Defensive medicine, a doctor makes a case for tort reform

I found this interesting article at kevinmd.com. What is compelling about it is how the author spells out the dangers of defensive medicine. Many of the primary doctors I know are quite concerned about their patients wellbeing, but in the back of every doctors mind is whether they will miss something of importance because one misstep in their 10 minute visit can bring a lawyer to your door.

Check this thought provoking article out. I believe he makes an excellent case for tort reform for medical malpractice and I agree with his conclusions.

Cause of death: Defensive medicine

by BirdStrike, MD on October 5th, 2012in Physician

1. A 40-year-old female sees her family physician for burning chest pain after she eats hot peppers. She had it only once while exercising. Her family physician sends her to the emergency department and she gets admitted for chest pain. Rather than going home with treatment for her GERD, she ends up dead. This never should have happened, but the family never learns what really killed her.2. A 33-year-old father of 3 dies on a hospice ward, bloated with steroids, on tube feeds with a tracheostomy. He was stricken down too young, his family is told, by a rare form of brain cancer. It was an unlucky fluke, they are told, but that is not the only reason.

3. A 7-year-old boy dies in the Pediatric ICU. His family is stunned, shocked and devastated. How could this have happened? The family is told he died from an ingrown toe-nail infection that spread to his blood stream and caused a severe form of sepsis. “It could happen to any of us.” They do not know that the breeding of this superbug was fed by a nameless killer.

4. A 16-year-old girl is on a CT scan table nervously giggling. Fifteen minutes later, she goes into cardiac arrest. A short time later, a solemn nurse informs her family that the patient has died from an allergic reaction. But her cause of death is something more insidious.