Good samaritan law

[MoneyTrev]

My mom almost died after a hysterectomy while she was in the recovery room. If my sisters and I hadn't been in there, she would have. She was bleeding internally and when we pointed out the blood pressure was REALLY low (like 80 over 30) the nurse turned off the monitor. She almost stopped breathing and couldn't stay awake. I ran to get a nurse and two sisters yelled at her to wake up, and they had to operate again so they could find out what was wrong.

I asked dad later if they were going to sue. He said no. People make mistakes, he said. She is ok and though she had a tougher recovery, she came out of it. I would say this probably was a "good case". I'm proud of them for not trying to get rich off a mistake.

Wow. Great story.

The thing with today's society regarding to this is that people just want to sue to have a chance to get $$$ and fix the problem at the same time. What they're not realizing is that if they don't win, they lose a bunch of $$. Do they treat this like the lottery?

There were countless amounts of times where I felt like I needed to sue someone but I didn't because it just wasn't worth it.

[m3racer]

My mom almost died after a hysterectomy while she was in the recovery room. If my sisters and I hadn't been in there, she would have. She was bleeding internally and when we pointed out the blood pressure was REALLY low (like 80 over 30) the nurse turned off the monitor. She almost stopped breathing and couldn't stay awake. I ran to get a nurse and two sisters yelled at her to wake up, and they had to operate again so they could find out what was wrong.

I asked dad later if they were going to sue. He said no. People make mistakes, he said. She is ok and though she had a tougher recovery, she came out of it. I would say this probably was a "good case". I'm proud of them for not trying to get rich off a mistake.

I disagree with you. Where was the mistake? You are assuming that the OBGYN did not check for hemostasis prior to closing the wound. Re-bleeding from the wound can and commonly occurs for various reasons. This is exactly what I'm talking about. The lay person with no medical or surgical skills just makes plain assumptions. BTW, I'm glad your mom is ok.

[Gjowers]

My mom almost died after a hysterectomy while she was in the recovery room. If my sisters and I hadn't been in there, she would have. She was bleeding internally and when we pointed out the blood pressure was REALLY low (like 80 over 30) the nurse turned off the monitor. She almost stopped breathing and couldn't stay awake. I ran to get a nurse and two sisters yelled at her to wake up, and they had to operate again so they could find out what was wrong.

I asked dad later if they were going to sue. He said no. People make mistakes, he said. She is ok and though she had a tougher recovery, she came out of it. I would say this probably was a "good case". I'm proud of them for not trying to get rich off a mistake.

No, it is not a "good case." They would be entitled to nothing under our law. Proving negligence in any state in this country requires proof of 4 essential elements, without them, your case gets tossed out by the judge in the early stages of litigation. You must prove: 1) duty, 2) breach of that duty, 3) damages, and 4) proximate cause. Based on the facts you posted, your mom had no damages. Near misses are non compensable. At best she had a tougher recovery.

If she had died, or suffered brain damage from the blood loss, that might be a "good case," provided the other 3 elements are present, and I'm not sure they are. Surgery has known complications. Just because there is a bad outcome doesn't necessarily mean there was negligence. There must have been what's called a deviation from the standard of care. The essentially means sub-standard care.

You don't want to have a good case. Believe me, people with "good cases" have suffered tragedy. You don't want any part of that.

[Gjowers]

The judge threw it out in the first 5 minutes but my coworker still had to pay a lawyer a few hundred dollars and take time from work.

The system worked. That's too bad they had to pay for the lawyer to represent them and miss time from work. A better outcome would have been for the judge to have taxed costs to the other party. Whether that is available depends on state law.

Like I said in my initial post, our system is not perfect, but it's about the best around.

[disneysteve]

She was bleeding internally and when we pointed out the blood pressure was REALLY low (like 80 over 30) the nurse turned off the monitor.

I disagree with you. Where was the mistake?

The mistake (if there was one) doesn't sound like it was made by the doctor but rather by the recovery room nurse. When alerted by someone that the BP was low, turning off the monitor hardly seems like the appropriate response.

That said, I agree with Gjowers that there probably was no case here since there was no damage. Thankfully, she made a full recovery.

We had a situation a number of years ago. Our van spontaneously caught fire in our driveway. The van was destroyed along with everything in it, the driveway, an outside light fixture, part of the lawn, the garage door, etc. An engineering investigative team examined the wreckage and determined that the fire was caused by a manufacturing defect in the vehicle. Just out of curiosity, I gave my attorney a call to ask if there might be a case worth pursuing. He said no. Why? Because nobody was injured and our insurance covered all of the damages. We had no loss to sue for.

[Gjowers]

Okay, one last point. I encounter the sentiments I see expressed above all the time. I've given it a lot of thought as to why these sentiments are so prevalent. I think one reason is an abundance of misinformation (even urban legends - see the stella awards on snopes.com).

But I think the most important reason is this: Most people have a very hard time identifying with the plaintiff. What I mean is most people identify more with the person being sued. They are afraid they're going to get sued. They see that as a plausible possibility. I think the reason people can't identify with the plaintiff is no one wants to believe that very bad things can happen to them. No one sees himself/herself as perhaps one day being in a similar situation. In my line of work I know that tragedy can happen to anyone.

[Seeker]

Interesting points of view. Thankfully, my only interactions with courts have been while serving in Jury Duty.

One of my hubby's best friends is a lawyer; thus I've heard many multitudes of stories after they were cleared. Another of my friends is a police officer; we hear many stories from him as well.

With regard to medical malpractices; I want to believe that people who are trying to help another person, should not fear for being sued. I'd like to think that doctors are not turning away people who need help because they cannot guarantee a "successful" outcome.

But I know that people will pursue dollars in whatever way they can. I do think that aside from accidents, clear cut cases of medical neglect are defined and warranted. I also see DS's point about time-loss and having to spend money to defend in unwarranted cases.

But the Nurse turning off a monitor that is expressing a problem with a human being is worrisome to me. Thankfully, no harm came of it, but I hope someone let the doctor know that that one action might have killed his patient. This doctor should have spoken with that nurse, and reiterated the ramifications of turning off a device and not listening to a valid concern about the patients declining BP. Hopefully then, the nurse would not repeat that practice of turning off a device meant to help.

I'd like to think that most lawyers are involved with criminal/civil cases and not pursuing the frivolous cases that are prevalent as well. I'd like to see more judges throw out the cases that shouldn't ever have gotten to the point of Jury Duty.

Our system is extremely complex. The fact that monies are involved does not lighten that burden. And it's also true that this country's system is fairer than most others.

Lawyers are seen as bad guys sometimes, but also as good guys. So are doctors, nurses, police, and all professionals of all kinds. We all try to do the best we can with anything that comes up.... but accidents happen, and neglect happens, and not listening or being busy with other duties happens. We're all human.

[Snave]

The problem I see with this is that had the good samaritan not helped and the car burst into flames or something like that, the co-worker would have tried to sue saying the person did nothing but stood there and watch them end up with burns on their body. That's what ticks me off with this.

[cptacek]

The mistake (if there was one) doesn't sound like it was made by the doctor but rather by the recovery room nurse. When alerted by someone that the BP was low, turning off the monitor hardly seems like the appropriate response.

I agree with this. Surgery has complications...and my mom had a complication. It was turning off the monitor that blew me away.