This is a very sad story. Very sad on multiple ends. However, the leap by the majority on this board that "Someone has to pay!" is very disturbing and disappointing as well for a supposedly conservative message board. This thread reads for the most part like I would expect a trial lawyer message board to read. My wife is an Ob/Gyn in a medical malpractice "crisis" state. 70% of the babies she delivers are medicaid in our town. She is paid $1200 by the state to deliver prenatal care for nine months and deliver the baby. Her malpractice insurance costs $80,000 a year (and rising) and there is a limit of one million dallors in coverage after which she is liable for the remaining dollars in any suit. This means she has to deliver nearly 70 medicaid babies a year JUST to cover her malpractice, forget about other overhead like rent, staff, equipment, supplies, computers, etc. The sad fact is that she is considering dropping Obstetrics (which she loves by the way) and just doing gynecology because she would have less liability exposure and less expenses. The fact is that in medicine, bad things happen sometimes despite the best efforts of all involved. Nobody, and I mean nobody in no specialty has 100% success. I know nothing - NOTHING - about the specifics of this case but I am saddened at the "Someone has to pay attitude" about a case no one but the original poster knows any details about. But think about it - would you want to go into a job where you could possibly lose everything because of a bad outcome that was not your fault? Apparently for american medical school graduates the answer is no - last year only 60% of OB/GYN training slots were filled by american medical school graduates - the remaing 40% were filled by foreign grads. And it is expected to get worse. In Miami Obstetrics malpractice insurance is over $250,000 a year. Chicago $150,000. New york City is similar as well. Good luck finding people to fill those jobs out of med school with $300,000 in student loans. One last note to think about - the state of North Carolina introduced a bill a few years ago to provide a state fund to care for all children born with Cerebral Palsy with he caveat the MD who delivered them could not be sued (studies show almost all CP cases have nothing to do with the delivery - in thirty years C-section rates have quadrupled and the CP rate is exactly the same). It would care for them for life. guess who led the charge to defeat this bill - those caring attorneys including John Edwards. Result - 2% of Cerebral palsy kids get big awards (shared with lawyers) - 98% of CP kids are left ot fend for themselves. So you got to ask oyurself - who do really think cares more a bout the kids - those I am on your side attorneys or the doctors?
"but I am saddened"
O.K. Tom Daschle.