I recently read a very interesting article titled Surgical Error: The Difference Between Mistake and Complication by Dr. Martin Young.  Dr. Young claims that when a surgeon has to deal with serious, undeserved complications he deserves to be compensated adequately to make right that harm.  Dr. Young then goes on to set out the difference between a complication and a mistake.

Dr. Young defines a complication as "... an adverse event caused by pre-existing factors that were outside the doctor’s control."  He states that a mistake "assumes there was a lapse of either quality or control by the surgeon out of keeping with normal expectation."  He then describes a few examples between the two.

Dr. Young then states,  "So who cares?  As long as surgeons operate, complications will occur.  Insurers, hospital managers, healthcare systems have highly vested interests in limiting both complications and mistakes, as do doctors.  We remember these long after our successes are forgotten.  So do our patients."  I offer to Dr. Young that it is the patient and their family that are left to deal with the aftermath in the most personal way imaginable - often having to deal with the results for the rest of their lives if they are fortunate enough to survive the complication or mistake.

Discussion of medical malpractice lawyers follows and he states"... lawyers will fall over themselves to show that a complication was in fact a mistake worthy of financial retribution."  That is so because no physician who makes a mistake is willing to step up to the plate and offer financial compensation to the injured patient.  I have said it before and I will say it again - if physicians simply policed themselves better, took serious steps to prevent medical malpractice, and fairly compensate the victims of their medical malpractice then medical malpractice attorneys would be out of a job and medical malpractice premiums would plummet.  Everyone would be better off.  Do not worry about me finding work!

Dr. Young thinks that "A doctor with a higher incidence of mistakes may profit from his relative lack of skill until the general population wises up to the fact and goes elsewhere."  The problem with this statement of course is that the general public is kept in the dark about the doctors who commit medical malpractice.  Through forced arbitration agreements and forced confidentiality clauses when settling a medical malpractice case the public simply does not know who the bad doctors are.  In Utah the problem is compounded with the 2011 passage of Senate Bill 150.  Hospitals may no longer be held responsible for credentialing doctors and granting hospital privileges to doctors who may be pedophiles, predators, drug addicts and otherwise incompetent.  Unbelievable but sadly true.  It would appear that the rights of the public has again been subjugated to the narrow interests of the powerful hospital lobby.  

I have a question for good doctor Young.  If the cutting of a ureter during an open hysterectomy is a known complication and the surgeon takes no steps whatsoever to identify the ureter and then, during the course of the operation, transects (cuts) the ureter, is that a complication or a mistake? I suggest that it is a mistake and the surgeon has committed medical malpractice. 

Furthermore, the only one who will hold the physician responsible is a medical malpractice attorney.  I do not know a single surgeon who will step up and "sorry - I failed to take the correct precautions and cut your ureter - here is the money to pay for your medical bills and money to compensate you for the pain and suffering you have endured as a result of my negligence."  In this country an individual should be held responsible for the harm he or she visits on another individual.  That is why car drivers are insured, that is why doctors should have medical malpractice insurance, and that is why I carry professional legal malpractice insurance.  I make no apology for what I do as a medical malpractice attorney.  To the contrary I am proud to represent the people and families I do against the deep pocketed and unrepentant medical malpractice insurance companies who in their eyes insure doctors that are infallible.  I am not infallible and freely admit that I have made mistakes as a registered nurse, an attorney, and in life.  It is high time that surgeons admit that they are not infallible either.

We represent people and their families that are harmed as a result of medical malpractice across Utah including the counties and cities of Beaver, Box Elder, Cache, Carbon, Daggett, Davis, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Iron, Juab, Kane, Millard, Morgan, Piute, Rich, Salt Lake, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Uintah, Utah, Wasatch, Washington, Wayne, Weber, American Fork, Beaver, Bountiful, Brigham City, Cedar City, Delta, Draper, Duchesne, Fillmore, Heber, Kamas, Kanab, Kaysville, Layton, Lehi, Logan, Moab, Murray, Nephi, Ogden, Orem, Park City, Price, Provo, Richfield, Riverton, Roy, Salt Lake City, Sandy, South Jordan, St. George, Tooele, Vernal, West Jordan, and West Valley City.

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