Doctor and Lawyer React To Grey’s Anatomy Malpractice Episode

I'm about to dissect a Grey's Anatomy case, but I think I want to do it not only from a medical point of view, we should do it legally. Welcome to the channel. Legal Eagle, hey, Legal Eagles,

doctor

s never want to ruin shit, shit, shit, shit, shit last. What you'd want to hear in an operating room if you saw a transcript that said "shit, shit, shit," I mean, you'd see the dollar sign, the dollar sign, the dollar sign, not that we want to hurt anyone, but Sometimes we do it, sometimes we make mistakes and then the

lawyer

s. do it well I'm sorry I'm looking for dr. torres yeah hello great, you've been sued that's how it happens uh in a medical

malpractice

situation like this uh obviously you have to file the lawsuit somehow and the way you do that is called the notification process okay and if I didn't know where the person was or where they worked or didn't know who their attorney was, then you would have to hire someone called a process server to physically serve it. that the person who throws it at you and says you can't you can't because I've seen that in the movies they throw it at you and it's like oh they served me what does that mean I mean you need to have a competent adult who can verify that this is the person who is being sued so throwing him out a door which is not best practice ok ready to build me a new hip he needs to be able to do this.

Look, there may be a new hip right there. Do that, most importantly, will he do it in December? The Olympic qualifiers are approaching. You mentioned an accident last year. They said it gave me arthritis. You can't win gold with arthritis. I want Peterson's hip, a bad accident would cause arthritis. the rest of your young career sounds strange, the only thing I can imagine is if you have significant cartilage loss or potentially a labral tear, but there are other procedures you can do from an orthopedic standpoint instead of just replacing the hip. They're asking

doctor

s, it's not at all practical to make promises that you'll be able to make a move, that promise about recovery time, none of this is guaranteed because in medicine you don't even know what's going to happen until you open the patient, especially in a specific case like this, it's hyper specific, it's not your run of the mill joint replacement patient, it's funny to say that because one of the first cases you learn about in law school is called Hawkins v.

McGee, you may have heard talk about it colloquially because it is called the hairy hand case in which at the beginning of the century a doctor had a patient who had a condition in his hand, I think he burned his hand and the doctor promised that not only would he have a functional hand but she would be one hundred percent recovered, she is fine and they did a skin graft and as a result they did not give her a 100 normal hand but a hand that was functional but hairy and that is why the lawsuit was: can they recover damages for non-compliance ? of the promise that was made when they promised you a normal hand of 100 and they gave you a hairy hand and the answer is yes, you have to value any difference in money between a normal hand and a hairy hand.

A friend of mine got this one. Back on the mountain in no time, this is what I need. That's fine, even if you agree that a hip replacement is the correct treatment. I haven't even used Peterson's hip joint rejuvenation. I doubt you or your team would want them to. My first experience of yes, no, moving forward without research or making specific promises. Many patients generally treat medicine as if it were a shopping thing. I want x when in reality sometimes x is not what is best for the patient. and sometimes it puts you in this murky position where the patient feels like he's not getting what he wants, you're not giving it to him because you think it's not in his best interest and then they do something like a legal review for you. one of these websites and as a result you can't even comment on it because legally you are violating the patient's privacy if you comment on it, oh I never thought about that, that is absolutely true, I will look into the joint, learn what I can not make any promises?

I'm not worried. I mean, even though she seems to have been making some promises, it's obviously good that she's going to do some digging here. It is not necessarily decisive that a doctor has made some promises. I haven't done a procedure before and therefore it is negligent depending on the outcome that happens, but often in cases like this the manufacturer at least has an interest in making sure their own products are installed correctly, so , as far as I know, medical manufacturers will provide doctors with extensive training so that things are done correctly on the user's side, they will send a representative during the time of the procedure to be with us and guide us with any questions we may have and they are very well trained because many of the things in terms of technology come out so soon you just have to have them on the same page I'm not going to settle okay okay you convinced me okay I tried it so there are things to remember tomorrow let the jury see your face wait tomorrow that's right how fast is that? ridiculous this is a conversation you would have on day one day two day three this would be a multi-year process let the jury see your face you wear a dark suit not shiny skirt no pants minimal jewelry heels pantyhose professional but feminine you still have your ring of weddings, yes, use it, juries respond better to married women with families, that's a little misogynistic, I mean, there is a whole science to presenting yourself in front of a jury, this is getting a little crazy in terms of details, I mean, you want to dress nice, there are full names on the internet about um takashi 6969 who showed up in court with tattoos all over his face, his tail reaches here and he likes to take his shirt off and stuff, so you don't want to show up to the court looking like this being so specific about what you're wearing she's a doctor the colors don't really matter maybe in the extreme margins you're ready sure okay okay as someone who knows quite a bit about men's fashion what do you notice about the shirt What this guy is wearing has a different colored collar and probably cuffs, yeah, so he's wearing what's called a contrast collar and French cuffs, yeah, and if I had to pick the most pretentious thing you could wear with a suit, I'd say contrast. . colors now there's nothing wrong with that you know if you know you're a tobacco magnate maybe and you're drinking a mint julep on a patio cool contrast colors I think there's only one right color or a shirt that's white, that's fine, but that makes shopping much easier and above the knee amputation is usually more aggressive if possible, always try to go below the knee for stability purposes, plus there are a lot of blood vessels here that they're really dangerous so most of the patients I see that have amputations it's usually like diabetes complications gangrene are below the knee amputations it's rare for me, at least in primary care, to see above the knee amputations I imagine that you want to keep something under the knee so that the prosthesis is exactly more functional, exactly, okay?

Get up when the judge comes in. What if I could? That's great. There is a whole science and pseudoscience to making your client presentable and human in front of the jury. Okay and technically you can't talk to the jury except in the opening statement. and closing argument, so anything you can do to better humanize your client and notice that he's not wearing a tie makes sense and that he's a young guy, you know, it humanizes him a little bit, but to take that hit and say oh God, No I can stand up for this horrible thing the doctor did to me, that really drives home, it's not going to appear on any transcript anywhere, jury duty in a medical

malpractice

case is not easy.

I don't know about you, but I'm not a doctor. Well, I barely finished biology in high school. That's fine, but you guys will receive an intensive course of education in orthopedic medicine and post-operative infections. hearing words like pseudomonas and emboli don't let that intimidate you, so those kinds of things like I'm not a doctor, blah, blah, blah, that can be good, but you have to combine it with making the defense look like they are. To those who are trying to overcomplicate things and that you are the spokesperson for the truth, you will tell them exactly what happened because you are not hiding anything in an opening statement like this, what you want to say is you.

You're going to hear a lot of medical jargon and the defense wants you to be confused about these things, but you want to transition to your topic, the one thing you want the jury to remember throughout the case, the beginning of the charge that they can hold on to. and you say that despite all these complicated things and we are going to explain it to you, the only thing you have to remember is that dr. Torres agreed to perform a surgery that she did not fully understand. we will establish that dr. torres made a series of mistakes the decisions ultimately cost mr travis reed his legs, a prosperous and healthy olympic athlete, and we will establish that this all started because of a careless mistake, so that's not bad, it's a little argumentative, an opening statement is not like a closing argument where you are allowed. to make the arguments you want, there is an opening statement so you can tell the jury what is going to happen, what evidence will be obtained based on the length, the discovery that you have done what I don't like about this is that he has he put a lot on the line this doctor made a big mistake and this doctor did something he didn't understand if I were the defense you just refute it and he loses exactly I would say my closing argument would say remember when the plaintiff's attorney said that The doctor misunderstood, you heard from the doctor that she did 100 hours of research, corresponded with the manufacturer and brought in the manufacturing representative to participate in the surgery, she knew what she was doing, is it true that in cases of medical negligence, as opposed to burden? that the proof is beyond a reasonable doubt, it just has to be more likely than not that that is exactly right and that's the case with all civil cases, it's called the preponderance of the evidence standard, okay, let's start closing the case. watering, please wait, SpongeBob is gone.

I'm missing a sponge. Are you kidding? I can't close until we find her. So this is true. We do a very careful sponge count before and after the procedure before closing because there have been cases, as you well know, of sponges. In fact, I remember that when we were operating we had all the sponges on the wall that we are going to use for that case, so there would be like 30 sponges on the wall in little pockets, yeah, almost like shoes, yeah, that makes sense and then , when we take them out, we put them back in and we've made certain adjustments where before we just used sponges by themselves, now they have a plastic ring attached that makes them.

It is easier to detect. You can also leave that plastic ring outside the body so you know how to remove the sponge. There have been a lot of tweaks to improve here, but it clearly still happens sometimes. Are you saying Dr. Torres knew she left a sponge inside? mree's body and she didn't care, no, of course she cared, but no, but still, she knowingly left who is on the stand exactly, this is one of the nurses or doctors at the hospital, so the plaintiff, apparently his first witness, has called a hostile. witness, that's crazy, jurors, like all humans, have the primacy and latency effect, so they will remember what they heard first and they will remember what they heard last, yes, so use that to your advantage in this point to the sand.

You would call the plaintiff himself to tell him the whole sad story of what happened to him or you would call your expert, who will explain all the medical material on your side, the secondary material, you would never call a witness. that's basically the other side, yeah, the patient was running out of time, he would have done it, it's a yes or no question, I have a guy in college, good guy, I went to visit him last month and you wouldn't believe the sponge I found. in this ink I mean you can't say ask a question objection yeah that was irrelevant but that's like the fifth most important objection to make here he's just telling a story I have this kid in college he's a real mess he left a sponge in the sink the The only thing you can do during the exam is ask questions, that's all, let's fast forward to the next time we saw Mr.

Reed about two weeks later and how was he then? He was very happy recovering. He had an infection. Hello, Travis. I heard you have quite a fever. Try 103. I'm just starting your job. He's burning up and she said this was weeks later apparently, but weeks later she's seeing him for the first time like she's going to see him the next day. That sounds negligent. I had to force him in. How do you feel? Travis scene. Wait, he went home with a fever. There can be no post-surgical fever. And there's a thing we remember in medical school called 5ws, wind,water, walking, wonder drugs, um, and all.

I mean something different like uti pulmonary embolism is one of them, wind is pneumonia, medications you might be taking can cause a fever and you try to rule things out but the fact that he went home with a fever and he's 103 years old , it's a really high fever. should be investigated thoroughly is that it's a murmur okay so they're listening to that travis I'm just going to take a look at the right side well it's funny when you listen to heart sounds you really hear starting on the right side of the body and Many people, patients who are medically attuned to watching programs or are somewhat curious, will say doctor, you know that the heart is on the left side.

I say, well, there are blood vessels coming out of the heart that are on the right side that we listen to as well, uh, the pulmonary artery, so you want to listen there and then move and make your way to the aorta, listen to the chambers of the heart, like this Yes, we heard on the right side. side to listen to the heart that looks bad that looks like an infected wound which allows me yeah, so when we give medical feedback when we listen to a patient's lungs when we look at the wounds we tend not to exclaim our feelings so we don't say that sounds scary that's good that's all it's normal or abnormal and you leave it like that I don't want you to worry the wound seems a little infected a little in fact it's fine I mean from my eyes it looks like a zombie what I'm seeing here all kinds of reasons why the hospital could not only have contributed to the initial negligence but also committed its own negligence, which is that this patient is being sent home too soon.

Yes, this patient is not being monitored regularly. and to the extent that they are examining this patient, they are not examining the wound where the surgery was performed, yes, so that wound did not become infected today, yes, that has been an infection that has been oozing and generally, After surgery, not just follow-ups with the surgeon, you have follow-ups with your primary care doctor, every time we do vital signs, we check wounds, in fact, every time a patient is hospitalized, one of our nurses calls to the patient the next day to do I'm sure they understand the medications they need to take, what symptoms they are experiencing and if something is wrong, they come back right away and what about the murmur?

Could the infection travel to your heart? His vital signs are stable, so we need to clean that joint first. Okay, we can't afford any delays. Look at something else that is false, how do you know that not only is the wound infected, but the joint is infected? At this point, they might as well paint a dollar sign on top of the hospital exactly and this. Honestly, I think if you could probably create your own law firm that only addresses your patients, because that would be great. Infections in both steps are very common, they happen all the time.

Your professional opinion is what I see and in your professional opinion it is also common for a post-operative infection to result in a double amputation. Does that happen all the time too? You don't know what she's going to say right there, she might say. yes in a situation like this where this went wrong his heart exploded he had a lung problem yes that is exactly what you would expect to see and these doctors did a fantastic job that is completely flawless what would he have done in that case Thank you, your honor? I remember the questions: Why didn't you call me sooner?

We just heard the murmur this morning. This morning. Yes, look at this growth. You knew he was a heart patient. This didn't worry you, of course it did. That's why you're here. What do we do? The infection is eating away at her graft, so not only does she have a fever because her joint is infected, which she somehow knew without making any diagnosis, but her heart valve also has an infection. Vegetation means that she has real bacterial growth. on him and she is only performing the surgery on her leg but not on her heart. Dr. Taurus, you need to see this.

She was changing her compression stockings and I saw this. Her leg is gray and cold. I can't find a pulse, why aren't you checking? all the time exactly, so when a patient is in a hospital, he is not just lying there passively. The reason they are in the hospital is because there are wound checks every few hours. Neurological checks that residents visit the patient every morning. look at the wound, look at the leg and it looks like an area where there have already been some problems, you probably don't want to hide them behind compression socks, exactly right, where is Whitney?

I told her she had time to eat lunch before Travis woke up. right, you have to go find her and tell her that it is a portable ultrasound machine that we use to listen to blood flow and the reality is that you don't need that for her leg, you can see that it doesn't circulate well, I have to go in and do a number to be on this oh no I have a problem so an embolectomy like they are saying a blood clot has traveled to your arteries. I can't, I can't even follow this. There's nothing like No Medical Sense, I mean, doesn't that mean that a blood clot has gone down into her arterial system now in her legs?

Yes, which means that she made a complete circle on her body. Simply put, if I don't try this embolectomy, she could very well lose her legs. he can live without a leg, he can't live without a working heart, if you do his heart tomorrow he will give him an extra dose of antibiotics, that's fine, he will be more stable and the heart surgery will be less risky, Christina, this is Travis Reid, us. Are you talking about letting me try to save his leg? Does the course of treatment change if you are dealing with a famous person?

It doesn't change that, but it does depend on the needs of the patient, like if a patient's job is closely tied to a specific function of their body, we will work harder to bridge that, I see, yes, then there is some truth in that , you may have seen musicians play their instruments during brain surgery because they want to make sure they don't damage something. That's very important for that, wow, that's cool, yeah, what's the temperament of him? Oh, he was feverish for a night, but his white counts were very good. What's going on, Travis? Aren't you telling me what's going on?

Total necrosis, so here are the strange things there. people are watching him yeah why is he the one pointing that out yeah and why are they walking in so casually like in broad daylight he's basically shedding more clots and the fact that they waited to do his heart is obviously she He is guilty, yes. I'm going to just call it this is a civil suit she is not guilty she is responsible and I think so is the hospital here I agree and I noticed where her necrosis started from below the knee below the knee why do they go up oh man that en That's unfortunate.

If you would like to see the rest of our analysis, click here to watch part two on the Legal Eagles channel. See Legal Eagle.