Kill the Feres Doctrine Now

Michael Phelan — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:50:38 GMT

On July 9, a 20 year-old Airman underwent routine surgery on his gallbladder. During surgery, however, a relatively inexperienced doctor nicked his aorta, resulting in the loss of both of the Airman's legs. This tragedy has helped to shine new light on the Feres doctrine, which prevents active-duty members of the military from filing suit for medical malpractice.

A website set up to support the Airman is available here: http://www.coltonread.com/ . I encourage all to visit this site and send your support.

More information about the Feres doctrine is available at: http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xchg/justice/hs.xsl/9532.htm .

Our Constitution guarantees the right to trial by jury to all citizens. This right should not be denied to the soldiers who risk their lives to protect our freedom. I've blogged about the Feres Doctrine before. To get a better understanding of how the doctrine works to the detriment of our military families, please click on "Feres Doctrine" in the preceeding sentence.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Michael Phelan

Make Your Doctor Give You Your Test Results

Michael Phelan — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:23:26 GMT

Are you like most people who assume that no news is good news after you've undergone a series of tests ordered by your doctor? If so, you should be alarmed by a recent study, and you should never assume that your doctor will automatically tell you if you have an abnormal test result. Researchers studying office procedures among primary care doctors found that more than 7 percent of clinically significant findings were never reported to the patient. There's a name for this phenomenon: medical malpractice.

The study reviewed the records of 5,434 patients at 19 different primary care practices and four based in medical centers. They pulled records containing abnormal results for blood tests, x-rays, and other imaging studies, and then searched for documentation that the patient had been properly informed of the results in a timely manner. The researchers then surveyed the doctors whose patients had not been informed of their results. Not surprisingly, some claimed the patient had been informed verbally. Others believed the results were not significant and therefore required no notification, and others claimed they soon would be notifiying the patient of the results. After giving all of the above-referenced doctors the benefit of the doubt and excluding them from the data, the study still found that 7 percent of patients were not informed of abnormal test results.

There are some cancers that, if detected early, are treatable and curable. Some of these cancers are also quit aggressive. Consequently, a six or twelve month delay in diagnosis may be fatal. Unfortunatately, it is not uncommon to hear about the woman who goes to her annual check up only to have her doctor pull her file and read for the first time the abnormal results from last year's Pap smear, breast biopsy, etc. What was potentially curable 12 months earlier, has now progressed to late-stage cancer.

We're all guilty of putting too much faith in our doctors. I love my primary physician and recommend him to everyone I know. But, I still don't know the results of blood tests I had many months ago. This study reminds me to find out!

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Michael Phelan

Richmond Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer - Medical Malpractice

Kill the Feres Doctrine Now

Make Your Doctor Give You Your Test Results