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Florida surgeon ‘devastated’ over death of patient after removing liver instead of spleen
(www.theguardian.com)
Thomas Shaknovsky botched the surgery of William Bryan, 70, who died on the operating table
According to Shaknovksy’s deposition, after removing Bryan’s liver, the surgeon instructed a nurse to label the organ as a “spleen” – and he also identified it as a spleen in Bryan’s postoperative notes. Shaknovsky later said he had been “mentally compromised” at the time of Bryan’s death, explaining that he was “devastated, demoralized, crying over his passing, felt that I failed him”.
Florida's medical regulations allow "bad" or negligent doctors to continue practicing through a combination of strict malpractice lawsuit limitations, weak disciplinary measures, and high hurdles for patient victims. Key factors include the "three strikes" rule, which rarely triggers license revocation, severe restrictions on filing lawsuits, and a "free kill" law that limits wrongful death liability.
That's basically the function of most state medical licensing boards. They primarily act as lobbying organizations on behalf of their members to limit civil/legal liability, and to bring a sense of internal regulatory action. My state license costs thousands of dollars a year and is necessary to practice, but all they do is ask me once a year if I've committed any crimes or are currently addicted to any illicit substances.
A bunch of physicians like to bitch about malpractice suits making the field difficult to work in, but in reality you really almost have to be acting maliciously to lose a case. For example the last guy in my city to have lost a malpractice case in my field was years ago, and it was because he forgot to order a titanium rod for spinal fusion and installed the shaft of a stainless steel screwdriver instead. Like.... Yeah buddy, you should be in jail.
Self-regulation is not regulation at all.
Yeap, the state medical boards appear as if the state is actually an outside regulatory agency. In reality the boards are almost always organized and run by a group of physicians and medical providers associated with larger hospital networks.
Holy shit
Disgraced doctors that can't be hired for insurance reasons get hired by health insurance to deny claims too, as per propublica. I think one of their examples was a doctor from florida too.
I think it's this one: https://www.propublica.org/article/mental-health-insurance-denials-unitedhealthcare-cigna-doctors
Jesus fucking Christ... America is just a big fucking scam.
But regulation bad!!! We can't just create a society of trust through enforceable guarantees! That would be a nightmare... worse, it would be SOCIALISM!