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This is crazy…figuratively and literally
Courtesy of David Nieporent over at Overlawyered comes the story of Dr. Jonathan Haas’ ridiculous lawsuit against Wyoming Valley Health Care System. After the hospital decided not to allow Dr. Haas to perform surgery without supervision, he sued the hospital and won a $250,000 jury verdict.
Now why, you ask, was this lawsuit ridiculous?
Well it seems that the reason the hospital wouldn’t let Haas perform unsupervised surgery is that he’s mentally ill. Dr. Haas has bipolar disorder, has spent two stints in mental institutions, once got so confused in surgery that he couldn’t remember the name of surgical instruments and may have been talking to a wall at one point, and two different shrinks have refused to say that he was mentally competent. So he sued the hospital under the Americans with Disabilities Act, arguing that the hospital’s failures to provide a supervisor for his surgeries “were unreasonable, resulting in him being ‘banished’ from practicing in the community.”
Now I get that the ADA exists specifically to ensure that folks with disabilities (mental or physical) aren’t discriminated against when they are capable of doing a job if given reasonable accommodations. And I totally support this. But to insist that a surgeon, who has had prior problems in the operating room, and who can’t get a clean bill-of-health from psychiatrists, should be allowed to operate anyway…well, that’s just crazy.
As Nieporent put it:
In short, the hospital had the choice of risking a patient’s life and being sued for malpractice, or restricting the privileges of the surgeon and being sued for discrimination. (And we know that had a patient sued for malpractice, the hospital couldn’t possibly have defended itself by pointing to the requirements of the ADA and saying that it was forced to employ the surgeon.)
There are times I find myself hating this legal system I’m a part of. At the moment, I think I hate it just a little bit, for giving this guy a quarter of a million dollars.
Comments
Seth:
You were misinformed.
I was trial counsel for Dr Haas, along with Ruth Borland and David Tomaszewski.
Dr.Haas had clearances from two separate psychiatrists for return without any restrictions.
The hospital (Wyoming Valley Health Care System) consulted with no mental health profesionals and did not have an IME done.
At trial, it was undisputed that the hospital has never imposed a supervision requirement on any other physician, even those who had committed medical errors in the operating room causing actual harm to patients.
At trial it was undisputed that the surgery performed by Dr. Haas was a complete success.
Finally, at trial it was proven that the hospital rejected the offer of its own chief of surgery to provide the supervision, because the chief of surgery was not an orthopedic surgeon.
Posted by Kimberly D. Borland | April 13, 2007 11:53 AM
While, I'm not disputing that the Justice system sucks, let's remember that there quite a few of you lately who have covered yourselves in glory. For example, the Colonel in the JAG office that wouldn't prosecute the torture victims. Jesus Mary and Joseph I hate to admit this, but I'm a big fan of most lawyers.
Posted by Bill Weldon | April 13, 2007 1:40 PM
Hospital privilege can be a really sticky situation. Sometimes the best option for a hospital is to pick the best lawsuit: the doctor or the possible patient who is harmed. Doctors are usually less sympathetic victims to a jury than patients. I'm not sure what the Med Mal situation is like in Wyoming, but I'd rather take on a crazy doctor than an harmed patient any day.
Posted by two elle | April 13, 2007 4:06 PM
I'm surprised you didn't pin this on the tail of the apparently batshit insane Wyoming jury . . .
Posted by Kitty X | April 16, 2007 4:49 PM