Nevada: How is that Medical Malpractice Cap Working?
Posted by
Dan FrithMarch 26, 2008 10:59 AMThe television ad closed the deal in 2004! The image of trusted doctors in white coats trooping out of Nevada to flee high malpractice insurance rates bombarded voters, who overwhelmingly decided to cap the amount of money juries could award victims of botched medical procedures. The bitter fight, marked by twisted statistics and emotional hyperbole, pitted doctors against trial lawyers -- and the doctors won.
The state legislature passed emergency tort reform, creating a cap of $350,000 for pain and suffering. Well look at what is happening now....
A hepatitis C outbreak linked to unsanitary syringe use at a Las Vegas clinic (Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada) sickened six people and put 40,000 at risk has changed people's thinking.
Dr. Dipak Desai is under investigation by county, state and federal agencies following the discovery of a hepatitis C outbreak linked to unsafe syringe use at his practice, Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. He's accused of ordering nurses at the center to rely on the unsafe procedure of reusing syringes and single-use medication vials on multiple patients. As a result of the problems uncovered at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, state health officials are inspecting all of the state's 50 surgical centers. So far, they've uncovered unsafe infection control practices at more than half a dozen other clinics across the state.
Is $350,000 sufficient compensation for the pain and suffering of contracting hepatitis C whose symptoms include:
• flu-like feeling
• muscle aches
• headaches
• loss of appetite
• abdominal pain
• jaundice
• nausea
• fever
• extreme fatigue
• darkening of the urine
And to cap it all off...Hepatitis C is NOT curable. There are medicines available for treating long-term Hepatitis C infections but liver disease develops in 70% of all chronically infected Hepatitis C individuals. Who wants to trade their long-term health for these daily medical problems for $350,000? I don't!