Medical Malpractice: An ill Wind is Starting to Blow

Fort Lauderdale, FLAnyone following Priscilla Presley on Dancing with the Stars this past spring may well wonder if she had given any thought to a medical malpractice lawsuit against the doctor who performed the actress's facelift.

The doctor, Daniel Serrano, injected the rich and famous of Hollywood with a 'miracle wrinkle remover' that was alleged to have been, in reality, silicone used to lubricate auto parts. That kind of thing is an open invitation to medical malpractice. Serrano, who is currently in custody, has been allowed to leave the country and will be gone just as soon as he raises the money for his passage out of town, or August 15th, whichever comes first.

We'll have more on him later. But the less-glamorous, less-obvious side of medical malpractice is not only tragic and maddening, but also sometimes downright heartbreaking.

Often it results in medical malpractice lawsuits. A healthy award helps to stem the frustration and pay for care that can often last a lifetime for the affected individual.

However an award, no matter how large, will never undo the wrong that was done.

The $9 million expected to be approved by the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago will not undo the brain damage suffered by Mia Barragan. In 2004 it was alleged that employees of the Center failed to recognize signs of fetal distress and failed to perform the emergency delivery that might have prevented the neurological injury that the infant Mia eventually suffered.

And the $4.8 million for the parents of Maya Roman will not bring back their child's total brain function after high levels of bilirubin in the blood—jaundice—was not properly detected and treated. While jaundice is not normally harmful, extremely high levels of bilirubin in the blood can result in brain damage if left untreated. The condition causes the skin, and the whites of the eyes to appear yellow, something that U of I workers apparently failed to notice. The "failure to treat hyperbilirubinemia in premature infant Maya Roman resulted in brain damage," states university documents.

The potential malpractice claims for things such as botched facelifts are less heartbreaking, but equally damaging—especially if a client depends on his or her face for their living. Blogs were rife with comment back in March after Presley's appearance in Dancing with the Stars. This followed reports that the young Argentinean doctor Serrano had used too wide of an implant in Presley's chin, and had allegedly injected auto mechanic-grade silicone into Presley's face as 'filler.' Much of his practice, which is said to have involved other Hollywood celebrities, took place at injection parties. The practice earned the doctor the dubious title of 'Dr. Jiffy Lube.'

It was reported that Serrano was convicted of using unapproved drugs, and will be leaving the country. Whether or not any disgruntled clients would be in a position to successfully sue the doctor for malpractice once he leaves the scene is up in the air, but so too, it seems, are malpractice suits in general.

There is a change in the wind, and it is not boding well for patients harmed by the errors of doctors, or hospitals.

It seems, in the State of Florida anyway, that malpractice suits are on somewhat of a decline—and that's because of the number of doctors who either don't carry insurance, or carry so little that there is little hope of collecting anything substantial.

Part of the problem is the rising costs of malpractice insurance, which is just as prohibitive as liability insurance in general. Some lawyers have made the point that a malpractice action could take years to litigate, and yet pay only a few hundred thousand dollars at the end of the day.

What's more, not only does Florida have the highest malpractice premiums in the nation, but also hospitals can no longer be sued for failing to force doctors to carry insurance. The latter was the result of a Florida Supreme Court ruling last year. In 2006 a State law was passed that suggests if one defendant, such as an uninsured doctor, is unable to pay the full award in a malpractice case, the award can also not be collected from co-defendants such as hospitals.

It leaves the plaintiff SOL, as they say. An attorney in Ft. Lauderdale commented to the Sun-Sentinel that he regularly turns down cases of clear physician negligence. "I don't see a future in medical malpractice law in the State of Florida," Scott Schlesinger says.

Of course, this appears to be isolated in Florida at the moment. However, the situation will have to be monitored to determine if it spreads across other States in the years ahead. And if that were the case, it may be time for State, or Federal Congressional leaders to spur a debate pertaining to the welfare of the nation's patients, and how to protect them from negligence at the hands of a doctor. Perhaps a national fund for awards, or legislation to force doctors to carry sufficient insurance, but regulate the premiums to make them more affordable.

The status quo is clearly not acceptable.