For Immediate Release:
March 3, 2003
Contact: Joanne Doroshow
212/267-2801
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE VICTIMS CALL ON AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION TO END CAMPAIGN TO LIMIT PATIENTS’ RIGHTS
New York, NY - Victims of medical malpractice from six states, some of whom have been catastrophically injured, traveled to Washington DC today to deliver a letter to the American Medical Association at their Washington meeting. The letter asks AMA President-Elect, Dr. Donald Palmisano, to “end your campaign to enact limits on patients’ legal rights, and stop trying to solve doctors’ insurance problems on the backs of injured patients and their loved ones.”
A copy of the letter is below.
The letter comes as the issue of medical errors has received national attention with the death of Jesica Santillan due to a botched heart-lung transplant operation in North Carolina. The White House and the powerful insurance industry have teamed up with the AMA to push laws in Congress to take away injured patients’ legal rights, so called “medical malpractice reform.”
The victims later will visit the AMA at their conference hotel, the Washington Hilton, to serve as a respectful reminder of the forgotten faces of the health care debate and ask the simple question – Why are you making victims pay the price?
The following individuals signed the letter on behalf of “hundreds of thousands of Americans who are injured or die each year as a result of medical negligence in the United States”:
Sherry Keller, Conyers, GA, who became an incomplete quadriplegic after her gynecologist committed a series of egregious medical errors. Ms. Keller will be testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, March 4, 2003.
Richard Flagg, Jersey City, NJ, a Vietnam Vet whose surgeon mistakenly removed his only healthy lung.
John McCormack, Pembroke, MA, whose 13-month-old daughter died while awaiting surgery.
Kyle Reynolds, Cape Coral, FL, whose wife became brain damaged and died after a botched full teeth extraction.
Jodi Johns, Inver Grove Heights, MN, whose child suffered brain damage due to failure to treat jaundice as in infant.
Jupirena Stein, of Coral Gables, FL, who has had serious physical problems after surgery.
Patricia Donnelly, Howard Beach, NY, whose 4-year-old grandson died after minor surgery.
For more information, see the Center for Justice & Democracy website.
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March 3, 2003
Dr. Donald Palmisano
President Elect
American Medical Association
515 N. State Street
Chicago, IL 60610
Dear Dr. Palmisano:
We are writing to you on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Americans who are injured or die each year as a result of medical negligence in the United States.
You are the public face in the AMA’s campaign to limit compensation to people like us who have been hurt by medical malpractice. You call the legal system a “lottery.”
We are the forgotten faces in this debate; the ones who continue to suffer as a result of often egregious malpractice. If you understood what we and others have been through, you would understand that we have not won any kind of a lottery. We have experienced extraordinary loss, horrible disfigurement, devastating pain, ruined hopes and dreams that most people take for granted.
Each of us deserves to have a jurors and a judge, who have heard all the facts and weighed all the evidence, decide what compensation is best. That decision should not be made by you or by politicians sitting in Washington, DC.
We appreciate the need to have doctors available to serve in every area of this country. But blocking patients’ access to the courts or making it more difficult to obtain adequate compensation will not solve an insurance crisis for doctors. Even Business Week magazine, in its March 3, 2003 edition, called the statistical arguments that you use “flimsy.” Caps and other tort restrictions only victimize people who are already victims.
We respectfully request that you end your campaign to enact limits on patients’ legal rights, and to stop trying to solve doctors’ insurance problems on the backs of injured patients and their loved ones.
If you would like to meet with us face-to-face to discuss this matter further, please contact us through our representative, Joanne Doroshow of the Center for Justice & Democracy, 90 Broad St., Suite 401, New York, NY 10004 to follow up. You can reach her at (212) 267-2801 or email her at [email protected]. Thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
Patricia Donnelly
Richard Flagg
Jodi Johns
Sherry Keller
John McCormack
Kyle Reynolds
Jupirena Stein
The Center for Justice & Democracy is the only national consumer organization in the country exclusively dedicated to protecting our civil justice system. If you'd like more information, please contact us.
