Saving Our Doctors and Ourselves

Heather Hansen “This case is killing me.” I cannot tell you how many times I have heard those five words.  I defend doctors when they are sued for negligence.  I am a medical malpractice defense attorney, but attorneys are also called “counsel.” Most of my time is spent counseling.  Medical malpractice cases are made up of allegations, and sometimes the allegations are true. More often, in my experience, they’re not. Either way these cases make doctors doubt themselves, their patients, and the health care system. Sometimes doctors know they made a mistake. This is a good time to remember—we all have bad days. The repercussions of health care providers’ bad days may be catastrophic. When that happens, doctors usually want the case to settle and the patient to be compensated, as if that’s possible. It’s not. How can a patient be “compensated” for being injured, sometimes catastrophically, by someone who was meant to help them? Just because a doctor wants his/her case to settle doesn’t mean it will. At that point, the process becomes like buying a car. Settlement is a negotiation, and if the parties don’t agree on a number, the case will try. “It’s killing me tadalafil best price.” Sometimes, most times, the doctors know they did everything right.  Those are the cases that feel like they might kill us both. I tell doctors’ stories. It’s my job to tell doctors’ stories to juries, in courtrooms. But there’...
Source: Society for Participatory Medicine - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Newsletter e-patient movement empowered patient medical malpractice defense Moral Injury Source Type: news