SOPHIABELLA

Hi Littlebear and welcome to the Health Boards. I believe that it is the LAW that all doctors have to have some sort of medical malpractice insurance. I can tell you that unless you have a slam dunk of a case it will be hard to win and hard to find an attorney to represent you pro-bono. (for free until a settlement is reached and then the attorney takes like 40 to 60% of your settlement) Plus, now they have caps on the amount you can settle for. Last I heard it was $250,000.00. I have seen them on talk shows like Montel where these people have had like a surgical object still in them and it caused infections and doctor bills that were more than the 250,000.00 award. It is crazy, and it is a major issue in the courts right now to get that cap lifted for certain cases. I dont know if anything has passed yet or not. Just an FYI, my husband was injured on the job 2 years ago and had ruptured 3 dics in his neck. The surgeon put a metal plate in his back along with donor bones from cadavers. (I know ewe...haha) anyway, he ended back in the hospital the same night he was released with a 104 temp. He had a major infection from the surgery. He had to suffer through having a pic line put into his arm (like a permanent IV) to give him the strongest antibiotics out there. This went on for weeks and I had to learn to give him 3 shots in his stomach every day as well. Later after the hospital had to put in a new pic line he got an infection from that and had blood clotting from it as a result. Then came the blood thinners. It goes on and on and even after everything was said and done he is still running low grade fevers, not to mention now any antibiotic he takes doesnt work as well because of the strong meds he was already on. The neck surgery itself was not at all worth it. He still suffers major pain in his neck along with shooting pain down his left arm that ends with 3 of his fingers numb and tingley. We consulted several attorneys, and they wouldn't even consider it. There is just not enough money in it for them unless it is a slam dunk of a case, like you died, or medical instruments were left inside you, or they operated on the wrong body part etc. I don't know what kind of case you have, but good luck. I hope I have been of some help! Take care!!! Kari