Hi,
I am a nurse and have been for about 15 years. I just watched the segment about John Ritter and heard about how his wife is suing the doctors that treated him after already suing the hospital and winning 9 million dollars. Although, my comments and the points made here have nothing to do with that money in the least.
While I understand about the terrible loss she has suffered, I feel I must share with her and everyone else an important perspective from a person who has been in the medical field for quite a long time.
There are several different aspects to this scenario that would and could have relevance to her situation that she may not be aware of and I will list them here.
First, while a CXR would have found the aneurysm, that does not mean he could have been saved. Aneurysms are precarious at best and he is lucky to have lived as long as he did with it. When they start to cause the patient pain, it is usually almost too late. Once they burst, the patient bleeds out immediately. If he was already that close to dying, he wouldn't have made it through the anesthesia and going to the OR process even if it would have been detected.
Second, doctors and nurses are human too. Everyone dies when it is their time. We do our best to save people but it is not always possible and we cannot always be held responsible when someone dies. This should be taken up with you and your God, not us. We can only do so much.
Third, if the medical personnel keeps getting sued everytime a loved one dies, there will be no medical personnel there when your loved one needs help. There is currently a nursing shortage and many places a doctor shortage as well. People that sue are shooting themselves in the foot. They don't realize that in the long run they are hurting themselves. Many people shy away from going into the medical field because of fear of litigation. This is sad. Many people cannot afford health care because of the rising costs of health insurance and medical care that is directly linked in many ways to the costs of litigation. I have insurance but I can barely afford to get sick because even as a hospital employee, the deductibles and copays are tremendous. People that sue will someday see that one day THERE WILL BE NO ONE TO HELP THEM WHEN THEY NEED IT. I hope to see an example of that in my lifetime.
Fourth, there may have been a good reason why this Xray did not occur. Perhaps the techs in the ER were busy with another critical patient or several throughout the hospital. If they had ignored those other critical patients , they would have been sued again. Perhaps if the hospitals were not sued so often and had to pay such large amounts of money for malpractice insurance, they could afford to hire more techs and buy more X ray machines.
We are only human. We are trying to help our fellow man as best we can and what do we get in return for our long sleepless nights? What do we get in return for our 12 hour shifts without eating or drinking because we put our patients needs before our own? What do we get for working 60 hour weeks and saying "yes I will work" even when we feel we cannot physically survive it because our patients need nurses and doctors and our co-workers desperately need help because they are so short-staffed? WE GET SUED! WELL, THANKS AMERICA. Thank you for appreciating all my sacrifices for you. Thank you for not caring that I work Christmas for you. Thank you for not caring that I have worked every weekend in the past 5 years. Thank you for not caring that I have suffered back pain on a daily basis from the constant stress of lifting patients.
People in the medical field are givers, nurturers. It takes special people to do this job. Those willing to take on this responsibility are getting fewer and far between and why? Because instead of being appreciated for all we give of ourselves, we are getting sued.
It is for this reason I am changing careers at the age of 36. I no longer want to give of myself in such great ways, only to get slapped in the face.
Sincerely,
Kim Boyer
717-957-2371