Articles On Malpractice

Medical Malpractice: Diagnostic Errors Tied to Common Complaints

Even common medical complaints can lead to diagnostic errors. Every year, new articles document how doctors are spending less and less time talking with their patients. While it can be difficult to protect ourselves from many diagnostic errors, we can all still benefit from reviewing some of the most frequently misdiagnosed medical ailments.

The following list references number of these more complicated medical conditions. After reviewing this list, you may become more proactive about(1) securing a second opinion about some of your current medical issues and (2) questioning whether medical malpractice has played a role in your currently declining health. Everyone deserves to be properly diagnosed and treated, even if they’re just in the early stages of a particular illness.

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Suicide, Malpractice, and Clinical Ethics | Health for life ...

Ruth Farrell, a 41 year old librarian in Westport, Connecticut, was admitted to Silver Hill Hospital in mid January, 2002. On January 28, 2002, in between 15 minute checks on her status, she hanged herself, using her own spandex pants.

The executor of her estate, David Kervick, a 60 year old lawyer from New Jersey, who she had met in 2001 when they were both inpatients, sued the hospital and Ms. Farrell’s psychiatrist, Dr. Ellyn Shander, for not preventing her death. On January 3, 2008, a Superior Court jury in Stamford, Connecticut, ruled in favor of the hospital and Dr. Shander.

The New York Times articles from November 23, 2007 and January 4, 2008, tell a painful story. Ms. Farrell was named for a grandmother who had died by suicide. She began cutting herself in high school. During college she was hospitalized for a year for depression. Her pastor said “I have no idea how she lasted as long as she did.” Ms. Farrell’s final admission to Silver Hill was her seventeenth.

Given that suicidal risk was so obvious, how could the jury find for the hospital and psychiatrist?

From my reading of the two New York Times articles, the answer is (1) clinical ethics and (2) a realistic view of the limits of what medicine can accomplish.

After the trial, a juror commented that she was “impressed that when Ms. Farrell could not afford the fees, the doctor often accepted homemade treats in lieu of payment…Ellyn [the psychiatrist] would take cookies, and a lot of doctors won’t do that.” The jury concluded that Dr. Shander cared deeply about Ms. Farrell, stretched herself to be available, and was not mercenary.

The juror conveyed a realistic view of psychiatry as helpful, but finite in its capacity, not omnipotent. “With Ms. Farrell’s history of suicidal thoughts and deeds…she could have done it at home, and the hospital and the doctor helped her all these years.” The jury saw the suicide as the end of a tragic life story, not as the fault of Silver Hill or Dr. Shander. Remarkably, the jury has planned a reunion for January 28, the anniversary of Ms. Farrell’s death, and invited the defense team to participate.

Some decades ago I was briefly involved in the treatment of a young person who committed suicide, elsewhere in the country, a few months after our last contact. I met at length with the family after the death – one of the most painful meetings in my career. The family expressed great grief and anger. They challenged me as to whether, in retrospect, I would have done anything differently. I told them that if I could turn back the clock I would indeed have taken a different course of action, and explained why I had not done so at the time.

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