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Medical Errors Continue to Get the Celebrity Treatment

By Joe Consumer

You may have been hearing Dennis Quaid?s name pop up this week following his speech before the National Press Club, where is discussed the near fatal experience of his newborn twins in a California hospital, and an upcoming documentary on medical errors.  He?s the second major movie star in a year to turn patient safety advocate following an all-too-common experience with medical malpractice. (See our December post about Actor James Woods, whose brother died in a Rhode Island hospital.) 

One lesson here? The problem of medical errors is so universal that even wealthy celebrities who can afford most comforts in life, can?t buy their way out of it.  Poor Julie Andrews, whose surgery in 1997 to remove non-cancerous nodules in her throat, ended her singing career.  (Her doctor settled in 2000.)  Or Dick Schaap, legendary sports writer and broadcaster, who went in for routine hip replacement surgery, contracted an infection at the hospital and died three months later. (The Schaap family sued and the jury found the doctors negligent.)  Or Dana Carvey, who sued his heart surgeon for operating on the wrong artery when he underwent a double bypass in 1998.  The doctor settled for an undisclosed amount, which Carvey donated to charity. 

In Quaid?s case, there was the additional culpability of a major drug company, whom Quaid and his wife actually sued first.  They ultimately settled with the hospital, as well.  It was during the course of his case that he learned about California?s cruelly unfair ?cap? on compensation for other malpractice victims, testifying in Congress:  

I have also learned a lot about the legal system ? and it was surprising, I have to tell you. Like many Americans, I believed that a big problem in our country was frivolous lawsuits. But now I know that the courts are often the only path to justice for families that are harmed by the pharmaceutical industry and medical errors. Yet the law is stacked against ordinary people.  For instance, in my home state of California, a 1975 law caps compensation to malpractice victims. The cap has never been raised for inflation. The practical effect is that people without the wealth to pay legal fees up front are unable to get their cases before a judge or jury.

Of course, the celebrity gossip cites, (and we include here the LA Times blog here), seem more interested in whether he?ll be playing John Edwards in a biopic.  Sometimes it?s exhausting to keep people?s attention focused on what really matters!  

UPDATE:The Rand Corporation just released a new report saying exactly what consumer groups and patient safety advocates have been saying - the best way to reduce malpractice deaths, injuries, claims and lawsuits is to reduce the amount of malpractice.  The authors say, "This result suggests that policy options that improve patient safety may offer a new avenue for reducing malpractice pressure on physicians, at the same time that they improve clinical outcomes."  

Full post as published by ThePopTort on April 15, 2010 (boomark / email).