Last weekend my wife and I were visited by a friend and his wife. He was at a medical mtg in Orlando. He and I went to college AND medical school together. Although we were good friends, I have not seen him OR spoken with hime since the day we walked off the stage at graduation from med school with our diplomas. He and his wife pulled up in front of our home last Sat afternoon and when he went to get out of the car his wife went to the trunk and got his wheelchair.... I couldn't believe my eyes. He had told me he was a very successful invasive cardiologist in Louisiana but had some physical problems. Well, I has not seen Dave since May of 1976 and was shocked to see him in a wheel chair. It turns out he had severe cervical disc disease from decades of wearing a heavy lead apron around his neck while doing heart caths. In 1995 he finally needed surgery. Unfortunately, during the early phase of the operation a very necessary piece of equipment malfunctioned.... the back-up piece was also broken so the surgeon proceeded on doing something that should not have been done and my friend ultimately was left with a spastic hemiparesis from the waist down. He is still a very successful and active cardiologist. He had endured 2 more operations but is now in a wheelchair. Obviously he had a number of prominent attorneys advocating for him but, according to Dave, in the state of Louisiana there are "malpractice caps". He never sued.
I have a widened perspective of the scope of what malpractice reform would involve.