[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by JMintzer

I disagree completely. The ONE time I was sued for malpractice was after seeing a diabetic patient twice (who had already seen another DPM). She claimed she stepped on "a piece of glass" and the other doc couldn't find it.

I examined the "wound" debrided it superficially and found nothing. I put her on a two week course of topical antibiotics, along with a daily dressing change.

When she returned there was a noticeable improvement, so I told her to continue the present treatment regime and come back in two more weeks. She just kept repeating "just cut out the glass"... I had let her know that being a diabetic increased the risk of excision, but if there was no improvement, we would take that chance once her MD cleared her for surgery.

She never showed for her appointment. We called, and sent har a post card reminding her that she missed her appointment and she should call for an appointment. The response? "Crickets"...

Apparently, about 8 months later she went to see a dermatologist for "a spot on her hand" and when she was there, she said "by the way could you look at my heel".

Turn out she had a "Melanoma in Situ" which is easily treated by excision (which the new doc performed).

5 years later, she decided to sue me (and the original DPM for malpractice, claiming that she was unable to work (she was a government secretary) and had to take care of her ailing mother.

My malpractice insurance company assigned an attorney and they decided it would be best to go to non-binding arbitration. The other DPM used the same company but had a different attorney.

They send their own attorney from the home office and she attended the depositions and arbitration of me and the other DPM.

I finally got to see the lady again in person and THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH HER! I got to review HER medical records and after excision (which left a very faint 1.5" scar on the back of her heel), with no sign of spread or lymph node involvement. After 5 years there is a 99-100% survival rate for this type of melanoma, so it made little difference if the diagnosis was made when I first saw her, or a month later (when I had told her we would attempt an excision).

The arbitrator suggested a $650K settlement, split 40-60 between the first doc and me (I never could quite come to terms with that) and the representative from the insurance company suggested we accept, with no admission of guilt.

I was livid! There was NOTHING wrong with the lady and it had now been over 7 years since I had first seen her. When I brought this up to my attorney and the ins company rep, I was told "You just don't understand how these things work. We'll pay the claim, it wont affect your rates, but if you decline, any amount over this will be on you"...

I won't get into the racial and religious aspects they brought up trying a case in DC, but it didn't help to calm me down...

I just said, "Give me the papers. Where do I sign? Get me the hell out of here!"

All it cost was a bit of my sanity, 7-8 years out of my life and a stress level that no one should ever have to go thru...

I'll go to my grave with a clean conscious that I committed NO malpractice, and was unable to confirm to ANY standard of care, since the patient abandoned my (and the previous doctor's) practice.

But I guess, using your logic, that no one needed a pardon, if they were completely innocent of any crimes...

She was able to sue after 5 years??? Generally the statute of limitations is 30 months unless the patient is a minor, in which case they have until age 20 1/2 or if a surgical implement is left in a body in which case it is 30 months from the time it was discovered