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I have to say that I totally agree on the point about doctors being sued too often. I'm sure there are cases where it's warranted, but the sheer amount of cases of doctors being sued seems to be excessive. And while I know it sucks... people cannot be expected to have a 35-year career and never make the slightest mistake. So if there's a serious mistreatment then maybe it's warranted, but I don't think that's the case in the sheer amount of lawsuits faced by the medical community.
For example, when I was three I broke my femur. From age 3 to age 18 my right leg (the one I broke) grew longer than the left -- this is normal for a major break. My orthopaedic surgeon monitored this until I was 18, at that point having determined I was done growing. He gave me the all clear; he said the leg length difference (which he measured to be 1cm using a tape measure from hip to ankle) would not cause me any real difficulties.
Well, he was wrong. My spine slowly curved over time to compensate and at age 25 -- a little over four months ago in fact -- the spinal curve resulted in nerve problems in my right arm. A chiropractor had an x-ray done and found that the leg length difference was actually 15mm (1.5cm), and said that I should absolutely have been wearing a built-up left shoe to compensate and prevent the damage from worsening all this time.
It was an error on the part of the orthopaedic surgeon. My chiropractor and GP both agree on this. However, that doesn't mean I need to sue him. He made an error, it happens. Fortunately in my case, a few months of chiropractic care as well as slowly building up lifts under the left heel are correcting the problem; my back is very close to straight again. The nerve problem is mostly gone as well. So why go for vengeance and money? At most the orthopaedic surgeon should be made aware of the mistake I think... but that's all.
Obviously many cases are much worse than mine. Some mistakes can result in permanent injury or even death. In cases like that, I think before any legal action takes place it's important to note the extent of the mistake. Was the problem likely to happen anyway? If a real mistake -- one that absolutely should not have happened -- results in a major injury of some sort, then yes, compensation is perhaps warranted. That compensation, however, still shouldn't exceed any losses, and often what we see is lawsuits in the millions of dollars which seems utterly absurd to me.
So yes, I totally agree that lawsuits against the medical community are out of hand. Obviously they shouldn't totally be quashed, but at least to some extent they certainly need to be toned down, both in quantity and in value.
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