What is Medical Malpractice?
Everyone makes mistakes. But when doctors make a mistake, people die. In A merica, innocent people are crippled and killed by medical negligence at a rate which has been described as an epidemic.
If you believe that you or a loved one has suffered injury from a healthcare provider, Goodwin & Scieszka can determine if you have a case by reviewing your medical records. This review, by a licensed medical doctor who is also a practicing attorney is a free service that we provide to anyone who calls 1-888-GOODWIN (466-3946).
We are the experts at discovering and proving malpractice. All you have to do is call us toll-free for your free consultation. From birth trauma in the delivery room to a botched prescription to an improper surgery, we have won millions of dollars for victims of medical negligence.
"Thank you so much for your helpful information."
.....Mrs. Stanley W. |
By calling 1-888-GOODWIN (466-3946), we'll make sure that what happened to you won't happen to anyone else.
For more info, click on the following headings:
"Mistakes That Kill"
"If You Suspect Birth Trauma Or Medical Malpractice"
"Nursing Home Nightmares"
Mistakes that Kill
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Medical malpractice kills more Americans than AIDS, breast cancer, or automobile accidents.
That's the shocking news released by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington on December 2, 1999. According to an article in The New York Times, "Health care is a decade behind other industries in its attention to ensuring basic safety."
The Times' article reports, "In hospitals alone, medical errors kill 44,000 to 98,000 people a year. These stunningly high rates of medical errors – resulting in deaths, permanent disability and unnecessary suffering – are simply unacceptable." |
Exposing Dangerous Doctors.
For years, the law firm of Goodwin & Scieszka has been holding health care providers financially accountable for improper surgeries, wrong medication, and misdiagnosis. In addition, they've been warning the public about the medical profession's "dirty little secret."
Frequent guests on talk radio, attorneys Scott Goodwin and Jim Scieszka were recently invited to comment on this breaking news story of 1999. Here are excerpts from a recent interview on WMUZ radio:
WMUZ: The National Academy of Sciences is calling for a new federal agency to protect patients. They say Congress should require all health care providers to report medical mistakes that cause injury or death. How bad is the problem?
Goodwin: The news media gives non-stop coverage to a plane crash that kills 270 people, yet ignores 98,000 innocent Americans being killed by doctors every year! And that doesn't even include all those who are merely maimed, handicapped or disfigured by the medical errors. There's an epidemic of malpractice but nobody's screaming about it because nobody knows.
WMUZ: Is there a cover-up?
Goodwin: The doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies have a huge vested interest in not reporting these errors. Unfortunately, they have powerful lobbies in Washington and Lansing that influence the government. As a result, Michigan has passed some terrible laws in the last ten years that protect hospitals from being held responsible for their own negligence.
Scieszka: This week in our office, we've already had three wrongful death cases – and we'll prove that careless doctors were at fault.
WMUZ: How do we know it was negligence? Sometimes people just die in spite of the best treatment.
Scieszka: We have a medical doctor who's also an attorney right in our office, plus a team of medical experts who help us investigate. These experienced doctors and specialists review our clients' charts to spot mistakes.
WMUZ: Are the hospitals being flooded with lawsuits?
Goodwin: Just the opposite. Out of all the people who suffer malpractice, only 10% actually bring cases, and of that 10%, only 1% ever get compensation! Those are low, low numbers.
WMUZ: But critics say trial lawyers are driving up the cost of health care to exorbitant levels.
Goodwin: Blaming the lawyer is a convenient smoke screen. An article in today's Detroit Free Press reveals the real reasons for price increases. Number one is slowed rates of reimbursement by Medicare and Medicaid. Number two is rising drug costs from the big pharmaceutical companies.
WMUZ: No mention of malpractice insurance as the culprit?
Scieszka: Medical malpractice insurance only accounts for 26 cents out of every $40.00 office visit, or less than 1% of national health care costs!
WMUZ: So who's pointing the finger at the attorneys?
Goodwin: The insurance companies have run an excellent public relations campaign against lawyers. One of their goals is to scare people into allowing government to put caps on the size of the awards that injured victims can receive. They want to stifle legitimate lawsuits by polluting jury pools with their propaganda.
WMUZ: But wouldn't limits on settlements lower the cost of medical care?
Scieszka: Indiana was the first state that put caps on lawsuits. After ten years of tort reform, they actually saw medical costs rise 139% – higher than any state in the country.
WMUZ: Do lawsuits make better doctors?
Goodwin: The only way to make anyone more responsible is to hit them in the pocketbook. Every business must be accountable for mistakes. But in the business of health care, human lives are at stake! If we don't put the financial pressure on, a few bad doctors will spoil our wonderful system for all the great doctors out there.
WMUZ: Are HMOs part of the problem? Are doctors spread too thin?
Scieszka: Absolutely. Some have to see twice as many patients today to earn the same money they made ten years ago. Even worse, because of HMO cutbacks, primary care physicians are often denied permission to refer their patients to see specialists. We see the tragic results of this "downsizing" everyday.
Goodwin: Because HMOs refuse to pay for necessary testing, doctors miss conditions that result in death or disability until it's too late. HMOs routinely refuse to authorize tests that would have revealed brain tumors and deadly cancers at a treatable stage.
Scieszka: Fortunately, juries are fed up with the stingy HMO tactics that result in misdiagnoses and they've awarded large verdicts to the victims. On the down side, Michigan lawmakers are again trying to protect their big HMO contributors by restricting the size of settlements against them.
WMUZ: I've heard doctors are in an ethical dilemma. To get medical procedures approved they have to lie to the HMOs. Why?
Goodwin: The HMOs only care about bottom line profits. They have clerks with no medical training making life and death decisions about what medical treatment they'll approve or disapprove. So doctors have to get around these bureaucrats to save lives.
Scieszka: In our auto insurance cases, adjusters with only a high school diploma are the ones who decide which injured clients get the treatment their medical doctors are recommending!
Goodwin: Where's the outcry from the public? We have so much incompetence in our health care delivery system that it's killing more Americans than AIDS, breast cancer, or auto accidents.
WMUZ: Who's to blame? Let's take some calls and find out.
Caller #1: I work in an intensive care unit in a large local hospital. We have medical students, interns, and residents; over the last 19-years I've seen them all make mistakes that were definitely malpractice.
Scieszka: How can we improve the system?
Caller #1: Better communication. I'm a critical care nurse, and I see doctors misrepresent errors to the families. Instead of saying, "Look, I really screwed up," they conspire to hide the facts.
Goodwin: If you or I run a red light and kill someone, aren't we responsible to that other party? Isn't that why we pay insurance?
WMUZ: Good point. Has the level of care gone up or down?
Caller #1: Down. We don't carry enough staff anymore. It's not about patients, it's about profits. So they cut costs by cutting nurses.
WMUZ: How bad is it?
Caller #1: They only use two registered nurses for every 20 patients. The rest of the care is now provided by unskilled labor. They take people from the housekeeping department and give them three weeks of training. They call them "patient service assistants."
Scieszka: Managed health care is in the business of cutting corners. And yet we pay more and more money to them each year.
WMUZ: They make incredible profits, but they still push for caps in damage awards. Let's take a call.
Caller #2: Those huge settlements I hear about drive me crazy.
Scieszka: The big awards you hear about are usually out-of-state and are almost always taken away by an appeals court. Plus, in Michigan, we don't even allow punitive damages. We can only collect for compensatory damages, and believe me, every penny is hard-earned, legitimate payment for legitimate injuries.
Caller #2: We all make mistakes. So why sue?
Goodwin: Forgetting your car keys is a mistake. Cutting off the wrong foot is a crime. We have hundreds of clients that are crippled and paralyzed by preventable medical errors. When it happens to your family do you want access to the court system?
Caller #2: Doctors do their best.
Goodwin: Most do. But there are doctors who are drunk! Is it fair that they operate with complete immunity? I have a 13-year-old client who had the wrong leg operated on. How can that happen in 1999?
Caller #2: But what about those frivolous cases?
Scieszka: That's media hype. It costs us tens of thousands of dollars to bring a medical malpractice suit. Because we operate on a contingency fee basis, we don't get paid unless we win money for you. That means we weed out any cases that are not legitimate, provable negligence. We simply can't waste our time and money pursuing a frivolous case.
WMUZ: These guys have been defending our listeners for over 13 years. As we say, they've won millions of dollars for thousands of listeners – that's an incredible track record. Next caller.
Caller #3: I never thought I'd need an attorney until my own brother died in the hospital. Doctors operated to remove his gall bladder and during surgery they slipped and cut a major artery. What made it more horrible was that he didn't even have a gall bladder – it had been removed years earlier! By the time they sent him to a liver specialist for the real problem, it was almost too late. He survived the second surgery, but he was removed from intensive care too soon, choked on his own blood, and suffocated.
Scieszka: Nothing can bring her brother back. But we'll keep working to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else.
Goodwin: Unfortunately, since Governor Engler's been in office, families like this have lost many of their rights to obtain fair and just compensation. Why? Because the huge insurance companies and HMOs have the money and power to sway legislative votes. The public better wake up and change some laws before their own loved ones have no recourse against a bad doctor or hospital.
WMUZ: Thanks to my guests Scott Goodwin and Jim Scieszka. If you think you may be a victim of medical malpractice, call them for a free legal consultation. It's totally confidential, and there's no obligation. Call toll-free 1-888-GOODWIN (466-3946).
Call now for your free legal consultation
1-888-GOODWIN (466-3946)
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If You Suspect Birth Trauma Or Medical Malpractice
DO keep notes of events by date and time, including things said by doctors and nurses, while fresh in your memory.
DO take photographs, with notes of date, time and location. Be discrete.
DO ask questions of doctors and nurses in a non-threatening manner. Write down the names of the doctors and nurses, and take notes after your conversation.
DO insist on an autopsy of your loved one.
DO bring a friend with you as a witness if doctors or nurses ask to meet you for a conference.
DO consult attorneys Goodwin & Scieszka immediately – we specialize in medical malpractice issues with free consultation.
DON'T mention lawsuits or attorneys to the nurses or doctors, even if they ask you about it. Don't threaten to go to an attorney or file a lawsuit.
DON'T act belligerent or hostile. Your concern is to get help for your loved one, not win an argument.
DON'T withhold any information from your attorney; it can cause a potential settlement to fail.
DON'T assume any doctor or nurse will repeat any criticism they may have previously expressed about another doctor or nurse.
The earlier you call Goodwin & Scieszka (1-888-GOODWIN), the better they will be able to assist you.
Call now for your free legal consultation
1-888-GOODWIN (466-3946)
Nursing Home Nightmares
A recent study in California reviewed death certificates issued between 1986 and 1993. The study showed that out of 300,000 deaths, nearly 22,000 preventable deaths occurred in nursing homes because of starvation, dehydration, infections or choking!
Negligence Is Widespread
Last year alone, 10,000 of the 15,000 nursing homes inspected had violations. State inspectors told U.S. authorities that 5,458 – about one in three – should be banned from receiving federal funds for new patients. Unfortunately, our government doesn't have the will or the manpower to ensure nursing home safety. Sadly, the problem exists in our own backyard. According to Time magazine, "In Detroit a nursing home whose owner was convicted of Medicaid fraud 17 years ago was cited again last year for bad hygiene, inattention to frail residents and incompetent staff." Despite 45 billion dollars pumped into nursing homes annually by the federal government, most homes are still under-staffed and under-regulated.
How To Find Good Care
1. Make an unannounced visit.
Talk to residents. Are they clean and well-groomed? Do they enjoy being there? How does the staff treat residents? Are the hallways clean and safe?
2. Look, listen and smell.
How are the meals? Are too many residents in restraints? How long does it take help to arrive when a call button is pushed? Is there a persistent smell of urine or feces?
3. Check the state's survey of inspections.
Each state requires its yearly inspection results to be available at all homes. Federal law also requires each state to keep information on all its nursing homes. To review yours, call (517) 336-6753.
4. Visit frequently.
Residents with concerned family and regular visits receive better care than those who appear abandoned.
If a loved one or someone you know has been injured due to negligence or neglect at a nursing home, call Goodwin & Scieszka today at 1-888-GOODWIN (466-3946)
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Call now for your free legal consultation
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