As any regular reader of this blog knows, large medical malpractice verdicts are made to be reversed or reduced. The big verdicts get lots of attention in the press and lead many doctors and their insurance companies to claim the sky is falling. Then, after the press has left and the attention of the public is focused elsewhere, the large verdict is either reduced by the trial judge or overturned on appeal. This was exactly what recently happened to the largest malpractice verdict ever in Iowa. The state supreme court reversed it and sent it back for a new trial.
Continue Reading Told You So

There is an interesting medical malpractice case winding its way through the courts of Florida. It describes an egregious case of malpractice and a coverup by the doctor and hospital after the fact. While it is egregious, it is not an isolated case. The medical industry (doctors, hospitals, and their insurance companies) regularly go to great lengths to keep the public in the dark about which doctors and hospitals give bad care. Secrecy and coverup are never good for the public and, in some cases, can have fatal consequences.

Today’s story teaches many lessons.

The patient was a 70 year…
Continue Reading Secrecy And Coverup: What They Don’t Want You To Know Can Kill You

A few weeks ago, I attended a birthday celebration for my older son. Almost the entire family was there. He prepared a Mexican fiesta meal, complete with margaritas from scratch. Almost exactly 30 hours later, I was vomiting my insides out. So was my wife, one of my daughters and her husband, and the birthday boy himself. Everyone who had a margarita got sick. When we put it all together later, we concluded one or more of the limes he squeezed had been contaminated by someone with norovirus.

Norovirus, often referred to as “the 24 hour flu,” is a form…
Continue Reading Norovirus Is Here – Protect Yourself

BCG, a vaccine also known as Bacillus Calmette-Geurin, has been around for over 100 years. It was developed from a strain of bovine tuberculosis that was cultured repeatedly for over 100 generations until it was unable to cause disease but was still able to confer immunity. It is used widely and safely almost everywhere else in the world to vaccinate newborns against tuberculosis. In the United States, we have a smaller incidence of tuberculosis. Rather than vaccinate all, we test all infants for tuberculosis exposure and treat only those who test positive. In spite of its lack of publicity, BCG…
Continue Reading BCG: An Old Vaccine With New Promise

Everywhere you look in the health care delivery system, you find players have created obstacles to keep you from finding out what is going on. It is not an accident. Big players know there is truth in the old saying, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” The less sunlight that shines on their business practices, the better for them. The less sunlight, the more money they make.

Health care providers, especially the big ones, despise government involvement in health care. They particularly dislike price controls. “Let the free market operate,” they say. And then they do everything they can to frustrate…
Continue Reading Secrecy: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

A friend of mine is probably going to need surgery. He asked me to look into the surgeon who was recommending the surgery to him. Here is what I did for my friend. You should do the same thing whenever surgery is recommended to you.

If it is significant surgery, get a second opinion. Remember that surgeons earn income when they operate on you. Different surgeons may have different opinions about the need for surgery or what the best surgical approach might be. Don’t just rely on the first opinion you receive.

After recommending he get a second opinion, I…
Continue Reading When You Need Surgery

Wouldn’t it be nice to invest in a business proposition in which you make money no matter how well or poorly the business does? Sweet deals like that are hard to come by unless you are private equity investing in hospitals. Steward Health Care is a prime example of what can happen and how many lives can be lost and patients and workers hurt when private equity employs its financial tricks to assure it makes money no matter what. You can read all about it here.

Steward Health Care is no more. It declared bankruptcy in May of 2024…
Continue Reading Heads, I Win. Tails, You Lose.

Events in my legal practice are once again reminding me that some doctors will do or say anything to keep from having their mistakes revealed. They will lie to their patients. They will falsify their records. They will deny their mistakes when confronted. They will take advantage of the good will of the public and the high regard in which the public holds doctors. They do a lot of damage.

When clients come to see me and their case looks promising, I usually ask them to get their medical records. With the changes in federal law, it is quicker and…
Continue Reading The Dishonest Doctor

Almost everyone reading this has a hidden power that very few of us use. It is the power to get access to our electronic medical records. Federal law requires that medical records be available to patients. Most providers have concluded that electronic records are the most efficient way to meet this requirement. Federal regulations that took effect in 2021 require that all healthcare organizations give patients access to their electronic medical records. This gives rise to your hidden power.

It is often said that “Knowledge is power.” That is certainly true when it comes to your medical records. You can…
Continue Reading Use Your Hidden Power

This is a recurring theme in health care in this country. We spend billions of dollars caring for health problems afflicting the less fortunate members of our society. Very often, we could avoid or at least reduce these health problems with a little preventive care earlier in the process. That has once again proven to be the case with preterm births.

The typical term of a pregnancy is considered to be 40 weeks. Any birth before 37 weeks of gestation is considered to be a preterm birth. The earlier the birth, the worse it is for the baby.

Preterm births

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Continue Reading Pay Me Now Or Pay Me (More) Later

As the old saying goes, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” There is nothing in medicine that does not involve some risk to the patient. Everything from aspirin to heart surgery carries some risk. This is true of vaccines as well. As with everything else in medicine, the benefits of the treatment must outweigh the risk. The vaccines available today have been tested and found to be of substantial benefit and to possess only a low risk of harm.

We live in a miraculous world in which we have developed vaccines to keep us from getting many…
Continue Reading Vaccines Are Important But Do Carry Some Risks

As I have often written, large verdicts in malpractice cases make news, but the public rarely hears about what happens after the jury returns its verdict and goes home. There are always post-trial motions to overturn or reduce the verdict. If these are not successful, or even if they are, defendants will file appeals trying to get the verdict thrown out and a new trial granted. This was the plan of some Georgia malpractice defense lawyers and their insurance company client when the dentist they were representing was hit with a $10M verdict in a dental malpractice case. Things did…
Continue Reading Be Careful What You Wish For

Medicine is an art, not a science. No doctor or other health care provider can or will guarantee a good result. Sometimes, even in the best hands, there is a poor outcome. Some poor outcomes, however, are the result of below-standard care. These are the outcomes which may lead to a successful medical malpractice case. If you or a loved one have had a bad outcome, here are the questions you should be asking.

The first question is whether what happened to you or your loved one was a surprise? While even routine procedures or treatments with expected good results…
Continue Reading Do I Have A Medical Malpractice Case?