[GenuineRisk]

Grits, one could counterargue that part of the problem is the difficulty in getting incomptent doctors barred from practice, since most major medical mistakes are caused by a pretty small number of doctors.

My mother's hearing was irrevocably damaged when she was 13 by a doctor who treated her for a sinus infection with a medication that was known, at the time, to progressively damage the inner ear. Had my mother lived to see 40, she would have been deaf by then. As it was, she never heard a bird chirp after she was 18. This doctor was eventually drummed out of the profession by his own colleagues, though not soon enough to save my mother's hearing.

When my mother was 33 she discovered a lump in her breast. Her gyno sent her to a specialist, but she was seen on two occastions by two of his associates, who teased her about being a typical hypochondriac RN and sent her home both times. A year later, the lump bigger, she saw her gyno again, who yelled at her for allowing herself to be seen by the specialist's "idiot associates," as the gyno put it. My mom died at 35 from breast cancer. Would an earlier diagnosis have given her more time? I don't know. But being misdiagnosed twice certainly didn't help.

So doctors can call lawyers "dogs" all they want, but if the AMA would step up and make it easier to disbar bad doctors, I think the opportunities for malpractice suits would also drop.