Many Doctors Keep Practicing After Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

On behalf of Hastings Law Firm P.C. posted in Doctor Errors on Tuesday, September 16, 2014.

When some patients pursue a medical malpractice claim and successfully litigate it, they may feel as though they are helping to prevent the same sort of injury that they suffered from happening to anyone else. However, even with multiple medical malpractice payouts for injuries or negligent care, doctors and other healthcare workers in Texas and across the United States continue to practice. Some individuals are beginning to question why some of those doctors still have their license.

A doctor who has studied this problem extensively claims that this is a nationwide problem. He says over half of the doctors who had their hospital privileges revoked between 1990 and 2009 were never reprimanded by their local medical board. This sad fact may help explain the death of one doctor’s wife, who developed appendicitis while on a family vacation.

The doctor’s wife and mother of two underwent emergency surgery for her appendicitis and died only days later. Apparently, she ultimately bled to death while still lying in her hospital bed. Following her death, her husband reviewed her files and noted that, in the hours following the surgery, her blood pressure was shockingly low. However, the attending surgeon never requested any further testing to figure out why.

He claims that those types of vitals are obviously abnormal to those in the medical community and should have been addressed. He pursued a medical malpractice lawsuit against the surgeon who operated on his wife, who ultimately settled for $250,000, although he never admitted that he did anything wrong. However, this was not the surgeon’s first payout for a malpractice claim — it was his eleventh. Sadly, doctors who have faced multiple medical malpractice claims continue to practice, putting Texas patients at risk for avoidable injury. Victims may pursue similar action as the doctor who lost his wife, and retain the legal right to seek compensation through the successful litigation of a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Source: CBS News, “Despite multiple malpractice payouts, doctors often keep practicing”, Ben Eisler and Mark Strassmann, Sept. 12, 2014