Rancho Palos Verdes malpractice ordeal nears end

How bad can things be when his judgement moved him from Torrance to the Hill? Maybe he should get some compensation but this settlement seems excessive. I would think that the medical costs would be about the same regardless of when the cancer was diagnosed and a favorable outcome was far from guaranteed even if they had caught it earlier. This isn't a slam-dunk case where some botched surgery resulted in extensive and permanent disabilities or death. I am sorry but I hope this is appealed. It's no wonder our medical care is so expensive and dedicated doctors are hard to find. They get out of school with enormous student loans, the hours are lousy, the compensation isn't what it used to be, the CEOs running the hospitals make a lot more and the doctors have to worry about malpractice lawsuits like this. Yes, they made a mistake but how much longer would she have lived and what quality of life would she have had if it had been diagnosed sooner? This cancer probably wouldn't have been diagnosed any sooner if she hadn't been pregnant. Not taking into consideration the prior history of negligence I would say from my standpoint the doctor deserves a break on this particular matter.

Magella isn't a fly by night organization. Although I am deeply sorry for the family and their loss, the suit may be just like many others-no basis. A perfect example of why medical costs are skyrocketing in this country. When Obama and his health crew (and all the media) keep citing that physicians are driving up the cost by ordering unnecessary tests, they always fail to mention the reason behind the tests: CYA. Malpractice has driven up the utilization of the medical system astronomically. Until someone can do something to cure the problem, the costs will continue to rise. Period.

Disgusted wrote:

How bad can things be when his judgement moved him from Torrance to the Hill? Maybe he should get some compensation but this settlement seems excessive. I would think that the medical costs would be about the same regardless of when the cancer was diagnosed and a favorable outcome was far from guaranteed even if they had caught it earlier. This isn't a slam-dunk case where some botched surgery resulted in extensive and permanent disabilities or death. I am sorry but I hope this is appealed. It's no wonder our medical care is so expensive and dedicated doctors are hard to find. They get out of school with enormous student loans, the hours are lousy, the compensation isn't what it used to be, the CEOs running the hospitals make a lot more and the doctors have to worry about malpractice lawsuits like this. Yes, they made a mistake but how much longer would she have lived and what quality of life would she have had if it had been diagnosed sooner? This cancer probably wouldn't have been diagnosed any sooner if she hadn't been pregnant. Not taking into consideration the prior history of negligence I would say from my standpoint the doctor deserves a break on this particular matter.

Well said....what kind of parent puts their child in front of a camera for publicity like this? It's bad enough that this little boy doesn't have a mother now some greedy lawyer(the only winner here as far as I am concerned) is going to wallow in a large judgement.
This man should have kept this out of the media.

The father made the right decision to purse this matter. Making this public could save a life. Remember this took four years of the father's life, to follow-up on this matter.

A person died because 2 physicians didn't competently do their jobs; they were negligent. Aside from their job title, anyone not doing their job competently that leads to death is liable. Excessive? If your mom, your wife or your daughter died due to negligence/incompetence, can you put a $ tag on it? Certainly this story broke b/c it's local and the enormity of settlement involved. No one feels worse than those 2 physicians involved, aside from the family of the victim. The physicians will never practice the same again. Their confidence probably is lost; second guessing their diagnosis, fearful of malpractice suits, not practicing medicine as they were trained. Everyone makes mistakes. Hopefully this will be an expensive slap on their hands and they can move on now that it's settled.

As for the socialized medicine ... in effect, if anyone of you have ever been to our local Harbor UCLA, County USC, or then King-Drew, that's how it would be. Instead of paying copay's and deductibles, you'll pay with your time. Nothing, especially medical care, can free. Gov't can't finance or cover the cost completely. The burden for individuals will be time we all will wait to be seen for a common cold. People are whiners, me included. I hate traffic jams, i hate waiting in line for rides at disneyland, i hate waiting to exit a game at the laker game after it's over, etc. Imagine how fun it will be waiting 2 to 3 hours to be seen by a physician for a common cold. What i thought was a pneumonia will have probably evolved to a little sniffle by the time i'm seen. Becareful of what you ask for.

Peace.

First two letters here
Its so obvious
Most only care about money
And there billers act like its there own $
Shakespeare was right
Rodney in Heaven

the king wrote:

<quoted text>
Well said....what kind of parent puts their child in front of a camera for publicity like this? It's bad enough that this little boy doesn't have a mother now some greedy lawyer(the only winner here as far as I am concerned) is going to wallow in a large judgement.
This man should have kept this out of the media.

This all sounds nice and everything....So why not just give him is wife back? Just let the boy have a mother to raise him...Lord have Mercy.

Sorry to hear of this woman's illness and death. A second opinion could have saved this woman. Having a "mass" of tissue in the body is not a time to ignore it.

MD and Attorney Wrote wrote:

First two letters here
Its so obvious
Most only care about money
And there billers act like its there own $
Shakespeare was right
Rodney in Heaven

Who are you referring to when you say "most only care about money"-the lawyers who fuel all the malpractice suites?? None of my colleagues nor I went into medicine "for the money". We are smarter than that. If all we cared about was money, we'd use our ample brain power to pursue other more lucrative avenues. Sorry, there just ain't anything to be gained by being a doc anymore. And, as to other posts above-so sure that a negligent doctor was involved- I am not involved in this case, nor do I know the details. But, I can say from experience that quite unfortunately, not all ovarian CA cases are black and white. The MD involved got a high quality ultrasound from Magella. Endometriosis is quite common. Ovarian CA is not, especially in a younger woman-very rare. Banking on the odds, they likely decided to do nothing until the pregnacy was over. Had they gone in and operated and caused a miscarriage for a benign problem, I am sure a whole big other can of worms would have been opened-another lawsuit. Get all the facts before condemning people. We all know that the paper provides only enough to make people emotional. Real life is much more dull and uninteresting.

it was a bad diagnosis
it's an art
A second referral should have been made and appropriate test should be done

I wonder what cost lawyers add to our medical costs. I was surprised that the MD's in this case didn't call in other experts just to cover their butts.

Doctors only PRACTICE medicine. Due to the propaganda of big, rich insurance companies too many people believe that malpractice has raised the cost of health insurance. This is simply NOT true to the extent that people believe. In fact, it is nearly impossible to find a lawyer who will take a medical malpractice case these days as the cost to put on a case far exceeds the $250,000 cap on malpractice lawsuits that is now in effect. This has created a free for all for doctors to rush through patients. If they happen to be wrong, oh well, no one sues anymore. There is no amount of money that can ever bring this poor man's wife back. Rich or poor, it doesn't matter - love is love - and he won't ever see his wife again. No one knows that pain except those who have experienced it. My feeling is the penalty should have been much higher. And they need to change the law to raise the cap on the malpractice cases to $5 million.

Always remember your are incharge of your health and no matter what you think you must do always ask questions and lots of them, it's your life !

this took a lot for him, especially with a a child.

kudos.

Justice Denied wrote:

Doctors only PRACTICE medicine. Due to the propaganda of big, rich insurance companies too many people believe that malpractice has raised the cost of health insurance. This is simply NOT true to the extent that people believe. In fact, it is nearly impossible to find a lawyer who will take a medical malpractice case these days as the cost to put on a case far exceeds the $250,000 cap on malpractice lawsuits that is now in effect. This has created a free for all for doctors to rush through patients. If they happen to be wrong, oh well, no one sues anymore. There is no amount of money that can ever bring this poor man's wife back. Rich or poor, it doesn't matter - love is love - and he won't ever see his wife again. No one knows that pain except those who have experienced it. My feeling is the penalty should have been much higher. And they need to change the law to raise the cap on the malpractice cases to $5 million.

Oh yes, we doctors are just bad guys out there trying to make a buck at the expense of hapless people like you. Guess what? We are human, too. If you are so unhappy with your medical care, and the fact that no one seems to know what they are doing in the medical field-go to med school, sacrifice 12-15 years of your life training, and mortgage off your assets to pay for it. Then, you too, can "practice". It is so easy to sit back from the comfort of your chair passing judgments on biased articles. So fun to pick on the very people who have devoted their lives to helping others.

StayAtHomeMom wrote:

Always remember your are incharge of your health and no matter what you think you must do always ask questions and lots of them, it's your life !

Everyone has an invested interest in their own health and as such should take an active part in their care. If it doesn't seem right to you, ask questions. If the questions are not answered to your satisfaction, move on.

very true wrote:

<quoted text>
Everyone has an invested interest in their own health and as such should take an active part in their care. If it doesn't seem right to you, ask questions. If the questions are not answered to your satisfaction, move on.

You're right. She waited 6 months after she gave birth to follow up on the tumor. She should have asked about it at her first postpartum checkup. Doctors are too busy to play nursemaid to all their patients. Lawsuits like this will force people out of medicine or discourage them from geting into it and the situation will only get worse.

Perhaps she thought she was being responsible by allowing the doctor to make the medical decision that he/she went through 12 to 15 years of schooling, to make. That is exactly why the doctors should have run tests to rule out anything malignant. Obviously this woman trusted her doctors and why shouldn't she? Bottom line, the ball was dropped and now the family should be paid. This is not a frivolous case, this is the ultimate loss.

I have three close friends-all were excellent physicians, top of their game, very easy to talk to and really the type of doctor we all look for. All have dropped clinical medicine completely in the past 3 years, all disgusted with the direction medicine is going. Not worth their time or stress. Minimal payback and too much concern over malpractice has lead them to use their creative energy in other areas. The losers in this game? People like you and me who need competent, caring physicians And, of course, the physicians themselves, who were fouled out early of a game that they clearly loved.

OnTheFence wrote:

Perhaps she thought she was being responsible by allowing the doctor to make the medical decision that he/she went through 12 to 15 years of schooling, to make. That is exactly why the doctors should have run tests to rule out anything malignant. Obviously this woman trusted her doctors and why shouldn't she? Bottom line, the ball was dropped and now the family should be paid. This is not a frivolous case, this is the ultimate loss.

And how do you know the ball was dropped? Do you know for a fact that she was not told to follow up as soon as the pregnancy ended? No. Where does the physician's responsibility end? They can tell, prod, and push a patient to follow up-but, they can't hold their hands and lead them to be seen. From what I've read about the case, I doubt very much that any "ball was dropped". Yes, it is the ultimate loss. No one is arguing that. But, quite unfortunately, such losses occur on a daily basis. It is not society's responsibility to pay for them.