a rational... he conspired to whack Stidham in October 2004. Recently, he was sentenced to life in prison for this.

So the stage is set for—you guessed it—a malpractice lawsuit. Seems a family is suing him, because he was allegedly flying on drugs when he performed surgery on their teenage son in November 2001. The kid's got double vision now. The doc tried to get the case moved or delayed because he's burned out. No dice. Read [The Arizona Daily Star]

Solid Rebuke… 12 Years Later!

The Rhode Island state medical board has finally found Dr. Aaron R. Sherman, a Warwick OB/GYN, guilty of unprofessional conduct for injecting a young woman with Valium without telling her, causing her to fall unconscious in the examining room. She remained there for a half-hour. It is uncertain whether she was alone or with him in the room. Oh yeah, this occurred in 1994. Better later than…. Read [The Providence Journal]

Disciplining Docs, Lawyers Get By and An Uninsured Farmworker

Washington’s Governor thinks the state’s system for disciplining bad docs needs serious help. “There is a consensus, I think, among all of us that it’s broken, and it needs — not tinkering — it needs reform,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said after signing the new medical malpractice bill into law. Read about some smart proposed changes. [The Olympian]

The number of malpractice cases has been dropping steadily the last few years in Ohio’s Montgomery County. Tort reform and the expense of medical malpractice litigation—think experts—seem to have played a role in this. But local lawyers aren't hurting-- they’re specializing in the field—taking serious cases—or moving on to more profitable pastures. Read [Dayton Business Journal]

Question: if caps are enacted and taking on a case is no longer financially sensible, does this end up hurting a patient’s options for justice?

After a February car accident shattered his right eye, Jorge Alvarez was taken by helicopter to the trauma unit at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach. He was unconscious for several days and needed to have the dangling eye removed. But the 19-year-old uninsured farm worker from Fort Pierce was not treated for a week because an eye specialist could not be found to remove the eye. Dr. Steve Spector, a West Palm Beach ophthalmologist who operated on Alvarez after taking his turn on the trauma unit, contends other, more experienced doctors turned down the case because the patient was uninsured. Read [Palm Beach Post]

Patient dies as his doctor gets off probation

In December of 2003, heart surgeon Dr. Thomas Mabee of Davenport, Iowa failed three drug tests and was referred to the Iowa Board of Medical Examiners. (He had previously been in an addiction program in 2002.) He finished another treatment program in early 2004 and on March 3 the board allowed him to return to practice, though he was put on five years probation. Remarkably, on that very same day Kenneth Murray—a patient of Dr. Mabee that was operated on in October 2003—died from complications that arose during his heart surgery. Is this a deadly outcome of a doctor and a hospital hiding information from a patient, because of liability fears? The estate of the deceased has now filed a malpractice suit against the doctor and the hospital. Read [Quad City Times]