Malpractice Instant Replay

I’m still fuming at the recent trials of the University of Oklahoma’s football team when they played at Oregon. As I’m sure you know, OU lost the game due to a replay official’s failure to overturn a bad call in the waning minutes of the game. Now of course, everything I do has to be law related (joking), so I analogized the failure of the Oregon officials (yes, they were definitely for Oregon) to what happens when a doctor malpractices.

Now as you know, once the officials on the field made the bad call on the onside kick and then failed to even realize an OU player had recovered the ball, they called for a replay. Now let’s compare this to malpractice. A doctor messes up and negligently harms a patient. I’ve had doctors doing drugs while performing a surgery or simply failing to follow well established guidelines for the treatment of a certain illness. What I’ve found interesting is the vast cover-up that ensues once the doctor has been negligent. First, the hospitals will cover-up the accident and not inform the family based on the concept of peer review. Then, the doctor will conveniently forget to tell what really happened in his or her medical records. Then when the family decides to ask the doctor or consult another doctor, the shall we say “instant replay” is tainted by the doctors not wanting to admit his peer or in most cases buddy messed up.

The moral of my ranting is this. If you think malpractice has occurred, don’t trust the medical field to inform you of such. Historically, they have protected their own and hoped time would go by and the statute of limitations would run whereas they would not have to pay the money the injured and/or his family would be entitled too. In the meantime, the family is presented with overwhelming medical expenses to help the injured recover and/or treat them or they have lost a loved one while the doctor and/or hospitals keep making the exorbitant incomes.