If you had to sue a doctor or hospital...what attorney would you use in Indiana?

[HoughMade]

Not even a snicker at 11:20p? I am tossing out my best stuff here.

Sorry....I have some great deposition stories. Let's just say that if they're making the claim, there's nothing I won't ask.

 

[mbills2223]

Sitting here doing charts, sad.

Must be an especially boring night if that was the best you could do.

 

[mom45]

Sorry....I have some great deposition stories. Let's just say that if they're making the claim, there's nothing I won't ask.

The attorney I worked for was the nicest guy ever, but get him in a deposition or court and nothing was off limits. If I was hiring an attorney, that's what I'd want though. Someone who is going to do what I am paying them to do.

 

[Darral27]

Sorry....I have some great deposition stories. Let's just say that if they're making the claim, there's nothing I won't ask.

I believe that.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Must be an especially boring night if that was the best you could do.

as I said, doing charts. Family in bed. I had 137 deficiencies to take care of, and another 25 or so EKGs I didn't get a change to document an interpretation. Sigh.

 

[mbills2223]

as I said, doing charts. Family in bed. I had 137 deficiencies to take care of, and another 25 or so EKGs I didn't get a change to document an interpretation. Sigh.

I salute you.

 

[jblomenberg16]

OP....can't give any better advice than has been given. Keep doing your homework to find a good lawyer in the field, and most likely those aren't the ones on billboards and late night TV infomercials.

Also realize that sometimes its best to let facts, not emotions make decisions. Unless you are a trained anesthesiologist, it is very unlikely that given the facts that you know, that you are competent to make the necessary judgment on what should or should not have been done. I feel bad for you that your MIL is now in bad shape after what by most accounts was a routine procedure. Typically even in routine procedures that require full anesthesia, there are always risks that things won't go as planned and occasionally folks do wind up worse than they did coming in, despite even the best possible care being given at the optimal times.

It is more likely that the anesthesiologist and other physicians did everything they could to save her and the result was that she is now in a coma with other problems vs. dying on the table. Of course there is a chance that he made a mistake as well, and that is something that we all know is possible as human beings.

We are extremely fortunate to live in the times that we live in, and have come to hold our physicians to an extremely high standard because the quality of care has given us good reason to hold them to that standard. But just like there are still occasional airplane crashes despite an amazing safety process, there are still cases where modern medicine doesn't work the way we want it to and the results are not as good as we hoped for.


I sincerely wish you all the best, and first and foremost hope that your MIL and family pull through. I also wish you the best and hope you are treated fairly and with dignity.

 

[CHCRandy]

Nope, been out since 2007 and no lawsuits yet. Care about your patients, be open, honest, compassionate, and your odds of getting sued go way down. I view their complaint as a problem we're both facing. Them as a patient and me as a clinician. We both have to get to a place where they're better off than they were and we're on the same team. I do whatever I can for them and that mentality has been working so far. Of course you have to get the medical care correct, but even when things don't go as anticipated, no one wants to sue the nice compassionate doctor who spent 45 minutes with the extended family explaining the options.

You got that right. We went through a problem last year and that is all that kept us from litigation.....was the fact our doctor was young and a very nice lady whom we liked. I couldn't bring myself to cause her hardship. We did switch family doctors and she is no longer practicing (nothing I done or said). She was a likable lady but the problem was she was never at work, she was always off sick. We would see a different doctor every time we went for yearly exams.....too many chefs in the kitchen.

The wife complained about headaches for 3-4 years. It took her having a seizure to get an MRI to find a tumor that Helen Keller could have seen! It took the ER doctor about 10 minutes to diagnose what our family doctors said was normal.

 

[wtfd661]

I have no advice for you but can only say a prayer for your MIL, you and your family, prayers sent

 

[mbills2223]

Nope, been out since 2007 and no lawsuits yet. Care about your patients, be open, honest, compassionate, and your odds of getting sued go way down. I view their complaint as a problem we're both facing. Them as a patient and me as a clinician. We both have to get to a place where they're better off than they were and we're on the same team. I do whatever I can for them and that mentality has been working so far. Of course you have to get the medical care correct, but even when things don't go as anticipated, no one wants to sue the nice compassionate doctor who spent 45 minutes with the extended family explaining the options.

This is an awesome philosophy. Ill be in a significantly different setting than you and a significantly different profession but I hope to remember this.

 

[HoughMade]

16 years of observation, though no firm numbers, tells me that the more contact a physician has with a patient, the less likely they are to get sued if there is a less than optimal outcome...with an exception. If you see the patient once, or not at all as is the case with some surgeons (and radiologists and pathologists and anesthesiologists) and something goes sideways, be prepared to get sued.

If you are a primary care provider or have a long-term relationship with the patient, you are much less likely to be sued even if things go sideways to the same extent.

The exception, of course, is OB. In that practice, when things go wrong, they go real wrong and the lawsuits come regardless. Moreso, if you are an OB covering someone else's patients- we'll get to know each other, for certain.

 

[hoosierdoc]

You know when a c-section was done at the proper time? Me either.

 

[KokomoDave]

Not saying more. Just want bills paid not justice meted out in court. We have POA and had it established before procedure.

 

[HoughMade]

I can tell you not to use Stewart and Stewart....

We'll see. I just got a new case in with them on the other side.

 

[24Carat]

Also, keep in mind indiana has a screening panel made up of I believe a doctor, a lawyer, and a lay person. They review the case first. That's why I'm challenging you to know what you are alleging was done wrong that led to the outcome.

Thanks to Gov. Dr. Otis Bowen !

 

[HoughMade]

Thanks to Gov. Dr. Otis Bowen !

It's a shame Gov. Bowen is gone. I should send him a note thanking him for my kid's future college education and our new house.

 

[Tactically Fat]

We'll see. I just got a new case in with them on the other side.

Heh. My neighbor is a lawyer for/with S&S here in the Indy area.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Heh. My neighbor is a lawyer for/with S&S here in the Indy area.

And you failed to mention that? Do you know how many times I have driven past your neighborhood with cartons of eggs in my car?

 

[Rookie]

We'll see. I just got a new case in with them on the other side.

Maybe they've gotten better in the last twenty some years.

 

[Tactically Fat]

And you failed to mention that? Do you know how many times I have driven past your neighborhood with cartons of eggs in my car?

Well, HE doesn't do medical stuff...