Adam's Apple
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- Apr 25, 2004
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Doctors Should Say They're Sorry, Avoid Malpractice Suits
By Deroy Murdock, Scripps Howard News Service
14-JUL-05
NEW YORK -- Across the years and through the morphine, I recall an anesthesiologist explaining how he goofed during major surgery--on me. I was in a dreadful car crash in 1986. While trying to insert a small antibiotic tube near my heart, a Tucson Medical Center anesthetist accidentally slipped and punctured my lung, making it collapse. As I recovered from that morning's incisions, he detailed his mistake and said he was sorry.
"I have two questions," I groggily declared: "Did you intentionally collapse my lung?"
"No," the doctor replied.
"Were you trying to make me better?"
"Yes," he said.
"Well, then I forgive you. Thank you for putting me back together."
Absent that apology, a gurney-chasing attorney could have convinced me to sue this physician for malpractice. Instead, I was touched by his honesty and felt no malice toward him. As I recuperated, litigating against him was the last thing on my mind.
Along these lines, a new organization called "The Sorry Works! Coalition" (SorryWorks.net) hopes to curb lawsuits stemming from medical errors. It encourages doctors and hospitals to fess up when they screw up and offer fair compensation to those they have harmed. This simple idea should brighten the climate wherein doctors often fear the sick as potential litigants, while too many patients treat practitioners like unguarded pots of gold.
for full article:
http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=MURDOCK-07-14-05
By Deroy Murdock, Scripps Howard News Service
14-JUL-05
NEW YORK -- Across the years and through the morphine, I recall an anesthesiologist explaining how he goofed during major surgery--on me. I was in a dreadful car crash in 1986. While trying to insert a small antibiotic tube near my heart, a Tucson Medical Center anesthetist accidentally slipped and punctured my lung, making it collapse. As I recovered from that morning's incisions, he detailed his mistake and said he was sorry.
"I have two questions," I groggily declared: "Did you intentionally collapse my lung?"
"No," the doctor replied.
"Were you trying to make me better?"
"Yes," he said.
"Well, then I forgive you. Thank you for putting me back together."
Absent that apology, a gurney-chasing attorney could have convinced me to sue this physician for malpractice. Instead, I was touched by his honesty and felt no malice toward him. As I recuperated, litigating against him was the last thing on my mind.
Along these lines, a new organization called "The Sorry Works! Coalition" (SorryWorks.net) hopes to curb lawsuits stemming from medical errors. It encourages doctors and hospitals to fess up when they screw up and offer fair compensation to those they have harmed. This simple idea should brighten the climate wherein doctors often fear the sick as potential litigants, while too many patients treat practitioners like unguarded pots of gold.
for full article:
http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=MURDOCK-07-14-05
