Medical Negligence/malpractice

[Monohan]

I have had kidney stones all of my adult life. I have passed over 600 stones and have had 34 procedures to remove the larger ones. I normally tough out the smaller stones and only contact the doctor or go to the ER when I get a blockage or really intense pain. Recently, I contacted my urologist to inform him I have an extremely painful stone. The receptionist sent me to the hospital for a catscan and set up an appointment for me one and 1/2 weeks later. When I saw the Dr., He said the stone was too large to pass(9mm), so they scheduled me for lithotripsy a week and 1/2 later. Before I made it to the lithotripsy, The stone moved and I had a kidney block. I went to the emergency room. I was given Dilaudid and sent home. The pain eased and a few days later had my litho. Just before the procedure, I told my doctor's assistant that I thought the stone had moved down the ureter and was resting on top of my bladder. She nodded and they proceeded with the surgery. I was offered Vicadin upon discharge but refused it as I had a prescription already. Immediately after I was still in pain in the bladder area although the kidney was targeted during the procedure. I had a follow up in 2 weeks. A week into recovery, I was still having severe pain so I called the office, was told to continue heavy fluids and come to follow up as scheduled. So as planned I had a KUB the morning of follow up and was told by doctor, I was stone free. I said how is that possible when I in so much pain still, and have not passed any gravel. He shrugged and suggested I schedule a colonoscopy with my GP and gave me an antibiotic, again saying I was stone free. 5 days later, I'm back in the ER and upon taking another catscan, the 9mm stone that was supposed to have been destroyed, had now moved into my bladder. It's now 3 weeks since the lithotripsy and I'm still in the hospital(to control pain) waiting for stone removal by a different doctor in two days. Should the doctor have tried to find out the reason for my pain when I told him I was absolutely miserable and had been since the surgery, rather than dismissing me and treating me as if I were "chasing" pain pills. I feel like he failed on several counts... Not busting up the stone and not seeing it on the KUB 2 weeks later and not believing me or trying an alternate method of diagnosing the pain. I suffered an addition 3 weeks of pain because he assumed I was faking the pain. Do I have a case of negligence or malpractice? Thank you.

[Kilian]

Trey:  Let's just take it on faith that your doctor was negligent in failing to realize that you were correct about the stone moving.  Let's also assume that the doctor and all other medical personnel failed to follow procedure, properly read test results, and generally be dismissive of your complaints.  Therefore, let's just presume that malpractice occured.  So do you have a case of malpractice?

[Croften]

: NO. Why?  Because we can also presume that the stone will be successfully removed, you will not have suffered any long term pain, disability or medical complications as a result of malpractice.  By your own statements, your damages will consist of an extra few weeks of pain, maybe an additional surgery or procedure to take care of the problem, and that's it.  That is not nearly enough in terms of damages for an attorney to take on the case. Here's why.  Firstly, the lawyer has to hire a urologist, nephrologist or other expert to review your entire medical history and then form an opinion on the question of malpractice.  That would cost a couple thousand dollars. Let's say the expert says there was malpractice. Filing the lawsuit costs several hundred dollars. The defendant doctor's insurance company hires top flight attorneys to defend the case. They have experts saying that everything was done "within the standard of care" by your doctor. They send interrogatories about your entire life, take your deposition, make motions in court to dismiss the case and many other procedures that take lots of your attorney's time, and money. Then your attorney has to to the same against them. Again, lots of time and money. In the meantime, you recover and are feeling well. A year or two later the case goes to trial that will take a solid week or two in court before a jury. The probable result is a defense verdict altough you have a shot at compensation for 3 weeks of pain. Do you now see why the case would not be viable and you are unlikely to find a lawyer who is interested?  Now if the orginal malpractice had killed you or caused you to go on dialysis or something else very serious, that would be a different matter. Get it?