posted
I just received an email from a woman in MN who was presented with a waiver her medical doctor asked her to sign in because he failed to diagnose lyme disease in her 9 year old daughter.
In exchange for signing the waiver, the physician's office offered to cover the approximately $1,000 in specialists charges previously incurred.
Does this stink of coersion to you guys? Is this even legal?
They also told her that her child would be immune to further lyme for several years because her "T" cell count was so high. Additionally, she was not informed about coinfections that could be transmitted. Her daughter wasn't diagnosed for 8 months and then had several weeks of abx. She wondered if that were enough. Good question.
I DID send some what I hope is good advice, including disclaimers, etc. along with information to answer her questions about lyme, and referrals to ILADS, this board, and the LDA.
How low can the ducks go I ask? Waivers to protect their own butts from failure to diagnose......but ducks fall under the "standard of care" rules and malpractice insurance.....
-------------------- PJ
www.LymeLeague.com"Together We Grow Stronger" Posts: 139 | From A tiny little home office in the middle of Wisconsin | Registered: Feb 2005
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
I hope this woman has NOT signed this waiver! NOR does she plan too. He'd be getting off easy. I see many $$ for this Mom down the road.
Hopefully, LYMESCIENCE & ANIEK, both lawyers, will join in this discussion plus another newbie joining in last 2 days is a lawyer too!
Althought I'm not a MD OR LLMD, I don't think 2 weeks was enough abx for the daughter.
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posted
Yes, it definitely does stink. This is an attempt to avoid being sued for malpractice.
However, the problem is that even if someone were to sue, they would bump up against the same old problem of bias in the medical lit and in govt mgmt of lyme, so that longterm treatment costs for a missed diagnosis would not be covered anyway. The official view is that it is not a chronic infectious disease that needs longterm treatment.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
He needs to cover her treatment for the FUTURE as well. How about the next 10 yrs!? Several weeks of abx may not cut....don't see how it could!!
Something definitely smells here.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96223 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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Aniek
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5374
posted
I'm not a lawyer yet. Just a law student. So nothing I say should be taken as legal advice. Just passing on knowledge.
People always make deals where they sign a waiver not to sue in order to receive compensation. We sign waivers all the time before medical procedures. They are generally upheld in court, unless it seems clear that an a reasonable person would not have read or understood the waiver.
It's a basic cost benefit analysis that needs to happen. If it is unlikely they will bring or win a malpractice suit, then financially the waiver might be the best choice. However, if if they are thinking of such a case, they should definitely speak with a lawyer before signing anything.
Obviously, the waiver suggests the doctor thinks he did something wrong. But it is not proof of that. That might impact the decision.
Also, the T-Cell stuff I've never heard before. So that just raises lots of questions. Not just duck questions, but where the heck did this info come from? Definitely doesn't sound like somebody to trust.
This person may also not want to sign the waiver for moral reasons. Do they want to give the doctor the sign that it is ok to buy off patients? Again, as just a person and nobody who gives legal advice, this waiver disgusts me.
All this said if the $1000 is going to get her daughter better treatment, a mother sometimes needs to think of her daughter first.
-------------------- "When there is pain, there are no words." - Toni Morrison Posts: 4711 | From Washington, DC | Registered: Mar 2004
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
Aniek, that's for your "student" advise on this subject! I forgot you're still in law school...lyme does that to the mind you know. LOL.
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posted
This raises something I have thought of for a while and think the topic has come up before.
Are physicians actually liable in situations like this where they actually fail to diagnose? I think of all the lyme folks, and others, who have gone from doc to doc trying to get help.
Is there any liability to a physician who simply won't take the time to diagnose, writing it off to a convenient diagnosis?
I hope that family doesn't sign anything before getting some sound legal advice.
Posts: 460 | From Illinois | Registered: Aug 2005
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Ann-OH
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 2020
posted
I would report that doctor to the state medical board.
First I would ask to have a copy of the waiver so I could look it over and show it to my family, so it would be documented.
posted
I agree with nearly all of you on this topic. I think if more doctors COULD be held liable for failure to diagnose, then they might do a better job and not be so quick to dismiss our illness.
Then again, how would that impact the "its all in your head" syndrome so many doctors force-feed us?
Jeepers, after all the docs I've seen over the years, I could rake in mucho buckeroonies....
Well, except for the recent death of one so-called LLMD, a neurologist. My sympathies to his family and friends, but he told me "I don't believe that chronic lyme exists."
I hope he's in heaven right now working behind the scenes to bring lyme awareness into the light.
----------
And yes, I think signing waivers to protect someone else's butt is irresponsible of them to ask.
If I was the woman personally I might have claimed "lyme rage" and made the requesting party eat the document....
but what do I know? I'm the mad, supposedly raving lunatick that has been proven by yet another psychological exam that I'm not nuts but the court still thinks I am anyway because they won't admit they were wrong.....
At least I don't wear a chicken costume
-------------------- PJ
www.LymeLeague.com"Together We Grow Stronger" Posts: 139 | From A tiny little home office in the middle of Wisconsin | Registered: Feb 2005
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
The Oath to do no harm hmmm musta took it reversed To do no harm to myself. Cover thy a** Dr Dont sign go after this one what a low life Dr.
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
Aniek
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5374
posted
quote:Originally posted by chroniccosmic: This raises something I have thought of for a while and think the topic has come up before.
Are physicians actually liable in situations like this where they actually fail to diagnose? I think of all the lyme folks, and others, who have gone from doc to doc trying to get help.
Is there any liability to a physician who simply won't take the time to diagnose, writing it off to a convenient diagnosis?
I hope that family doesn't sign anything before getting some sound legal advice.
Doctors can be liable for a failure to diagnose, but they will be held up to a standard within the medical community. So, as long as it is the norm to not diagnose Lyme, only limited cases would win.
If you went to the doctor's office with an imbedded tick and a bull's eye rash and soon afterwards had inflammation in your knee followed by memory loss and that doctor never ordered a Lyme test...well there's probably a case. But if the doctor orders a test and it's negative, well then that doctor may not be found to have acted in negligence.
There have been cases where the courts have decided that the result was so severe, that the doctor shold have done something that was not yet the norm. But these are rare.
But generally, if the doctor can point to a standard of care accepted by the medical community, that is enough of a defense to show they acted reasonably.
-------------------- "When there is pain, there are no words." - Toni Morrison Posts: 4711 | From Washington, DC | Registered: Mar 2004
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