NEWS - MEDIA COVERAGE
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER
Injured Patients Tell Their Stories
Lawyers, doctors, patients take sides on bill to limit
malpractice pain-and-suffering awards.
April, 2003 - The battle of the medical malpractice anecdotes began Thursday in Raleigh with a salvo of stories from injured and angry patients who don't think much of a proposed cap on payments for pain, suffering and other intangible losses of a good life.
Doctors, hospital workers and nursing home operators will turn out by the hundreds to tell their own horror stories to the General Assembly on Tuesday.
They say that without a proposed $250,000 cap on lawsuit awards for pain and suffering, their surging malpractice insurance rates will rise so high they'll have to start turning away patients or quit their practices.
Half a dozen mistreated patients gave the other side of the story at the Raleigh headquarters of the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers, which is fighting the proposed cap on "noneconomic damages."
Sam Gibbs of Hillsborough said nerve damage during surgery for cancer he didn't have left him unable to stand, urinate or make love with his wife.
Matthew Cockerham of Winston-Salem told how back surgery complications left him unable to walk on his own, drive or work around the house.
Alice Lloyd of Morganton recalled going into a hospital with undiagnosed blood poisoning and coming out with no legs, no left arm and a single finger.
"For too long patients have been left out of the debate over how to improve access to safe, quality health care," said Marion Smith, coordinator of the N.C. Coalition for Patients' Rights, backed by the lawyers.".The General Assembly should enact pro-patient safety proposals."
The doctors, hospitals and nursing homes pushing for the limit couch it in terms of protecting patients, too, by preserving access to health care.
If lawyers were interested in what's best for patients, the doctors say, then they would reduce their fees in high-dollar cases. Bills in the legislature to cap malpractice awards also would limit lawyer fees on a sliding scale: the higher an award, the lower the percentage the lawyer would get.
"Regulating trial lawyer contingency fees will ensure that the most seriously injured patients keep more of their recovery," said Dr. Joe Jenkins of Fayetteville, head of the Medical Society's Professional Liability Task Force.
Not so fast, the lawyers said: Reducing contingency fees, which they charge only if they win, would discourage valid lawsuits because they're expensive to prepare. And if insurance company defense lawyers can charge and spend as much as they want to wage lawsuits, then why shouldn't the attorneys of injured patients?
Asked about it, Lloyd said she doesn't regret paying her lawyer a dime and doesn't support limiting legal fees.
"My lawyer worked very hard on my case for five years," she said. "He left no stone unturned. He did an excellent job. Those doctors are making a killing."
As an alternative to a payment cap, the trial lawyers say, state lawmakers should regulate medical malpractice insurance rates and promote safer medical care. Options include creating insurance company stabilization funds to even out the highs and lows of price cycles, and giving some doctors in underserved areas state income tax credits.
They also called for public disclosure of all malpractice cases paying more than $100,000, making malpractice lawsuit settlements public and launching a Patient Safety Commission in the Attorney General's Office.
The lawyers blasted a proposal to forbid the use of state investigation reports in lawsuits against nursing homes and to forbid the public release of internal nursing home quality reviews.
"Legislation that protects facilities that abuse and neglect the very people they promise to care for is morally and legally reprehensible," said Thomas Henson, a Raleigh plaintiff's attorney. "They want to hide their abuse from the public, the courts, the Congress, the media, most important, families trying to find a nursing home without a history of abuse."
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