Four Trials, by John Edwards: on Health Care

Med-mal cases are about accountability for mistakes

[In my first medical malpractice case, I asked for $1.5 million. None of the counsels in our law firm had] ever handled a medical malpractice case before. Back in 1984, juries in a conservative region could scarcely fathom ruling against a doctor or any hospital in a civil proceeding. A car manufacturer, a restaurant, even a police force might be held responsible for damages if its negligence had caused injury to someone. But the notion that a doctor could be liable for causing a patient lasting harm was difficult to square with the public's view of a physician as a benevolent and all-knowing lifesaver.

But physicians err like the rest of us, and when, through neglect or reckless behavior, they cause damage, they must be held accountable for the consequences of their action or inaction. My challenge would be to shatter the jurors' prejudice in favor of a good but mistaken doctor and against an alcoholic client and to allow them to see the facts for what they were. [Edwards won the case].

Source: Four Trials, by John Edwards, p. 22 Dec 1, 2003

Campbell verdict empowered nurses & informed consent

[In the Campbell case. Edwards won a $4 million judgement that hospitals were responsible for ensuring that nurses could override doctor's mistakes.] The Campbell verdict set in motion a wave of reforms throughout the North Carolina medical community. Almost overnight, hospital board members ratified procedures through which personnel could go up a chain of command to protect a patient's welfare. Hospital nurses later reported to us that they were empowered by the reforms. Hospitals would be stronger now, and safer. On the legal front, Jennifer Campbell v. Pitt County Memorial Hospital made case law on the issue of informed consent: a hospital could now be held liable if it failed to ascertain whether a patient understood the various risks associated with a medical procedure.

After the headlines stopped, I could take some satisfaction in the changes I saw happening. But in the end, this was always a case about one family, about a six-year-old girl and her parents, good working people.

Source: Four Trials, by John Edwards, p.113 Dec 1, 2003

*The above quotations are from Four Trials, by John Edwards.* Click here for definitions & background information on Health Care. Click here for more quotes by John Edwards on Health Care.
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