Posted by Bill Sandweg on 04 September 2013.

Time and time again, the medical industry and the insurance companies tell the public that medical malpractice cases are “frivolous”, that they are pushing health care costs through the roof, and that they are driving doctors and hospitals out of business.  It has been said so many times that it has become an article of faith for many people.  Then comes a day like today when a headline reminds us that, for all the good doctors and hospitals do, they are only human and they make mistakes just like the rest of us.  Here is the headline which leaves me feeling very sorry for the poor people whose lives are going to be devastated while at the same time wondering how something like this can happen.  http://www.nbcnews.com/health/13-patients-possibly-exposed-rare-fatal-brain-disease-n-h-8C11073734

How does a hospital, which is supposed to be sterilizing everything, infect patients with contaminated surgical instruments?  And not just one or two patients either.  At least 13 patients may have been exposed to a fatal brain disease.*

Doctors and hospitals are not entitled to any better treatment than you or I when we make a mistake which hurts someone.  In a fair society, we are required to make it up to people we hurt through our mistakes.  Don’t let your rights be taken away by politicians who tell you it is for your own good.  Don’t let the politicians put doctors and hospitals above the law.

*  Postscript:  Turns out this story is a little more complicated than it first appeared.  The contamination of the surgical instruments took the form of proteins clinging to the instruments following surgery on an infected patient.  These proteins are not removed or killed by routine heat sterilization.  It takes a special bleach solution to remove them.  The fault at the hospital was to reuse the instruments before assuring that the first patient on whom they were used did not have an illness which required more than routine heat sterilization.