ThePopTort

Drugs Mean Never Having to Say You’re Sorry

We written before that the focus on “litigation alternatives” in the health care bill is one big distraction.  This includes talk about “apology” proposals, where doctors and hospitals who commit malpractice “apologize” to patients.  Fine, but they don’t always work.  

Yet that doesn’t mean we didn’t find totally fascinating the recent piece in the New York Times about drug companies, and what they think about “apologizing” to families for manufacturing unsafe drugs that injure or kill people. 

“Apologizing,” they say, “isn’t popular among drug makers.”  Here’s an excerpt:

Indeed, in light of a Harris poll last month that reported that Americans trust drug makers only slightly more than they trust tobacco or oil companies, contrition still could have a public relations upside for drug makers.

The poll was published at the end of a year in which a series of government investigations and lawsuits showed how some drug makers paid leading physicians and patient advocacy groups, engaged in misleading marketing, supported ghostwritten articles in medical journals and tried to squelch doctors’ concerns about drug safety.

We’ve written a lot about this too (here, here), so check out how Pfizer is trying repair its sorry reputation for all this. Today, Stanford University "will announce plans to develop new continuing education programs for doctors that will be devoid of the drug industry influence that has often permeated such courses. The work is being done with a $3 million grant — from the drug maker Pfizer.”  No matter this company's history, like  that it just “paid $2.3 billion last year to settle government fraud charges of deceptive marketing, including sponsoring supposedly independent programs promoting off-label uses for the pain drug Bextra.”

No strings attached, they say. But we loved this comment: “'The announcement is self-satirizing,' said Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, a Georgetown University medical professor who has researched and written about industry influence in continuing medical education. 'Pfizer’s interest in better ways to manipulate physicians is well-known.'”

Meanwhile, the GAO is also now reporting that prices for some its smallest-selling but most vital medicines “have risen more than twofold in recent years as drug makers seek to squeeze greater profits” out of these drugs.  “The price for a drug intended to treat a rare form of cancer went from $390 for a full course of treatment to more than $3,000, investigators found.”

I think the pharmaceutical industry is way beyond apologies at this point.

South Dakota Urology Center Reused Disposable Medical Equipment, Exposing Thousands to Disease

Imagine you’re having bladder or urinary problems, go to the doctor and get some tests that are performed with equipment used by other sick patients.  And then you get a letter from the clinic saying they’re now offering you new tests to see if you have HIV or hepatitis C, stating how “deeply sorry” they are, and “if you have any concerns, we recommend that you consult with a physician."

An apology, how nice.  Luckily, some of these 5,000 patients decided also to consult with an attorney.  The culpable clinic sits on the border of Iowa and South Dakota, and its owners are now being sued by some Iowa residents who are seeking class action status.  Apparently even the South Dakota Department of Health has confirmed that the clinic used “single-use products such as saline solution bags and tubing on more than one patient before being discarded.”

Sound familiar?  It should.  This is a terrible case of déjà vu all over again.  Think Nevada, New York and New Jersey, and the VA, which have also played host to medical clinics that reused medical equipment, exposing numerous patients to blood-borne disease.

South Dakotans Seek Justice For All - Not Just The Wealthy

We talk a lot about medical malpractice caps (see here here and here) and late last month we noticed that some in South Dakota are trying to overturn the state's cruel 32-year-old cap on compensation for patients hurt by gross medical negligence.  We hope they succeed.

The case is being brought by the parents of an infant daughter who suffered brain damage last year due to a hospital's gross negligence.  According to the parents, "a feeding device was not placed in the baby's stomach but rather in her abdominal cavity" and "procedures to check the correct placement of the device were done incorrectly, and the baby was poisoned by barium, a substance used in X-rays." It is outrageous that even in cases of castatrophic injuries of children like this, non-economic compensation (for their lost quality of life) would be severely capped. 

It should also be noted that such caps discriminate against children, senior citizens, those with low income and women who do not work outside the home, who are more likely to receive a greater percentage of their compensation in the form of non-economic payments.  (See the the most recent edition of the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy The Racial Implication of Tort Reform written by the Center for Justice & Democracy's Joanne Doroshow and Amy Widman)

So the recent lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in Minnehaha County on behalf of this infant seeks to challenge the constitutionality of that cap.  Earlier this spring a Georgia court struck down that state's medical malpractice cap on non-economic damages.

In the News…

Last week, CJ&D’s Executive Director Joanne Doroshow responded to the Desert Sun’s article on tort abuse.

This article's use of fictions, exaggerations and scare tactics do nothing more than create public scorn for severely injured people, who sometimes must turn to the legal system.

Lawsuit filed in South Dakota meant to challenge the state’s medical malpractice cap.

Earlier this month, the New Times reported on at least six doctors practicing in Arizona who had their licenses revoked in other states.  The report “played a key role in the potential suspension” of one of the physicians. 

New York City’s civil lawsuit against 27 gun dealers is expected to settle this week with one of the final gun dealers.