There is a fine line between getting what you are entitled to and getting what you can. Allow me to explain:
A family from Attleboro brought their 3 month old daughter to the hospital for blood tests because she was running a fever. The hospital was having problems drawing blood from the child's left arm, so they wrapped it in gauze and drew the blood they needed from the child's right arm. When the parents got the child home she was crying "like she was in pain." They decided to bathe the child so they took the gauze off and found a plastic catheter still injected into the child's left arm. They called an ambulance and an EMT removed the device. Their daughter is fine. The picture in the paper accompanying the article shows her bright eyed and smiling. Doctor's said that there was nothing serious that could have happened had the catheter gone unnoticed even for a week or two. The parents are seeking legal advice.
Pardon? The parents are seeking legal advice? Did the child die? Was the child hurt? Will the child even remember this incident in 4 month? What are they seeking legal advice for? "Oh, we need to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else." (Hypothetical statement, not uttered by the parents) Are they seeking the termination of the nurse or doctor involved? What is the purpose of their seeking legal advice?
Money! Hey, this thing happened, let's see if we can cash in! Sure our daughter is fine but if we can get some cash out of it, right?
This type of action is irresponsible and self serving. Doctors all over the place are leaving their practices because their malpractice insurance is sky high because of frivolous suits like this one. Hey! Your child is fine, your family is happy, you're just trying to get what you can. Don't.
And that's just my opinion.
5 comments:
Wait just a minute! I'm good with the animal car names. I'm good with Cindy Sheehan needs to go home. Not so good with money-hungry mom-and-dad.
As a parent I have to ask, what if it were my child? I would definitely be seeking some sort of legal advice. I would have to say by definition this was both negligence and malpractice. It certainly wasn't proper practice!
It's not so much that she was ok, it's that she legitimately received poor care. Yes, I'll argue the "what about next time" and I'll add to that "the doctor's got lucky with this one." I'll even add the ever-popular "it could have caused an infection" (I don't care what the professionals say, that's age-old logic - you don't leave a foreign object stuck in a kids arm without anyone caring for the child knowing that it's there!)
Of course the professionals say "it could have been there for a week without becoming a problem" - that's called "covering your ..."
What else are they gonna say?!
I'm not saying sue for emotional damages or whatever, but I do think someone should be held responsible and sometimes an investigation can show that negligence has become the norm. In conjunction with an ever-increasing shortage of medical professionals because of increases in liabilty insurances etc. etc. you also find issues such as exhaustion coming in to play. People working long hours in under-staffed facilities.
Who pays the price?
The occassional three-month old baby.
And we do nothing...
I don't think so!
Just my opinion ;-)
My question is, has the couple received an apology from the person responsible? If so, then I have to agree with Marc. If not, then we fall into the abyss of the examination of motives. In some ways, the medical profession has created the bed upon which it now lies. The God-complex "we hold the power of life and death in our hands" coupled with the synonymity of medicine and "rich" all swells together to produce a (literal) class that according to its own gospel "doesn't make mistakes." Only in the last six months have studies began showing that if physicians apologize for their mistakes, lawsuits drop more than 60 percent! (who knew! Oh yeah, us mortals the working plebian-class.) Doctors and the machinery of health care in the United States are currently reeling from the plunge off their high pedestal. No one really knows what medicine will look like when it is just another member of the American economy contributing its goods & service to the annual GNP. In summary: this couple probably is out for a quick fortune; that IV could cut their daughters college tuition in half. Yet, I have a hard time handing medicine the "victim" hat just yet.
Lynn-nore,
It's plastic, it's disinfected, it's used on a baby, it's harmless! The article actually said that catheters had been left for months months in patients without any adverse effects (how that happens I don't know). What I hear from you is "I have a new born could you imagine if this happened to me I'd do anything necessary including lift a car to protect my baby!" and I completely understand where you are coming from!
Funny side note: Thom (a dad) said nearly exactly the same thing as two other new "Red Sox" dads. Clearly the reaction between the sexes is split.
Philipos,
I hear ya. I agree that they have to be held to a higher standard but I look at this like disciplining a child. If you punish them to the utmost of your ability when they simply interupt your conversation, what do you do when they take your car without asking, use it to make the local movie theater a drive in, and pay for the damages with your credit card? There's got to be some leway someplace.
Thom. Apologies were offered by the hospital and physician.
marc,
i am with you, man.
in this regard: this story has nothing to do with this family or the child. it has EVERYTHING to do with our society and the over-litigious, "get rich however you can" mantra we have created.
if it were my child, i would be completely satisfied with the fact that the hospital and/or doctor owned up to it and thrilled to have a healty child safely at home with me. that they realize the problem and put forth a measure that it wouldn't happen again. for crying out loud, they're human beings and no one got hurt. would i rightfully deserve hundreds of thousands of dollars for "enduring" this? NO! end of discussion.
What if retribution didn't make the family wealthy only penalized the medical professionals for their mistake? Is an apology really sufficient? Even if this was a harmless act, this was still negligence! How do we attempt to insure this, or something like it, won't happen again. Legal action is the only way I can think of to punish medical professionals for malpractice and yet this discussion seems to be about the family attempting a get-rich-quick scheme out of it.
What if the family didn't get any money for it?
The whole idea here is make the professionals unhappy enough about the results to make sure it doesn't happen again. This is the legal equivalent of a time out or any other form of discipline.
Think for a moment about children who get away with cheap apologies as their only form of discipline. They become complacent about their actions and count on being able to wipe out their sins with a simple "I'm sorry."
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