RE: Alleged Misdiagnosis - Cancer Wrongful
Death
I am distressed at some comments of Drs. Allen
Jacobs and Peter Smith,
both professional friends of mine. Dr. Smith
intimates that if
negligence occurs and the treating
physician "feels bad," it diminishes the
negligence. He then states that an expert
witness for the plaintiff is somehow even more
venal if he "flies to Michigan to testify
against one of our own." These notions are
immature and demonstrates complete lack of
knowledge of how the system works. Even though
the jury verdict
reporter is scanty on details, it still brings
out the most visceral responses in the
readership of PM news. I have said it once, I'll
say it again...if I am the plaintiff, I want the
likes of Dr. John Haber reviewing my case. Even
with the short vignette presented about the
trial in Michigan, I was shocked at the verdict.
Dr. Jacobs, who has deftly demonstrated problems
on both sides of the
malpractice litigation bar, goes too far when
characterizing Drs. Fenton and Haber
as "accusing a colleague of "wrongful death"
just to make a few dollars as an "expert
witness.." It would be much more appropriate, in
my opinion, to lament how "for just a few
dollars, a podiatric surgeon who has no business
managing a soft tissue mass will do so." It is
amazing to me how everyone excepts that a wrong
site surgery is malpractice but it can "happen
to anybody," but "wrongful death" that results
from butchering up a tumor case can be a career
ender that should result in sanctions against an
expert witness who sets forth the disturbing
details. That is simply not fair and kills our
credibility.
The cold hard facts are that musculoskeletal
oncologists all over the
country are dealing daily with poorly worked up
soft tissue masses,
unexpected malignancies, and far too many
excisions without benefit of
pre-op MRI and plain films. The nightmare of
leaving a patient with an
excised malignant tumor resulting in undefinable
margins is a far too
common occurrence, that I have seen several
times. These cases come from general surgeons,
vascular surgeons, orthopods, and podiatrists
who have no advanced training or experience in
musculoskeletal oncology, but have been lucky
more than they have been burned.
I personally love this type of work, but I am
hospital based and
surrounded with help which drastically reduces
risk, is best for total
patient care, and provides a wealth of
experience. When my open incisional biopsies
result in a diagnosis of malignancy, I close the
wound and hand off to the experts who are
trained to deal with these issues. They are
informed during the work up, and we discuss the
orientation of the biopsy so that if a wide
excision becomes necessary, the second surgeon
knows exactly where I have been.
Bryan C. Markinson, DPM, NY, NY,
Bryan.Markinson@msnyuhealth.org
