Wingnut ass says Edwards sued over CP?

[Sterling]

Ok my wingnut friend just said Edwards sued a hospital for giving Cerebral palsey to it’s patients. I know this is stupid and false and I was wondering if anyone had run across this and understood it well enough top help me out.



BTW If you call me a freeper. or bitch because you think I am trying to hurt Kerry or Edwards you are a loser. If you have not been here long enough to love or hate me you have not been here long enough to be calling freeper.

[NWHarkness]

1. It's true (more or less)

His first big case was about a baby who contracted CP after the hospital screwed up the delivery.

[AP]

8. His first case was representing an adult male quadrapalegic who was

administered TRIPPLE the recommended dose of an alcohol aversion medication (and subesquently destroyed his brain and nervous system). The doctor couldn't provide any good explanation for why he did that when all the literature warned of the consequences.

This case went to trial because the insurance company thought that nobody could get a jury to be sympathetic to an alcoholic. They got enough money so that he could live out his life with the dignity he had when he walked into that hospital.

[sandraj]

2. Here's a link

for what your friend might be referring to. Edwards very obviously cares about children, based on all of the cases he took on.


In Trial Work, Edwards Left a Trademark

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/31/politics/campaign/31EDWA.html?ex=1089432000&en=f61cf39de858ee9d&ei=5070

In 1985, a 31-year-old North Carolina lawyer named John Edwards stood before a jury and channeled the words of an unborn baby girl.

Referring to an hour-by-hour record of a fetal heartbeat monitor, Mr. Edwards told the jury: "She said at 3, `I'm fine.' She said at 4, `I'm having a little trouble, but I'm doing O.K.' Five, she said, `I'm having problems.' At 5:30, she said, `I need out.' "

But the obstetrician, he argued in an artful blend of science and passion, failed to heed the call. By waiting 90 more minutes to perform a breech delivery, rather than immediately performing a Caesarean section, Mr. Edwards said, the doctor permanently damaged the girl's brain.


(NY Times - may require registration)

[mzmolly]

3. Here is the story they are bullshitting about.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2086953/

Here is the google link:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&client=REAL-tb&q=Ethan+Bedrick+and+John+Edwards

I suggest a jury heard the evidence and awared a LARGE sum of money. This doesn't sound like a frivilous law suit.

[LTR]

4. I'm glad these things pop up

Because many here can debunk this crap or explain it.

This is a valuable service of DU.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. Here's the article..it's a long read

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/31/politics/campaign/31EDWA.html?ex=1390885200&en=4fb97ac07a96f186&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND

Thanks to Edwards, fetal heart monitors are standard practice now regardless of the cause of the palsy...and for anyone that carries a pregnancy through to labor...that is a good thing

Freepers have to do this...they don't understand that regardless of the cause of palsy, the hospital was negligent in providing care and the jury agreed.

[kanrok]

6. What's the question?

I'm sure that Edwards sued a hospital that was responsible for causing CP to one of it's patients. It's a simple theory of liability. If a child, in utero, is not getting a proper amount of oxygen, nurses and the obstetrician are obligated, under the standard of care, to deliver the baby in an expeditions fashion. A failure to rcognize the signs of fetal hypoxia (reduction of oxygen) and/or anoxia (total depletion of oxygen) can and frequently does, result in CP to the child. If this is your Freeper friends problem with Edwards, he needs a science lesson.

[AP]

7. Edwards has represented parents of children who got CP due to hospital...

...negligence and has won.

One of those cases is in his book Four Trials. The situation was that a fetal heart monitor revealed that the baby had a very rapid heart rate. The doctor did a cervical exam, noted that he felt something on the chart. Didn't order a C-section. The FHM continued to indicate the baby was in distress. The doctor did nothing. The baby was born with CP.

On cross-exam, the nurse admitted that she thought something was going terribly wrong but said nothing because there were cases at the hospital where nurses contradicted doctors and were fired, even if they were right.

Edwards also had the doctor read back his notations on the chart. The jury decided that the thing he descrived feelign was the umbilical cord wrapped around the baby's neck.

The jury found that, between the FHM, the cervical exam and the hospital not having a policy protecting nurses' jobs, the hospital and Dr were extreemly negligent. The award was large enough to encourage hospitals to enact policies protecting nurses' jobs.

Now, it's much less likely that there will ever be another baby born with CP under similar circumstances. Think of all the misery that that case has prevented. You'd have to be ghoul to object to that, or to put hospital profit before people's lives.

[welshTerrier2]

9. we call this blaming the victim ...

"if the child, or her parents, had not sued to recover what they lost by the doctor's malpractice, malpractice rates, and hence healthcare costs would be lower" ...

well, the argument used here is absurd ...

healthcare costs would be lower if the physician had not caused such catastrophic harm to the patient ... lawsuits should be viewed as a beneficial mechanism to help police the medical profession that fails to adequately police its own ...

and the same goes for product liability suits ... if industry put the safety of its customers ahead of its profits, there wouldn't be these expensive jury verdicts ... the fault is with the companies that produce unsafe products, not with those who sue to recover some portion of what they've lost ...

lawsuits should be viewed as a consumer's mechanism to obtain some compensation and perhaps more importantly, to discourage unsafe business practices from harming other people in the future ... efforts to limit jury "awards" and block cases from being heard are nothing more than the Republicans valuing shareholders and CEO over the general public ... once again, they are valuing profits over people ...

[MissB]

10. Is that a standard disclaimer?

I'm sorry. I am being flip and altogether unhelpful.

I don't know the answer, and I'm viewing this thread to find out the answer. I was just entertained by the "BTW If you call...." line.

[Zomby Woof]

11. no one will accuse you of that

If you had 78 posts or so, and said things like "I like John Edwards, BUT..."

And then posted "... didn't he once perform an abortion on a nun on welfare and then sue her while taking away her guns?"

Or anything with the "I am a Democrat, but!" model of trolling.

[MissB]

13. An abortion on a nun on welfare - ROFL!!! (nt)

[union_maid]

12. There are lots of lawsuits over CP

It's a legitimate area, depending on the case, of course.