Despite Counsel, Amputee Hindered by Tort Laws
*Connie Spears died in her sleep on April 29, 2013. A cause of death was not immediately known.
SAN ANTONIO — When Connie Spears arrived at a Christus Santa Rosa hospital emergency room in 2010 with severe leg pain, she told medical staff about her history of blood clots. Doctors sent her home with a far less serious diagnosis.
Days later, swollen and delusional, Spears was taken by ambulance to another hospital where doctors found a severe clot and extensive tissue damage. With her life on the line, they amputated both of her legs above the knee.
Nearly three years later ...
Comments (17)
Steve Harris
Despite Counsel, Victim Is Hindered by Rick Perry touted Tort Laws!!!!!!!!
So much injustice in Rick "The Rich" Perry's Texas!
Perry Touts Tort Reform, Stem Cell Efforts in New York
http://www.tortreform.com/news/perry-touts-tort-reform-stem-cell-efforts-new-york
Toby Marie Walker via Texas Tribune on Facebook
They've gone too far with Tort Reform in Texas.
Linda Fischer via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Tort Reform undermines our legal system and obstructs the power of the people to get recoveries sufficient to cover their injuries and disabilities which can endure a lifetime.
Tort Reform sounds good at first, but if you research it and look deeply, you will see it is NOT a good idea.
Renee E. Babcock via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Everyone who screams we need tort reform should watch a documentary called Hot Coffee. It's extremely eye opening as to how our rights have been stripped from us, all to solve what was essentially a non-existent problem.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1445203/?ref_=sr_2
Linda Fischer via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Thanks Renee. Ill chec it out.
Citizen Advocate
Becca Aaronson, several important questions you did not explore in your story that would substantially influence your reader's opinion:
- If Ms. Spears case was a case of medical malpractice, why couldn't her attorney find an expert witness to testify to the malpractice?
- Why was attorney Justin Williams so unfamiliar with Texas malpractice law that he filed suit and caused the "defendant" to incur legal fees before finding the required expert witness?
- Does Ms. Spears have a legal malpractice claim against Mr. Williams for his mishandling of the case?
Without more information, I am left to wonder whether this might not be exactly the kind of case that tort reform was crafted to prevent? A plaintiff with an unfortunate outcome who doesn't have any evidence of malpractice, but files suit in the hopes of forcing a settlement from a possibly blameless defendant?
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
All tort reform does is take away your right to trial by jury-constitutinal rights.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I DO NOT SUPPORT TORT REFORM. It allows corporations, physicians, hospitals, health care providers, etc. to evade accountability for their actions. And, if you do get a jury trial, it is overturned by the courts.
Rob D Wiltzius via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Tort reform does not allow for evasion of accountability, it is simply a way to ensure lawyers can't take advantage of a sympathetic jury. It's what keeps Doctors' and hospitals' insurance premiums lower which allows the cost of your hopitalizations to be within reason or atleast not out of this world. Texas is doing many things right and is the strongest state in the nation. When it's a State again, most American's will be flooding over the border to live there. If a doctor or hospital is found negligeble for eye, life, or limb then you should be compensated, but within reason. Other than that, you should not be allowed to sue for compensation. Oops, we left a sponge in you, it didn't kill you and we got it out. No harm, no foul. Oh, you suffered mental anguish and emotional turmoil, grow up and move on. You should not be able to hit the lottery because someone made a mistake.
Jerry Andrews via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Rob, what? The purpose of tort reform is always to prevent Plaintiffs from recovering for losses. Your comments are clearly coming from the perspective of someone drinking the Koolaid and not from someone with experience or personal knowledge in this arena. There are a large and growing number of Texans with severe permanent injuries and/or who died because of medical negligence who cannot even find legal representation to pursue claims because of tort reform. This system harms the most egregiously harmed folks again. It is simply not financially feasible to pursue death caused by malpractice if the Plaintiff is under 18, over 65 or a stay at home Mom. If you feel great about writing off those huge segments of our population, then by all means keep waiving the banner for Texas Tort reform.
Stanley Moore via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Tort reform was a hoax put upon the people everywhere people were gullible enough to believe it.
See the documentary "Hot Coffee">
Chris Bazan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Time to take this to a federal court, no way the Supreme Court could find this law constitutional...beat them at their own game
donald baker
Texas needs more tort reform not less. What reform we have is because of corrupt greedy trial lawyers who would sue water for being wet. These theives almost destroyed medical practice and the economy in Texas.
R J
What is frivolous about this case, Mr. Hull? I can tell you that it's wrong for this to happen. How can you tell me it's right? You can't. Tort Reform has gone far enough.
R J
Don't believe the BS that insurance premiums have gone down because of tort reform. They haven't a shred of evidence to back that up. But, lack of truth does not keep the paid insurance company shills from claiming it. It's the only kind of claim the insurance companies will honor these days.
Darren McKinney
Like the plaintiff lawyer-funded and produced propaganda film "Hot Coffee," this Texas Tribune story offers but one side. For example, we learn nothing of Mrs. Spears' health condition prior to her 2010 visit to Christus Santa Rosa's ER other than her claim to have told staff there of her history of blood clots. Tort reform laws or not, there's always a personal injury lawyer willing to take on a good case. And if Mrs. Spears had a good case, which is to say that harried emergency room doctors who'd never laid eyes on her before were actually negligent, as opposed to making a good faith error, she'd have had little trouble finding someone to represent her. No human being, including doctors, is perfect. That's why we call it the "practice" of medicine. And it's absurd to think that every time a doctor makes a good faith choice between treatment A or treatment B a patient and her lawyer could or should potentially win several million dollars. None of us would ever be able to afford health care if that was the case. We all can and should sympathize with Mrs. Spears and her poor health that seemingly long pre-dated her visit to the ER. But that doesn't necessarily mean anyone was negligent in their efforts to treat her, and it certainly doesn't mean that someone owes her millions of dollars because her husband lost his job and they may reportedly lose their home. If Tribune readers want to do something constructive, they should start a charitable fund dedicated to keeping the Spears in their home. I'll personally be honored to make a contribution to such a fund upon its establishment. -Darren McKinney, American Tort Reform Association, Washington, D.C.
donald baker
guess she didnd't have a leg to stand on in court