A lot of times, I use this blog to update friends and family on what we are doing around here. Today, as I enjoy day number two of a week off, I thought I would write about what I am NOT doing. In fact there are lots of things I am NOT doing today, but probably the most significant thing is that I am NOT sitting in a court-room in Newberry County, South Carolina listening to testimony in Day 2 of a malpractice suit. Yep, I am NOT in court today and that is a good thing.
Right now I was supposed to be South Carolina in Day 2 of a 10 day malpractice suit but happily that suit was settled about 8 weeks ago. Despite the fact that I had to settle, I can not tell you what HUGE RELIEF it is NOT to be in South Carolina right now. This was a Lose-Lose situation and I am glad that it is settled.
I first found out about the malpractice suit while I was still in Kenya. The case stemmed from an OB case that me and my partners were involved in back in 2003. Unfortunately, the child was born with Cerebral Palsy. In 2006 the child's parents sued us. Initially I was not named in the suit because I was living in Kenya. But as soon as I returned, one of my partners was dropped and I was added.
The whole process was eye-opening and discouraging. I won't go into the details here (I don't think I need to defend myself on a blog), but needless to say, my defense lawyer felt we had a good case in regards to the facts of the case. However, when you are dealing with a "bad-baby" case (the unfortunate name that these malpractice suits take when a child is born with some neurological problems), everything comes down to appearances and perceptions. When my lawyer explained that back at the beginning of this year when the trial date had been set, I decided that it wasn't worth the agony of trial and asked that we settle.
The settlement took more than 6 months to accomplish. It was amazing that the family was asking for a settlement of $8 million (between me and my other partner) initially. Our initial offer was $100,000. I never thought we would close the gap. I won't publish what the amount was, but it was significantly closer to our initial offer than it was for their amount. Again, the facts were meaningless. And, it wasn't personal, only business!
The whole process has been humbling. I learned that even if you are right 99% of the time and do your best 99% of the time, if someone thinks they have been wronged, they will sue you. I also learned that my "reputation" is not as precious as I thought. If you are worried about reputation and keeping EVERYONE happy all the time, you are not going to be able to be honest about who you are. Just the fact that I am posting on the blog that 1) I was sued and 2) we settled for over a million dollars, shows that I am not afraid of folks "finding out" that I have been involved in this ordeal.
God has been very gracious to me during this whole process. I have not been dragged down by negative thinking. I still go to work every day looking to do a good job. I still love being a doctor. I don't think everyone is out to get me. I know that my value as a person is not determined by this suit. I know that my family still loves me.
I hope that if you know a doctor or go to a doctor that you will realize that in today's society, he has a greater than 33% chance of being sued at some point in his or her career. I also hope that you will be a little bit more gracious with him. Most docs do care about their patients, care about doing the right thing, and care about getting patients well.
Anyway, I can tell you I am very happy NOT to be in South Carolina this evening!
Thank God that is over. Knowing the facts of the case in greater detail, I am still deeply disturbed that this was ever even accepted by the unethical lawyer who took the case. When the facts are laid out, it is very offensive to any right minded person that this was ever even considered... But I am so proud of how you handled this situation and that you are still to this day as conscientious a doctor as you ever were, and unquestionably competent and dedicated in your work.
There IS a major problem in our healthcare system, and malpractice reform is at the heart of it. But strange that is not even seriously being considered in the current "debate"... Nor is deregulation so more of the thousands of existing health plans could actually compete in multiple states - 8 state approved "compeitors" are currently allowed to sell policies in San Francisco. Seems dubious that the real goal in this thing is to "reform healthcare", more likely the goal is to take over. God help us if that passes...
For the part of my brother, I am just glad this is done and over and you can move on with the important business of treating the sick and doing your job well as you always have. If we had more people concerned with treating the sick and less concerned with taking other people's money away by force rather than through free exchange of both parties in the transaction, we would be a lot further ahead than we are...
Posted by: Jon | December 09, 2009 at 03:58 PM
Sadly, when people are faced with problems that a child is born with, they are always quick to blame someone else. They don't stop and think that was the way God meant for them to be born or that it possibly could have been through their own fault that something wasn't right. God bless you Dr. Hutchinson for all you do..
Posted by: Sally Lowman | December 10, 2009 at 05:36 PM