Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Rex Carr med-mal case fails

In 1999, Maria Storm had a mole on her right shoulder that was rubbing against her bra strap; Dr. Patrick Zimmerman removed it at her request. The mole did not have an irregular shape or color. Four years later, she was diagnosed with a fatal melanoma on a different part of her body (“Louis Dehner, […]

In 1999, Maria Storm had a mole on her right shoulder that was rubbing against her bra strap; Dr. Patrick Zimmerman removed it at her request. The mole did not have an irregular shape or color. Four years later, she was diagnosed with a fatal melanoma on a different part of her body (“Louis Dehner, M.D., a pathologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, testified that the mole Zimmermann removed was not the primary spot of the melanoma”), and her family sought to blame her death on Zimmerman, seeking $10.9 million. (Zimmerman biopsies 30% of the moles he sees, and less than 1% of the ones he orders for testing are malignant, suggesting he’s already practicing heavily defensively.) A Madison County jury rejected attorney Rex Carr’s pleas; Carr (Feb. 6; Dec. 6, 2005; Nov. 6, 2005; Dec. 23, 2004; May 4, 2004; POL Dec. 28, 2004) says he’ll appeal. (Steve Horrell, “No award in med-mal case”, Edwardsville Intelligencer, Jan. 31; Leah Thorsen, “Doctor sued over cancer death defends his prognosis of mole”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 30; Steve Gonzalez, “Collinsville physician cleared in Madison County med mal trial”, Madison County Record, Jan. 31).

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4 Comments

  • This is why there is no market for 2nd hand MRI’s. What a waste. They could do much good but if you miss a tumor you will be sued to the end of the planet and beyond.

  • I agree that Healthcare providers are scarred of Juries. The issue of Tort Caps though are more like the TV show “Deal or No Deal”. It is human nature to go for the highest number on the board even when it is stastically improbable to get. Like the banker on the tv show who figures out how much to settle for based on what is on the board, the insurance companies have to do the same thing. On “Deal or No Deal” the banker offers less when the big numbers are off the board. In med-mal cases, the big numbers are for non-economic reasons and do not help to care for the injuried party.

    Are caps the answer? No!!! They are only a small bandage on the whole issue of what is going on with tort law. Presently, the system is set up so that if something bad happens, regardless of cause, someone must pay, i.e. the party with the most money. A perfect example of this here in Tennessee is the case of an obese female driving an old Ford Escort with bad tires and unserviced breaks. Breaking the speed limit she drove off a icy mountian road and sustained spinal injuries. Who paid a multimillion dollar settlement? Ford.

    • By Chris

  • Scene from the bizarro-world:

    Patient: Hey, I have this mole, can you remove it?
    Doctor: Sure, but just in case it’s cancerous I’ll have to send you for these 10 tests, start you on a diet regime, and take these x-rays.
    Patient: Hey, this is really inconvenient and expensive, you’re just trying to make a buck off me.

    • By jb

  • What happened to the beliefs in God? When it you time to go you are going to go. Your number is up. I have a lot of compasion for people who loses a love one, but this medical mal pratice is getting out of hand in Madison and St. Clair Counties in the state of Illinois.
    I have had two major surgeries one for a ruputured disc in my neck(1991) and a ruptured brain aneurysm(2000) and had to sign paper saying what the out come could be. So could someone explain to me how one could bring a law suite againt doctors for something they had to sign off on to have the surgery.
    It is a shame we do not have a Trama Center in St. Clair County anymore because of certain people wanting to make a quick dollar. A doctor is only human as we are, they only try to help take care of us! I feel so very blessed that my doctors that preformed my brain surgery done such a good job. But I am very hurt that one has left St. Elizabeth’s Hospital,because of the medical mal practice suites being so high in Madison and St. Clair Counties.May God bless everyone out there.