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Trauma centers warn lives could be at risk
Orlando Sentinal ^ | 2/28/03 | Greg Groeller and Jerry W. Jackson

Posted on 03/01/2003 4:42:42 AM PST by friendly

Edited on 03/01/2003 5:57:32 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

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To: friendly
What a meaty article...I recommend a reread, maybe a posting of full article? Not only is this major trauma institution shutting down, but planned new hospitals are not being built for the same reason--the high-level surgeons are just quitting practice. If you don't have a ortho, and a neuro, you don't have any kind of a trauma center. It's a long transport to the next trauma center. Also, the next-over hospital has a limited number of surgeons, and if stressed, will also go quickly. They could very well, with no trouble at all, also lose their Level 2!!!

What do people think, that lawyers sew their backbones together after a car wreck? Madness.

This is a major tourist area--wonder how many should rethink their vacations?

21 posted on 03/01/2003 6:35:26 AM PST by Mamzelle
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To: RWG
And for that matter, why would an illegal Mexican girl get TWO heart and lung transplants, while US military veterans are denied this?

And the sociopathic Mexican sc*mb*g parents REFUSED to donate any of the girls own organs. AND hired a crooked shyster to SUE the hospital for millions of dollars. FU and the burro you rode in on, amigos!

22 posted on 03/01/2003 6:36:44 AM PST by friendly
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To: Teacher317
ERs are closing this week in a number of poor areas (like the Mississippi delta) that cannot affort lawyer extortion, oops I meant liability insurance.
23 posted on 03/01/2003 6:39:09 AM PST by friendly
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To: Mamzelle
Free Republic does not allow full posting from the Orlando Sentinal, only exerpts.
24 posted on 03/01/2003 6:40:27 AM PST by friendly
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To: friendly
Ok--didn't know that, but I suspected, so I didn't post it myself. It is one great article. All the particulars are here...only they don't point out that without the backup of these surgeons, the ER docs and staff will be *terrified*. They'll be looking for different work, too...
25 posted on 03/01/2003 6:49:04 AM PST by Mamzelle
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To: friendly
Mississippi ER closes due to unavailability of insurance
26 posted on 03/01/2003 6:55:41 AM PST by Mamzelle
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To: friendly
Would laws like Indiana's (see post 13) save these states?
27 posted on 03/01/2003 9:33:26 AM PST by Teacher317
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To: Teacher317
re:IN Code 34-18-18-1 limits lawyer's fees to 15% of any recovery from the patients compensation fund.)))

A breath of civilization. By the time "expenses" are included in any award, lawyers take at least 50%. Doctors are limited as to what they can charge, why not lawyers?

28 posted on 03/01/2003 9:54:18 AM PST by Mamzelle
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To: Mamzelle
Doctors are limited as to what they can charge, why not lawyers?

I brought up that exact question in Torts class last month when we covered the topic. The prof was fascinated that it had never come up before.

We also had a Australian Supreme Court justice visiting and the class asked him about the same problems in Australia. It isn't just an American theme.

29 posted on 03/01/2003 10:09:05 AM PST by Teacher317
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To: Dick Vomer
Hopefully a couple of lawyers kids will need surgery and when they get the chaplain, waiting room and stale coffee with the little talk....

You oughtta hear 'em scream when they go looking for insurance. "That's awfully expensive, you gotta be crazy" when they hear what the premium is; these guys aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer since any lawyer with a conscience would understand it is their profession thats created this mess.
30 posted on 03/01/2003 10:14:59 AM PST by Freedom4US
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To: friendly
And Virginia is one of the better places
31 posted on 03/01/2003 10:20:55 AM PST by Mamzelle
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To: friendly
Just about every industry in the country is being sued out of existence - except the Lawyer Industry!

When our doctors and hospitals are finally forced to go overseas to survive, the lawyers will just move on to the next meal ticket. It's all about money, scads of it!

32 posted on 03/01/2003 10:49:12 AM PST by Gritty
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To: Mamzelle
Good research. Thanx!
33 posted on 03/01/2003 12:50:27 PM PST by friendly
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To: Gritty
Just about every industry in the country is being sued out of existence - except the Lawyer Industry!

The trauma care centers of this country are in free fall collapse thanks to the corrupt, unregulated trial lawyer industry (and their useful idiot enablers). Whole regions are missing bankrupted neurosurgeons, chest surgeons, and other key team members to care for accident victims.

There will certainly come a day soon when a politician's child will be dead thanks to the wealthy shysters driving the trauma care system out of business. That will be the day reform begins of the evil lawyer industry. On that day I call for the following (my mandatory rant alert):

1) Loser Pays. This is the law in the civilized democratic world. Waivers are given to the poor, as is the case with most reform proposals in the US to end the current astonishingly corrupt system.

2) Massive tort reform on a unprecedented level

3) Widespread empowerment of paralegals for independent practice

4) An end to punitive damages.

5) An end to bogus class action suits.

6) Outlawing contingency fees (This is considered grossly unethical and is completely illegal in almost all other democracies).

7) Lawyers forbidden from running from office. They are agents of the judiciary. Practicing attorneys violate The Separation of Powers when they enrich their lawyer industry at public suffering. The Constitution mandates The Separation of Powers between the 3 branches of government. Lawyers are members of the Judiciary and should therefore not be eligible for the Presidency (the Executive branch) or the Congress (the Legislative branch). I believe strongly as a matter of ethics, that a lawyer like Hillary, Bill, or John Edwards must give up membership in the bar, if only temporarily, when serving in the Senate or seeking (God forbid) the Presidency. These vermin can always reapply to the bar after leaving office. It is an important ethical point. Actually someone like Hillary or Bill would not be re-admitted to the bar. Bill Clinton was in fact disbarred due to his illegal activities.

8) Most important: a total disempowerment of the bar associations. Lawyer discipline by true consumer control agencies. Regulated by an open governmental process, with all complaints against lawyers open for public inspection. Like any other industry. Government has, even for the most libertarian of tastes, basic functions to protect the nation. And the lawyer industry is a grave threat to our freedoms and democracy, make no mistake.

34 posted on 03/01/2003 2:10:53 PM PST by friendly
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To: friendly
I've lost track of all the areas of the country where the medical profession is pulling out. Atlas shrugging is going to be painful.
35 posted on 03/01/2003 2:31:06 PM PST by gitmo ("The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain." GWB)
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To: gitmo
The medical profession is not pulling out. Critical segments are being driven out of business by the disgusting lawyer industry.

The trauma care, emergency surgical, and obstetrical physicians in a number of states (plus Clark County, Nevada---Las Vegas) are being driven out of business due to massive malpractice premiums they cannot afford. There is no meaningful trauma care in many areas of these states. The obstetricians in particular have been run out of town by the multi-millionaire greed of the shysters.

There is a method to this madness. The democrats will enrich themselves (or at least their trial lawyer constituency), destroy the trauma and obstetrical system, and have the predictable gall to demand a federal takeover and universal health system to "correct" the non-functional, lawyer-ravaged system. I am absolutely convinced this will be lawyer-politician Hillary's agenda and main selling point when the time comes.

I think that the trial lawyers are only too happy to be a part of the democrat effort to destroy the health care system, so that the democrats will then trot themselves out of the shadows to claim to be saviors!.

36 posted on 03/01/2003 2:36:36 PM PST by friendly
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To: Dick Vomer
bttt
37 posted on 03/01/2003 3:59:57 PM PST by friendly
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To: Trust but Verify
"WE had the unfortunate experience of our 14 year-old son neing struck by a car while on his bicycle. We got a phone call telling us to meet him at the only Level 1 trauma center in our region, which happens to be on the other side of the county we live in. We were sure that the reason they were bringing him there instead of a nearer hospital was because his injuries were grave.

When we arrived at the hospital, we saw our name scrawled on a piece of paper at the reception desk. A social worker wa standing by to accompany us to a private waiting room where we would be kept isolated and minded. This scared the daylights out of us. When they finally had a doctor come and give us some information, it was that Kyle had fractured his jaw and his collarbone and had been badly burned on his arm and leg by the exhaust from the car as it rested atop him. (some wonderful passersby lifted the car off of him and pulled him out. We never did find out who they were.) Serious injuries, but nothing that would require a trip to the trauma center and certainly not the scare they gave us thinking the worst. At the end of the day, I think a lot of people are needlessly taken to trauma centers. If you've seen the shows on TV, there are always a couple who didn't need to be there to start with. Maybe that's why these places are being over-run. ",

The "mechanism" of injury and the burn probably are why he went to a Trauma Center. As an ER doc I would have advised trauma transport.

If I car rested on top of him and burned about 20% of his body... he may have been sicker than he appeared to you. He may have an underlying splenic or hepatic injury and because of his age and good health could have compensated for a period of time. After CT and exam if he was bleeding he would have needed surgery... best to be at a place that has them on site then letting time slip by as your 14 year old bleeds to death in the ER. All bleeding eventually stops but the end point is the question..... (gallows humor).

As for the COBRA violation..... if you don't accept the patient and have protocol set up for transport then you can't be sued, if the other facility offers the level of care you can't provide. That happened about 15-17 years ago when a lawyer was shot in the head in Orlando and all the hospitals were on "diversion" due to overcrowding and the barrister was flown to Daytona I believe.... I was a resident at the time..... beautiful... it didn't make a difference but it put a smirk on the residents faces when we learned about it.

"life's a bitch.... ain't it. or what goes around.... comes around"

38 posted on 03/01/2003 5:32:37 PM PST by Dick Vomer
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To: Dick Vomer
About 15-17 years ago when a lawyer was shot in the head in Orlando and all the hospitals were on "diversion" due to overcrowding and the barrister was flown to Daytona I believe.

Maybe Orlando really is the home of the Magic Kingdom, where all your fantasies come true.

39 posted on 03/01/2003 5:44:50 PM PST by friendly
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To: friendly
Oh, you are *bad*! Oh, I'm not laughing. I'm *not*.
40 posted on 03/02/2003 12:02:32 PM PST by Mamzelle
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