NO, it's not. My daughter has brain damage because a doctor screwed up.
This is about frivolous lawsuits.......not legitimate ones. Yours is
more than legitimate.
I'm very sorry about your baby. You have my prayers.
If what you say is accurate, then under Bush's proposal, you would still be able to recover the acutal costs to care for your doctor. If there was gross negligence, bordering on criminal malfeasance, you might even get punitive damages, whhich would not be capped. The only thing capped would be for non-economic damages.
Just in case you think I don't know what you have gone through: My son suffered a minor stroke when he was six months old. That left him with seizures and some developmental delays but he seemed to be recovering well. When he was a year old, he had a fever and had a really hard seizure. We took him to the ER. While in the ER, he went into an uncontrollable series of seizures lasting 2 hours. They finally had to put him into a medically induced coma to stop the seizures, and life-flight him to the major children's hospital in Houston. There was severe brain damage, and he was left with cerebral palsy and severe mental retardation.
Could we have sued the hospital? Probably. It never even entered my mind. The hospital did everything they could, as far as I could tell. Just because there was a bad outcome did not make it their fault.
Was this your first child? Because the importance of replacing electrolytes in an infant is something I learned with my first child, from my pediatrician. I'm sorry for what happened to your daughter, but if lawyers won't take the case, it is probably because you don't have a case to make...
I believe your original post said a "nurse practitioner" sent her home with sugar water - and your later note said the "doctor screwed up" - I sympathize with your daughter's plight and the tremendous burden this has placed on your family.....Economic damages certainly should cover any true injury and loss, but non-economic "pain and sufferring" limits are appropriate..
As an aside, I'd encourge all persons reading these posts to realize what the true problem was here... a less than fully qualified health care professional (read that a physician) did not provide the care - the child was seen by a mid-level provider who didn't have the experience or knowledge to appropriate assess the child and formulate a correct plan....bad outcomes can happen regardless of who sees the patient, but I would encourge all of you to demand that your care be provided by a REAL PHYSICIAN, not someone who "did the short course!" If your doctor makes you see nurse practitioners, or physician assistants instead of licensed and board-certified MD's or DO's - CHANGE DOCTORS!!!
Your health and future is too valuable to entrust to less than adequately trained practitioners. The doctors who use such providers are generally more interested in volume care so they entrust your care to less experienced staff - don't allow your family members to be victims in this scam!