So, sue me...

When I was pregnant with my first son, I went 10 days past my due date. When my ob decided it was time to induce labor at 8:00 am on July 31, 2001, I was so excited. However, after 13 hours and no progress, my doctor suggested a c-section. At that point, I would have performed it myself because I was so ready to have this baby!

Along the way, something happened. I don't know what happened, because I received general anesthesia and when I woke up, I had my baby boy. I found out 2 years later that David's umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and he was blue from lack of oxygen when the ob started to deliver him. It took the medical team 3 successive tries to get my baby breathing before he finally could do it on his own. No one said a word about it at the time...

Over the next few years, I noticed that something wasn't "right" with David. After much work and testing, a neuropsychologist determined that my firstborn baby boy suffered from an autistic spectrum disorder. The psychologist says it's probably due to his lack of oxygen and traumatic birth.

Lots of people say "Oh, I would sue that doctor!" Why? No amount of money will change David's diagnosis. He is who he is- there's no option of wondering who or what he "could have been". Besides, from where I sit, the ob did her job and did it well: there was a problem with the baby, she put me under so I didn't have to experience the horror of it and that doctor saved my baby's life. Because of her, I didn't have a stillborn baby. Should she (or someone) have told me what happened afterwards? Absolutely. But whether she told me or not, the outcome would have been the same- except she was probably worried I would sue.

I've had 6 different OB/GYN's during my 10 years in Connecticut. Most of the doctors either retired or moved to other states where it's safer to deliver babies because of malpractice laws. According to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynocologists, 88 % of obstetricians in my area had claims against them last year- nearly 2.5 claims per doctor. Half of those were "neurological impairment" to the infant- and the average damage award was more than $1,000,000. In Connecticut and surrounding areas, many obs cut the number of high risk pregnancies they were willing to take by 25% due to fear of malpractice litigation and rising malpractice insurance costs. 10% of ob/gyns decided to pack it up and retire.

Medical malpractice attorneys McCullough, Campbell and Lane, LLC tell people on their website that Connecticut has no cap on the amount of compensatory damages a plantiff can receive- and a patient has up to three years to make that claim.

Even if the case is dropped, the doctor's insurance premiums go up and the complaint is part of that doctor's permanent record. Connecticut state law requires doctors to carry a minimum of $500,000 of coverage for each occurance plus 3 times that amount in total.

What does it all mean? It means that for all the crying about healthcare reform and all the folks who feel they have a "right" to healthcare, wouldn't it make sense to change the malpractice laws to bring down costs instead of adding trillions to the US debt? To "insure" 30 million people out of 350 million while doctors are drowning in insurance costs and having to pass that cost on to patients is bad business. Things happen. Doctors are human and sometimes, they make mistakes. Sometimes, like in David's case, there's no mistake- just a doctor doing what she does best. Nothing's perfect, friends. I'd rather have my baby boy and his issues than bring flowers to his tiny grave every year. Thank you, Dr. Cuccia.

I'm just sayin'...