Today I learned that some woman, somewhere went to the hospital with an ailment. Sadly the physicians examining her mistook the ailment as gangreen and then proceeded to amputate her arms and legs. Currently the woman is busy suing the hospital for every penny she had. Isn't that horrible. How awful would that be, to have an amputation you really didn't need all because a doctor didn;t know what he was doing. What would you guys do if that happened to you (besides sue the kidneys out of them)? And out of all the parts of your body which one do you think you'd mind having amputated the least?
My answers:
1. The first thing I would do is sit down and cry. I mean really to not have my arms and legs. I wouldn't be able to anything. I couldn't jump, run, talk (Yes, I'm one of those people that can't talk without waving there arms around and using a multitude of unessasary gestures. Hate to disappoint you all. ) It'd be horrible. YOu wouldn't even be able to roll around to get to where you want to go because a lot of rolling requires your arms and legs. I don't think I could stand it. Anytime I'd want to go anywhere I wanted to I'd have to sit and scream for about an hour until someone heard me (or I lost my voice and would have to wait another two hours to try again. I wonder, do they have wheel chairs that people can operate by themselves that don't require arms and legs. If not this woman is never going to be able to have independence ever again. She'll just have to sit around all day and have everything done for her. Yes I know that's a dream come true for some of you, but you also have to realize that while you were sitting you'd probably be playing video games, or something. I don't know what you guys that sit around all day do, either way. I think it would be horrible. If you think about it this woman's whole life has just been totally stripped away from her all becasue some bozo was let loose with a scapel. I think it's horrible. It kind of makes me wary of my own doctor. What about you?
2. The thing I think I'd miss the least, if I had to get something amputated is, well actually I wouldn't want to get anything amputated, but if I had to it would be my little toes, because I think I could live like that, and I know lots of people that have had their little toes amputated and they went on just fine.
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that is the worst thing that i have ever heard
Our legal system is so torn between allowing doctors the freedom they need to adequately treat their patients, and holding them accountable for their mistakes. We have competing (and seemingly irreconcilable) policy interests at stake. Is it important to keep doctors in check and encourage med-mal suits in order to uphold the primacy of bodily integrity? Absolutely, as illustrated by "woman" above.
Given: If doctors were not exposed to the hazard of litigation, we would certainly have to be wary.
But, I wonder:
With doctors being subject to extremely broad liability (especially in the last decade), is it really any better? Are we being adequately treated... or are doctors fearing litigation and tensing up?