Back in November we noted Sid Schwab’s account at SurgeonsBlog of being sued (first, second, third parts). A number of other medical blogs have also lately run first-person accounts of what it’s like to get dragged into a malpractice suit. Examples:

• Charity Doc at Fingers and Tubes in Every Orifice, Nov. 15, Nov. 20: This is suit #9, but “the bare-boned fact of the matter is that each case is a new wound that tears at your heart, leave just as bad a scar on your psyche, while re-opening the gut wrenching emotions of the old ones. As your name is dragged through the mud over and over, you begin to re-question your dedication and love for medicine, just as you have during the previous times.” A few weeks back, by the way, we noted a priceless anecdote by Charity Doc about the time a personal injury lawyer came into his office as a patient unaware that he’d previously sued the doctor;


• Musings of a Dinosaur, Nov. 20: among the few who can laugh at the experience;


• Examining Room of Dr. Charles, Nov. 17: “The Trial Lawyers Association is changing its name to the American Association for Justice. George Orwell is smiling somewhere, the skies are getting clearer every day, and no child is being left behind. A doctor acquaintance of mine just got destroyed with a $20,000,000 jury award in a bogus malpractice case.”


• Pediatrician “Flea”, Jun. 8, Jul. 12, Jul. 13, Oct. 22, and miscellaneous posts: two suits in all, “litany of abuse…heaped on me”, deposition stage fright.

P.S. Two more, from Scalpel or Sword, which however carries a disclaimer saying that its stories are fictionalized composites: Dec. 2 (shotgun filing; mom who kicked son out of house sues after his suicide), Dec. 4 (doc feels guilty over genuine error, but suit is later dropped).

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