More than likely ....sm
Posted By: Georgia gal on 2006-08-09
In Reply to: Has anyone ever heard of this? - see message
the surgeon's attorney or malpractice insurance carrier told them to not do anything further to try to help the patient.
Here in Atlanta there was a malpractice suit in court last week where a radiation oncologist treated the wrong side of a patient and the doctor upon discovering his mistake told the patient what happened and even told the patient they should probably sue him, even though he was a very caring doctor for many years. Because the patient had 13 treatments to the wrong side they did sue. Other attorneys/insurers thought the doctor was crazy for admitting the mistake but consumers applauded the fact that he was willing to admit he made a mistake.
When I worked for a surgery group in the past there would be cases to consider where they'd be asked to correct a prior surgeon's mistakes and often times the surgeons didn't want to take the case because they didn't want to get drug into court over the other surgeon's mistakes. Having been with 1 surgeon during dispositions when a patient's family sued him I can tell you that it's not fun at all for them to have attorneys and insurers act like they're a quack - even if they aren't. Not all outcomes are good in the world of medicine. In the case he was sued, the patient was a heavy smoker and heavy drinker who had a major heart attack and he was trying to save his life by doing an emergent CABG (he was a cardiovascular surgeon) but the patient died and the family tried suing him. It wasn't his fault this patient didn't take care of himself and had the heart attack but they tried to act like he killed the patient which of course he didn't.
Anyway, back to your relative, when I had my lap cholecystectomy done it was in the consent form that there was a potential that the liver could be lacerated by the scope so I was aware of this risk - as in any surgery there are risks. Hopefully she'll overcome this and do OK in the future but it'll be a long recovery if she makes it.
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