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New Instrument Trays For Tort Reform States Will Include Alarm Clocks

By Steve Lombardi

TEXAS MEDICAL DREAM TEAM: Invitation #6, Guess which of the Seven Dwarfs will get the invite.

Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy or Sneezy?

We have to apologize to Texas for not sending out the next invitation until today. I suspect the Tex-ass Legislature is interested in filling out their dance card with tort reform minded doctors. It's not that there haven't been candidates to invite to practice medicine in Texas but I've been busy writing an appellate court brief. I know, I know I'm sorry.

First the Warning to Texas Patients

If you're a patient in Texas you'll want to know that if the surgeon or hospital makes a really big mistake while you're hospitalized you need to be insured because in Texas the surgeon, surgical teams, hospital team and hospital staff's really big mistakes are on your dime. Tort reform measures passed by the Tex-ass State Legislature give the docs and hospital a 'free-get-out-of-jail' card when your life is ruined because of their mistake.

I kid you not.

Yeah I'm not kidding. Just ask any attorney who use to practice in the area of medical malpractice. Don't take my word; I'm not licensed to practice in Texas. But I do know the law and no doctor or the Texas Board of Medicine has written any comment to dispute this opinion. And they wont' because I'm right.

Patients in Texas need to insure their quality of life – because the medical professionals are getting a free ride for their really big mistakes.

So the word to the wise is for you to take out a really large disability insurance policy before having any surgery performed in the State of Tex-ass. If you can't afford the insurance but you can afford a tank of gas drive out of state to get surgery. Those are your choices. Otherwise if they make a really big mistake you will just have to lower your standard of living and suffer in silence.

Let's Fill Out the Invite Card for the next Texas Medical Dream Team Member

Okay the dream team member who should get an invitation is Sleepy, not Doc but Sleepy. He might like San Antonio. Sleepy is a surgeon who is reported to be in Massachusetts but might be very interested in moving and practicing medicine in Texas since mistakes, really big ones, are on the patient's dime rather than the medical professions.

As a patient what do I have to worry about?

Here is a report that people in Texas may want to report to the Tex-ass Medical Board so they can send out the invitation. This comes from James Reed in New York.

'Bob posted excerpts from a Boston Globe story about a Dr. Loren J. Borud, who fell asleep during an operation last year.

When Borud arrived for surgery on a Friday morning in June, an operating room nurse noticed he looked tired and 'wobbly.' He said he'd been up most of the night working on a book, but wished to proceed with the day's operations.

During the morning's second surgery, he actually dozed off. The nurse took him aside and recommended that he take a break, but he refused and returned to the operation. This surgery, a liposuction and scar repair procedure, lasted seven hours, instead of the 90 minutes Borud told the patient it should take.

The patient, Michael J. Hicks, suffered complications and later sued the hospital, six doctors including Borud and two nurses. The case was settled for confidential terms.'

Thank you Jim, from New York

Thanks Jim for pointing this risk out; it's a pretty good idea to know that the doctor you chose to cut on you may be sleeping during the surgery. After all patients on the operating table under an anesthetic wouldn't necessarily know that the surgeon is falling asleep. You'd think the staff, who we assume are there to protect the patient might say something. Here allow me to be factitious and make up some dialog that I expect to hear in this operating room.

'Doctor, doctor, you need to wake up, the patient might find out you're sleeping during the surgery.'

'Shouldn't we be calling the hospital administration before he wakes up?' "No?"

'I wonder if one of us should bring an alarm clock for the next surgery?'

'No, no there is already one the instrument tray. Is it a Timex?'

'Did we forget to set it? Jane, you forgot to set it again!'

Okay enough foolishness. We lawyers can be so frivolous with our law suits.

Now the following information is for patients:

2009 Press Releases

	Thursday, March 26, 2009 Medical Board Suspends License of Bruce Robin McFarland, M.D. of Corpus Christi
	Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Medical Board Suspends License of Shirley Pigott, M.D., of Victoria
	Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Medical Board Suspends Licensed of Randy Ramahi, MD of Arlington, TX
	Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Medical Board Disciplines 33 Doctors and Issues 399 Physician Licenses
	Monday, February 9, 2009 Medical Board Names Robinson Executive Director, Moore Medical Director
	Thursday, January 22, 2009 Medical Board Suspends License of Brent J. Coleman, D.O., of Laguna Vista

For more information about the 33 who were disciplined see our next post tomorrow. In the meantime don't get hit by a frivilous lawsuit and choose a hospital that claims to have the sharpest needles.

"We aim to please, especially when we are awake."

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on April 02, 2009 (boomark / email).