What are the first steps to get an answer to "My doctor gave me XXX
for my ZZZ, and then when I had WWW he gave me YYY for that, but YYY
multiplies the effect of XXX and bad things happened and I had to be
hospitalized. Was giving me YYY when he was already giving me XXX,
without running the test to see the new effectiveness of XXX sooner
(before I was presenting with life-threatening SSS) within the
accepted standards of medical care? And if it wasn't, how can I ask
for compensation for my costs associated with that hospitalization?"

I don't bear any ill will to the doctor, and I think I'm all better
now, as long as I didn't get hepatitis or worse from the transfusions
I needed. I'm not looking for any compensation for getting poked with
needles a bunch of times, but there are some moderately hefty bills
for doctor's services and prescriptions, and I had to impose on
friends and family, who also incurred
costs in time and money. Mistakes happen, but I don't think I should
have
to pay for someone else's mistakes.

One of the doctors at the hospital sent me home with a prescription
for injectable LLL, twice a day for 10 days, dispense 12. I
questioned
this, since 2 times 10 is 20, but he said "Don't worry, you'll
probably
only need it for 3 days, until the XXX is back at the therapeutic
level."
I'm going to need to keep self-injecting for at least the full 10
days,
but my pharmacy says that to get the remaining 8 syringes would be a
refill, with a new $40 copayment. If that doctor had written the
prescription without the discrepancy, I wouldn't be out that second
$40,
so I'll also be asking about that.

I understand this is all fact-specific, and more facts are not what I
want to post, so all I'm asking is to whom do I go next to get advice?

aeiou98764@hotmail.com (Buddys A Gooddoctor) wrote in message
news:<hq9q20hgfnc4vc56s4rmkm37dv8ms177jf@4ax.com>...
What are the first steps to get an answer to "My doctor

<short version: did X to me. Was doing X>
within the accepted standards of medical care?

How you find out is, you call up and try to make an appointment with a
medical malpractice plaintiff's personal injury lawyer. Ask your
lawyer friends who the "go-to" guy in your area is for med-mal cases.
If you don't have any lawyer friends, ask your doctor friends who is
the med-mal lawyer they hate and fear the most. If you don't have any
lawyer or doctor friends, ask your catastrophically injured friends
who represented them in their med-mal suit that they won. Or call the
local bar association for a referral.
And if it wasn't, how can I ask for compensation for my costs associated with that hospitalization?"

Most med-mal attys won't even look at your case past the initial
screening interview, unless you have _major_ damages, either death or
some life-changing catastrophic loss of function with potential
damages in at least the high 6-figure range, since it will probably
cost YOUR atty as much as $100k or more to prepare and try the case.
And despite the ins. propaganda claptrap you may be hearing these
days, about how afraid the ins. co.'s are of "fraudulent" claims
earning runaway verdicts, the med-mal insurers for doctors are _not_
just rolling over and paying on smaller, "nuisance" claims these days;
they are fighting them even if the cost of litigation far exceeds the
maximum amount you could possibly hope to win. Is your case that big?
But hey, it won't hurt to ask around locally.
I don't bear any ill will to the doctor, and I think I'm all better now, as long as I didn't get hepatitis or worse from the transfusions I needed. I'm not looking for any compensation for getting poked with needles a bunch of times, but there are some moderately hefty bills for doctor's services and prescriptions, and I had to impose on friends and family, who also incurred costs in time and money. Mistakes happen, but I don't think I should have to pay for someone else's mistakes.

It sounds like you're only talking a few thousand bucks, at most.
OTOH maybe there IS something there, with long-term potential harm
that would be compensable, and since you have used fake names for your
drugs, no one here on MLM can tell. Don't tell us here; ask the
med-mal lawyers you call. They may even have a special litigation
group set up to help people who have been improperly treated with your
combination of drugs. YOU WON'T KNOW UNTIL YOU ASK and give the atty
all the necessary details, in a confidential setting. Then follow his
advice. Good luck,

--
This posting is for discussion purposes, not professional advice.
Anything you post on this Newsgroup is public information.
I am not your lawyer, and you are not my client in any specific legal
matter.
For confidential professional advice, consult a lawyer in a private
communication.

Mike Jacobs
LAW OFFICE OF W. MICHAEL JACOBS
10440 Little Patuxent Pkwy #300
Columbia, MD 21044
(tel) 410-740-5685 (fax) 410-740-4300

mjacobslaw@comcast.net (Michael Jacobs) wrote in message
news:<hmm4309qvugj6nu4td42ttoqqh3nj7jftr@4ax.com>... How you find out is, you call up and try to make an appointment with a medical malpractice plaintiff's personal injury lawyer.

Is there any source of advice short of that?
And if it wasn't, how can I ask for compensation for my costs associated with that hospitalization?" Most med-mal attys won't even look at your case past the initial screening interview, unless you have _major_ damages, either death or some life-changing catastrophic loss of function with potential damages in at least the high 6-figure range, since it will probably cost YOUR atty as much as $100k or more to prepare and try the case.

Does this mean if the damages are between "Here, I'll waive my
fee for today's visit, and give you these free sample pills"
and that high six figures, a slightly damaged patient is out
of luck? That's too bad, because it encourages people to make
those very high claims because that's the only chance they have
to get anything at all, right down to the McDonald's coffee
lady, who at first asked only for medical bills.

aeiou98764@hotmail.com (Buddys A Gooddoctor) wrote in message
news:<otc7309ua05gl7tf051mebvt8ie8733s9b@4ax.com>... mjacobslaw@comcast.net (Michael Jacobs) wrote in message news:<hmm4309qvugj6nu4td42ttoqqh3nj7jftr@4ax.com>... How you find out is, you call up and try to make an appointment with a medical malpractice plaintiff's personal injury lawyer. Is there any source of advice short of that?

Well, you could do your own consultation with an independent medical
professional of the same specialty, and ask _him_ if what the first
doctor did was outside the standard of care. Some med-mal clients get
referred to lawyers by their own (2nd opinion) doctors after they have
done just that. But in practice, most local docs are loathe to call a
colleague negligent, and so lawyers typically go to expert referral
services to find docs that specialize in reviewing and commenting on
potential malpractice claims. Those MD's aren't worried about what
the potential defendant will think of them; it's all they do. Or,
they will go to recognized authorities in the field _outside_ the
local practice area to seek that liability opinion -- for instance,
the lawyer may hire the guy who wrote the most widely respected book
on that subspecialty to review and comment on what the treating doctor
did.

Anything short of that is just a shot in the dark, since you don't
really know if the first doc violated the standard of care or not
without a MEDICAL OPINION saying that he did. An expert opinion to
that effect is a virtual requirement if you hope to win, and in some
states the law specifically requires you to have such an opinion in
hand before even bringing the claim. That's why it costs so much to
try a med-mal suit. It takes a lot of expert witness time, which the
expert doctor witness bills by the hour, for your retained expert
doctors to review what the treating defendant doctor did, read all his
reports and notes, review the associated medical literature, give a
written opinion to the victim's lawyer, give testimony at deposition
and at trial. Some cases need more than one expert since each may be
able to address only part of the required elements of the liability
case. And of course, then there will be the damages experts -- the
subsequent treating docs, the vocational rehab specialist, the
economist who forecasts the victim's future lost wages and cost of
future medical care, etc.

And you _still_ haven't given us a clue what drugs you were given, and
why you feel they may have been contraindicated to be given together.
If you want to practice medicine on your own as well as practicing
law, you could take a look in the Physician's Desk Reference which
lists just about all the prescription medications available in USA,
along with their indicated uses, side effects, contraindications, etc.
and then draw your own conclusions. But that knowledge still won't
get you into court even if you're right, and won't get the doctor's
insurance company to give you a second glance. Remember, a little
knowledge is a dangerous thing. Please don't try to self-diagnose.
And if it wasn't, how can I ask for compensation for my costs associated with that hospitalization?" Most med-mal attys won't even look at your case past the initial screening interview, unless you have _major_ damages, either death or some life-changing catastrophic loss of function with potential damages in at least the high 6-figure range, since it will probably cost YOUR atty as much as $100k or more to prepare and try the case. Does this mean if the damages are between "Here, I'll waive my fee for today's visit, and give you these free sample pills" and that high six figures, a slightly damaged patient is out of luck? That's too bad, because it encourages people to make those very high claims because that's the only chance they have to get anything at all, right down to the McDonald's coffee lady, who at first asked only for medical bills.

Yes, and Mickey D would have been very smart to accept her early
offer. Forcing a case into suit really gives the plaintiff no choice
but to go for everything possible -- and it is almost always the
defendant who has control over whether the case has to go to suit,
since any reasonable plaintiff's lawyer would much rather settle out
of court -- it's less work, and the client gets her money quicker,
even if it's less than she would have gotten if they had gone to
trial; and you avoid the risk of losing altogether, which is a big
risk if you have megabucks invested in the preparation of the case.

I'm guessing you may have misinterpreted my comment re: needing "six
figure damages" mentioned in the earlier reply. That figure would
include not only the actual past medical bills, but past and future
loss of wages, future potential medical expenses, and "general
damages" for pain, suffering, disfigurement, and disability, depending
on the nature of the injury and how bad it was and how long it took to
heal, if it healed at all. Heck, you could have a real bell-ringer
of a case with no post-malpractice medical expenses at all, if the
victim dies. A lawyer you consult in hopes of his taking your case
would be in the best position to tell you whether you have enough in
potential damages (all kinds) to make it worth pursuing. Good luck,

--
This posting is for discussion purposes, not professional advice.
Anything you post on this Newsgroup is public information.
I am not your lawyer, and you are not my client in any specific legal
matter.
For confidential professional advice, consult a lawyer in a private
communication.

Mike Jacobs
LAW OFFICE OF W. MICHAEL JACOBS
10440 Little Patuxent Pkwy #300
Columbia, MD 21044
(tel) 410-740-5685 (fax) 410-740-4300

In article <tjvb30h8p9c1bd7frsq89cm5uo6ug2d1vb@4ax.com>,
Michael Jacobs <mjacobslaw@comcast.net> wrote:But in practice, most local docs are loathe to call acolleague negligent, and so lawyers typically go to expert referralservices to find docs that specialize in reviewing and commenting onpotential malpractice claims. Those MD's aren't worried about whatthe potential defendant will think of them; it's all they do.

Is testimony of a malpractice specialist doctor treated more
skeptically by a jury?

--
John Carr (jfc@mit.edu)

jfc@mit.edu (John F. Carr) wrote in message
news:<nkhm3013dfmlilthphu96t77g2b1crdibs@4ax.com>... In article <tjvb30h8p9c1bd7frsq89cm5uo6ug2d1vb@4ax.com>, Michael Jacobs <mjacobslaw@comcast.net> wrote:But in practice, most local docs are loathe to call acolleague negligent, and so lawyers typically go to expert referralservices to find docs that specialize in reviewing and commenting onpotential malpractice claims. Those MD's aren't worried about whatthe potential defendant will think of them; it's all they do. Is testimony of a malpractice specialist doctor treated more skeptically by a jury?

Could be. It depends on all kinds of factors, including how well he/she
explains the underlying negligence in terms the jury can understand, and has
support in published texts for that opinion. Juries do generally put
doctors on a pedestal but I think they know doctors also do make mistakes.
IMO the most important thing is explaining what went wrong so that the jury
can understand it was not just one of those bad things that sometimes happen
without fault, and/or a judgment call where medical opinions differ as to
the best course of treatment, but rather that the treating doctor
specifically fell short of some standard of conduct that virtually all
members of that profession would recognize as being required to meet at
least a bare minimum standard of care. Leaving in sponges because of a bad
count, for example. There is never a good reason or excuse for failure to
perform a count, but you still might not be able to get local colleagues of
the negligent doc to testify against him.

--
This posting is for discussion purposes, not professional advice.
Anything you post on this Newsgroup is public information.
I am not your lawyer, and you are not my client in any specific legal
matter.
For confidential professional advice, consult a lawyer in a private
communication.

Mike Jacobs
LAW OFFICE OF W. MICHAEL JACOBS
10440 Little Patuxent Pkwy #300
Columbia, MD 21044
(tel) 410-740-5685 (fax) 410-740-4300