How Does a Malpractice Lawsuit Change Doctors' Lives? Getting sued changes some physicians' lives and the way they view patients. When doctors are sued for malpractice, they often feel anxiety, anguish, depression, a sense of betrayal, and shame. The emotional distress they experience can last a lifetime. A lawsuit can drag on for months, or even years. When the case is pending, many physicians suffer. They don't eat well, they don't sleep well, and they are frequently depressed. After the lawsuit is settled or resolved, many doctors leave their practice, retire early, practice defensive medicine, and look at patients as potential adversaries for the remainder of their careers. Even when doctors win their court case, they may have lost substantial earnings in time away from their practices during court depositions and hearings. Physicians may also suffer in their personal lives. Spurred by a recent article in Medscape, in which five doctors described the emotional stress they went through during their malpractice trials, a lively discussion ensued. "Three close college friends were never the same after their stupid lawsuits. It has to be a variant of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and while we're having a shortage of docs (especially primary care...), our legal system is removing good docs from the front line," said an internist. Sued More Than Once An ob/gyn who was sued three times expressed the emotional toil that ensued: All cases were settled, mainly because it was cheaper and because I was not sure that I could tolerate the emotional effects of a trial. I did continue to practice and didn't always see patients as adversaries, but I do think it took its toll. I retired at 60 after practicing for 30 years in ob/gyn with a main hospital that serviced an underprivileged community. I retired from exhaustion and burnout. I loved my work, and if it were possible to practice with shortened hours and without risk for lawsuits, I would still be working. Yet another physician who has experienced more than one lawsuit said: I was sued for something that was done by another medical provider without my knowledge. After over 3 years of stress, I was found not liable and dismissed. Two years later, I was just starting to feel like my life was getting back on track. Another suit was filed by the relatives of a deceased nursing home patient who had a court-appointed guardian. I cared for that patient for several years. Those relatives never once came to see him. The suit was dismissed, but my anger remains. Now it is no longer enough to provide good care and relate well with patients and families. Apparently, we are now supposed to relate well to family members we do not even know exist. I am actively planning for retirement and now work primarily on administration. If I had it to do over again, I would never have gone to medical school. A cardiologist who worries about lawsuits said: Now that I'm in private practice, I have fear of being sued, which does force me to spend extra hours every day to make sure I documented well. Between this and the pressure of sustaining productivity in private practice, it does affect other aspects of my life. I do ask myself whether I did the correct thing going into medicine...but my answer is "yes, I did"...the problem is, maybe I'm practicing in the wrong country. It's almost impossible to get sued in other countries, and it is based on true medical neglect. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way in this country, and this is why we have sky-high medical costs, medical fraud, and sometimes a lack of trust in your own patients. A Call for Tort Reform Several respondents were adamant that tort reform is needed to protect physicians. An internist said: We desperately need tort reform. To paraphrase Atul Gawande, 'I do approximately the same number of surgeries a year as ground balls fielded by a major league third baseman. If that third baseman makes two errors, he wins the gold glove. If I make two errors, then patients end up injured, or worse.' Point being, we all make mistakes, and of course there needs to be a way to compensate those who experience bad outcomes. Unfortunately, our current system results in unnecessary stress, loss of productivity, defensive medicine, and logjams in our judicial system. Another call for tort reform came from a dermatologist: All of these cases and replies are further evidence of how bad tort law is in this country. If, like most of civilization, a plaintiff MUST PAY damages to the winning defendant, it is highly probable that none of these suits would have taken place. The pathetic Band-Aids of tort reform would not change the fact that the doctor and all of his other patients and the whole of society, other than the plaintiff and his client, LOSE as soon as a suit is filed, even when the defending doctor "wins," the dermatologist added. Some physicians took an even stronger stand. An otolaryngologist commented: Doctors shouldn't complain about the high cost of malpractice insurance. They should threaten to withhold their precious lifesaving skills until unscrupulous patients and their predatory lawyers back off. The legal system is not set up to be fair to doctors, and the reason is that doctors have allowed it to evolve that way. We only have ourselves to blame, really. A family medicine doctor reported, "I know directly of at least one case where the case was lost, and the subsequent emotional toll on the physician was catastrophic. Another I know of indirectly where the loss of the malpractice suit was followed by massive clinical depression." Finally, an ophthalmologist whose lawsuit lasted 7 years said: I had seen a patient for ptosis of the upper eyelids who also complained of excessive tearing of his eyes. I had found that this was due to laxity of his lower eyelids and recommended repair at the same time. He declined. After the surgery, he sued me because I caused his eyes to tear even though my records documented that the problem was preexisting. Even his wife sued me separately for lack of consortium. He also alleged lack of informed consent. The charges stated that I coerced him into signing the consent on his gurney on the way into the operating room. The fact that the surgical consent was signed 7 days earlier in my office and was witnessed did not influence the judge who allowed the suit to go forward. Seven years of grief and heartache. Finally, the suit was dismissed the night before trial because the plaintiff's attorney admitted that they had tried all those years to get an expert witness to represent him and couldn't do so. He ultimately had gone to another hospital and had the lower lid laxity repaired (which I had recommended), and his tearing problem resolved. A wary physician had this advice for colleagues: "Don't give the plaintiff attorney any information. He/she may be fishing for discovery without the cost of discovery. In my case, it was a friendly phone call asking for my side of what happened. I took the call. Wrong. Call your malpractice carrier immediately. Follow the advice of the attorney assigned to you." Source
