Via McQ comes this mind-blowing tale:
A Sanford mother says she will never be able to hold her newborn because an Orlando hospital performed a life-altering surgery and, she claims, the hospital refuses to explain why they left her as a multiple amputee.
The woman filed a complaint against Orlando Regional Healthcare Systems, she said, because they won't tell her exactly what happened. The hospital maintains the woman wants to know information that would violate other patients' rights.
Claudia Mejia gave birth eight and a half months ago at Orlando Regional South Seminole. She was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando where her arms and legs were amputated. She was told she had streptococcus, a flesh eating bacteria, and toxic shock syndrome, but no further explanation was given.
The hospital, in a letter, wrote that if she wanted to find out exactly what happened, she would have to sue them.
This neatly illustrates a pretty poorly-understood function of the medical malpractice system: discovery. Litigation is often the only way to compel after-the-fact information on a procedure. Records of operations gone awry are jealously guarded by hospitals and can only be accessed through the "discovery" period of lawsuits. For that reason, a fair number of suits are brought by plaintiffs seeking information on their loved one's death -- the motivation is closure, not compensation. And given this hospital's response to a woman who awoke without any limbs, you can see where the patients are coming from.
For more on on disclosure and malpractice, read this doctor's comment on his experiences simply apologizing for mishaps and injury and this Slate article on Sweden's no-fault resolution system.
