Health care and frivolous lawsuits
On December 13, 2002, Dr. K. Ruff was named in a lawsuit in a case in which she was not responsible. A few months prior, a patient was flown into Dr. Ruff’s hospital. He had a cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and by the time he arrived at the hospital, a lack of blood flow to his lower extremities had become fatal. The patient went to the intensive care unit in the middle of the night, and Dr. Ruff was involved with him for less than ten minuets before he died. Later, Dr. Ruff became one of the twenty-three people named in a lawsuit concerning the man’s death. It took seventeen months, six motions, and a deposition, during which she told the plaintiff’s attorneys she had nothing to do with the case, before her name was dropped. In that time, Dr. Ruff’s medical liability insurance came up for renewal. The insurer told Ruff that they would not renew her contract. Although she scrambled to find an insurer, Ruff could not afford any claims-made policies. Consequently, Dr. Ruff was forced to abandon her practice. On January 5, 2004, Tony Dias, a father of two, suffered head injuries in a serious car accident. He was rushed to the nearest hospital, but the only doctor able to perform the life-saving surgery Tony needed, Dr. . . .
They are reluctant to disclose mistakes, hampering ability to make improvements, and they are less willing to provide volunteer emergency medical care. However, due the plethora of truly frivolous lawsuits filed every year, the quality of American health care is declining, while costs are rapidly escalating. Steven Boyde that, "Bayer is facing more than 8,000 lawsuits after its widely used cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol was withdrawn from the market. Not only are physicians and hospitals affected, but the cost and availability of prescription drugs and medical devices are also struck. But Tony did not get the help he needed because lawsuit abuse had driven Doctor Ruff away. In the case of the drug Baycol, it was mentioned to the New York Times by Dr. MICRA limits what attorneys can take from injured victims as fees and places reasonable limits on non-economic damages while protecting legitimate access to the courts and ensuring full recovery of lost wages, medical expenses, and other economic damages resulting from medical malpractice. On top of this, good doctors, like Dr. Ruff, are being forced into premature retirement. Stated by Richard Roth in the New York Times: "As to the right to sue, our preference is to keep the practice of medicine as far from the courts and the predatory instincts of some of the trial bar as possible. Americans joke about frivolous lawsuits, but they are no joking matter when they undercut the quality of the American health care system. Frivolous litigation hinder new discoveries and often lead to the withdrawal of beneficial products. 5 million lives are saved or improved by implantable medical devices.
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