State Supreme Court asked to overturn a law limiting the amount of damages paid out in medical malpractice cases
Created on August 2, 2010Imagine being told you have an infection on three different occasions by the same doctor and finding out a year later you actually have a cancerous tumor in the bladder. How would you feel if hospital staff found a growth in your chest and never told you or your doctor? Imagine going in to have a simple, routine colonoscopy and finding out months later you left with Hepatitis C. These are the types of calls my office gets every day; Calls from people who trusted doctors and hospital staff, only to be left feeling cheated and angry.
In the R-J today there is an article about how doctors in Las Vegas are worried and threatening to leave town because the state Supreme Court could overturn a law limiting the amount of damages paid out in medical malpractice cases, which is $350,000 in noneconomic damages.
The article explains that six years ago voters passed the medical malpractice cap on the 2004 ballot, a measure that doctors lobbied hard for, calling it Keep Our Doctors in Nevada. Doctors say not having a medical malpractice cap could lead to higher malpractice insurance rates for them, forcing them to leave Nevada and go somewhere with lower malpractice insurance rates.
Dr. Dipak Desai, the man at the center of the Hep C outbreak case, was the biggest single financial backer of the legislation, donating $25,000.
The article tells the story of a 61-year-old Nevada man named Richard Krikalo. He says a botched retina reattachment procedure in 2007 left him nearly blind in his right eye, and because of that experience, he believes the law makes it too difficult for patients to get compensated when doctors make mistakes. He said attorneys told him that the caps made it "economically unfeasible" for them to take his case. When he finally found a lawyer who said he might take his case, the attorney noted that time had run out to file it.
It is just so disappointing that people are more concerned with low insurance rates for doctors, some of the highest paid professionals in our state, but not just as concerned with limiting the rights for people who are injured and victims of medical negligence.
-Ed Bernstein
Aug. 01, 2010
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MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAW: Mother's death puts lawsuit limits on line
Challenge of law worries doctors, hospitals
Dr. Ivan Goldsmith walks through his offices off Tropicana Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard and talks about the future.
He is, at turns, upbeat and downcast.
Find article at: http://www.lvrj.com/news/mother-s-death-puts-lawsuit-limits-on-line-99712799.html