Podiatrist facing 9 malpractice lawsuits

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The Columbus Dispatch are reporting:
Hilliard podiatrist facing 8 malpractice lawsuits

...Full story

 

Assuming that this is the case, it will be interesting to see where this ends up.

Should those willing to take on the higher risk ones be penalized so much?

I recall reading a case of a neurosurgeon who operated when others would not. He had more adverse outcomes than others. He lost his job. He sued the hospital and won big time, as he was able to document the higher risk profile of those he took on.

On the other hand, why be so masochistic and not just stick to the low risk? Who put yourself at risk of legal action? If you do that who will operate on those who are higher risk?

 

I attended Dr. Janis's workshop on ankle arthroscopy in the 80s. His workshops were always sold out. He was always on the leading edge in surgery and had no fear. There are physicians that just have no conscious and lose no sleep over poor results while others take it so hard they they quit surgery altogether. I have had two malpractice suits and although I won, it took its toll on my spirit.

You can do the same surgery on ten different patients and have ten different results. Patients respond differently. There are also patients that you never want to take to the OR, as their wound is their crutch in life, had defined them and they want to remain the victim. I wished I had learned that sooner in my career.

Steven

 

Any podiatrist who is doing 600 surgeries a year (if that means 600 surgical patients a year and not 600 surgical procedures) is doing way too many surgeries for his or their own patient's good. The surgeon who loves to do surgery because it makes him or her feel special will make all sort of excuses for why he or she is doing so much surgery (i.e. "I am the only one with enough guts to do these more complicated surgeries"). This many malpractice suits is no surprise to me for someone who does this many surgeries per year. I doubt that any malpractice insurance carrier will ever want to carry insurance for this podiatrist ever again considering his record.

The ethical podiatric surgeon will only do as much surgery as will allow them to give each of their patients the best care they each deserve. The ethical podiatric surgeon does not brag about how many surgeries they do each year. I would, as a patient, steer away from any podiatrist who brags about how many surgeries they do each year because, invariably, from my experience, these podiatrists are doing lots of mediocre surgeries, are hurting lots of people, instead of helping them. The ethical podiatric surgeon instead strives always towards doing excellent surgeries on a selected number of patients., not doing as many in a year as possible for some numbers game they are playing in their head.

Remember, do no harm.