Quote:
Originally Posted by scooter
This opens up an enormous can of worms.
Say that the DoD determines a Standard of Care and appropriate treatment X for condition Y, with all the handy flow charts.
Now imagine that an 18D slathers your wound with honey to stave off infection in your gun shot wound in some shit hole country where no advanced medical care is available, and casevac is 96 hours away at best. Lets say you die from a condition, not worsened by the 18Ds care.
Your family is horrified and sues, and their friendly trial lawyer has a field day with said 18D's "horrifying treatment, listed nowhere in any medical textbook used by medical schools"....
Probable? Can't answer that. Possible? You betcha. This is a Bad Idea.
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"Standard of care" is a relative term. A paramedic in a ditch is not held to the same standard of care as a physician at the Mayo Clinic.
This serviceman died from an appendectomy. Let me say that again: this serviceman died from an
appendectomy. No brain surgery, no bullet wounds. This is a procedure that is usually done with a freaking scope. He was not in a warzone MASH hospital---he was stateside. Moreover, he didn't die from surgery complications. He died because the people in charge of his care failed to maintain his airway, which caused braindeath. Is there anybody here who didn't learn the necessity of maintaining an airway? "ABC's"? Hell, this is taught during EIB training. And nurses and physicians in a stateside Air Force hospital can't get this done?
There is a bill that has been brought before Congress with the following provisions: The measure would allow lawsuits on behalf of military personnel who are killed or injured by medical malpractice. It contains an exception for combat-related injuries and requires that any paid claim be reduced by the amount of any other government compensation resulting from the injury.
I am attaching a link to the article, so that you might read some of the comments from former service members who have had some horrendous care.
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/05/serv...st-malpractice
If the Supreme Court would allow these suits to be brought, the would have to be filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act. These tort claims are different than state law claims. A few of the differences are: 1) the plaintiff has no right to a jury trial, so damages are determined by a judge; 2) the plaintiff's attorney's fees are maxed-out at 25%; 3) the statute of limitations is very short.
Like many of you, I am quite hesitant to open the litigation floodgates on this issue. However, if servicemen are dying because nurses and physicians in stateside military hospitals are so inept that they can't maintain an airway, something needs to be done.