By Gemma Alexander
Sometimes it seems that
taking legal action is a form of revenge. People use phrases like, “They should
have to pay for what they’ve done,” when justifying a lawsuit. But legal action
can be about more than restitution. Making positive change can be as simple as
a different attitude – and a good lawyer.
Design
opportunity
August de los Reyes suffered a spinal
injury in 2013. Doctors ignored or rejected his claims that he had a broken
back, despite the fact that de los Reyes had previously been diagnosed with a
rare inflammatory disease that can make sufferers more susceptible to spinal
fractures. As a result, de los Reyes ended up in a wheelchair for life.
As a design manager in the technology field and an
informed patient with a chronic illness, de los Reyes knew medical errors are a leading cause of death in the
U.S. and viewed his own case not as an isolated mistake, but as evidence of
systemic design flaws in patient care. Determined to keep the issue of medical
errors in the spotlight, de los Reyes and his lawyers refused to keep the terms
of his lawsuit settlement secret.
Even more unusual, the terms of the agreement required
the hospital to allow de los Reyes to be part of the
investigation and evaluation of the circumstances that led to his
injury. Now de los Reyes is a member of the hospital’s Patient Family Advisory
Council and has met with the hospital’s chief medical officer about using his
technical design skills to improve clinical practice.
Mothers
Against Medical Error
In 2000, Helen Haskell’s fifteen-year-old son, Lewis Blackman, died
following a routine surgery in which medical staff failed to recognize signs of
internal bleeding. The circumstances of Haskell’s case
were so damning, the hospital offered a settlement of nearly a million dollars
and agreed to meet with Haskell to discuss patient safety before her attorney
even filed the wrongful death suit. But Haskell refused to let the story end
with a settlement. Instead, she went beyond lawsuits to legislation.
Haskell founded the nonprofit Mothers Against
Medical Error, and
began campaigning for legislative changes in her home state of South Carolina.
Haskell’s work led to the 2005 passage of South Carolina’s Lewis Blackman Patient Safety Act, which requires health care providers to be clearly identified
and mandates the presence of a patient-activated emergency response system in
hospitals. She also advocated for the South Carolina Hospital Infection
Disclosure Act, and in 2007, a state-sponsored Chair of Clinical Effectiveness
and Patient Safety was endowed in the name of her son.
Real
change
The families of medical error victims who become
patient safety advocates know that it is better to work with hospitals than to
pursue an antagonistic relationship. Susan Sheridan, whose son suffered severe brain damage and whose
husband died as the result of medical errors in unrelated events at different
hospitals, has settled multiple lawsuits, but still prefers to work with the
hospitals as allies instead of enemies. She told Modern Health magazine,
“People would say my family won, and there is no winning in the tort system.”
Sometimes, legal action is the only course of action
available, however. When Lyn Gross entered the hospital for treatment of a
brain aneurysm, paperwork technicalities caused her to wait several hours for
additional treatment when she suffered a stroke after the procedure. As a
result, she experienced severe brain damage. Her lawsuit settlement included a promise
from the hospital to change its documentation practices to avoid a similar
situation in the future. The change was never made. So the Gross family sued
again, prompting a letter from the hospital confirming the change.
When you’ve suffered medical malpractice, criminal
negligence, or been harmed by faulty products, it is easy and natural to focus
on the harm done to your own life. But helping to ensure that no one else
suffers as you have is empowering and healing for you and could be a life-saver
for someone else. If you have a legal right to restitution, you also have the
leverage to make real change.
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