Medical Malpractice

Flies buzz around the head of the emaciated woman as she lies on a dirty chaise longue in the courtyard of a drab two-story brick building that looks like a cheap motel. People walk in and out of the building, some holding intravenous bottles above their heads like shuffling Statues of Liberty as medications drip into their veins. Strips of metal screening have been tacked across doorways in a makeshift effort to keep flies out.

A football fix Re "A big score in L.A.'s NFL bid," Feb. 1 Has anyone bothered to ask Los Angeles residents if they desperately want or need a downtown stadium? Traffic through the 10 and 110 interchange is a disaster when there is any activity at Staples Center or L.A. Live. I have always been a sports fanatic, but the thought of a huge football stadium downtown angers me when there are better locations. Whenever I hear that it will not cost taxpayers anything, I laugh.

Los Angeles County supervisors have agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the children of Edith Rodriguez, the woman who died after writhing in pain for 45 minutes on the waiting-room floor of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. Rodriguez's death nearly two years ago attracted national attention, becoming a symbol of an indifferent emergency system.

President Obama took both Republicans and normally supportive patients' rights advocates by surprise this week when he voiced support for a national limit on medical malpractice lawsuits. "I'm willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs" besides repealing his healthcare overhaul, Obama said in his State of the Union address, including "medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits. " The president's words breathed new life into the often discussed but never enacted Republican initiative.

A seriously ill patient died at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center after nurses failed to respond "for an extended period" to audio alarms signaling his distress -- the seventh death in two years in which staffers have virtually ignored vital sign monitors, Los Angeles County health officials said Tuesday. The incident, which took place in March, was one of four reported to the county Board of Supervisors in the last week in which patients allegedly received questionable care.

The first time patients saw St. Jude's International Cancer Clinic in Tijuana, it was a wonder they didn't turn around and leave. The clinic was in a decrepit two-story building in a desolate hillside neighborhood. The finish stucco had fallen off the facade in places, and some of the windows were covered with plastic and tape. To reach the clinic offices, you went down a long, dark-paneled hallway opening into a small, four-room suite. And nearly anytime between 9 a.m.

A 43-year-old woman who writhed in pain for 45 minutes on the emergency room lobby floor of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital died of a perforated bowel, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said late Friday. Neither hospital staff nor other patients attempted to assist her as she lay dying.

Re "Medical Disciplinary Actions," July 23: I would hope that the overwhelming majority of practicing doctors who daily and unstintingly provide health care to those in need would be as disappointed as this citizen with the "slap 'em on the wrist" disciplinary measures taken by the Medical Board of California. To so lightly treat these malpractitioners is in itself a form of malpractice. Come on, docs, put those scalpels to work and excise the rotten apples! Douglas A. Brown Glendale

President Obama took both Republicans and normally supportive patients' rights advocates by surprise this week when he voiced support for a national limit on medical malpractice lawsuits. "I'm willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs" besides repealing his healthcare overhaul, Obama said in his State of the Union address, including "medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits. " The president's words breathed new life into the often discussed but never enacted Republican initiative.

Re "Family seeks $45 million in King-Harbor death," Nov. 6 A jury might think $45 million is fair and just compensation to the family of the woman who died while hospital personnel ignored her cries of pain for nearly an hour. But the judge will automatically reduce any possible verdict to $250,000 -- the most in noneconomic damages anyone can recover for any injury or death caused by a healthcare provider.

Two years ago last week, Olivia Cull, 17, was taken off life support. The standout student ? who planned to study classics at Smith College ? had slipped into a coma during a routine, outpatient procedure at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA in Westwood. The story of her death was presented to Congress a few days ago, among cases cited by patient advocates pushing to lift the caps on damages for medical malpractice lawsuits. As lawmakers search for ways to trim healthcare costs, debate continues over the country's medical malpractice laws.

A coalition of oil interests, insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms and other business interests has poured at least $480,000 into a mail and television campaign to oppose one of the eight Democrats competing in the June 8 primary for an open Venice/South Bay Assembly seat. Groups funded by the Civil Justice Assn. of California and two medical malpractice insurance organizations have spent the money to defeat Betsy Butler, a former fundraiser for two major environmental groups and the Consumer Attorneys of California.

California public health officials have imposed the first $100,000 fine under a new escalating system of penalties for hospitals that put patients at risk of death or serious injury. Southwest Healthcare System in Murrieta was assessed the fine after investigators determined that doctors at its Rancho Springs Medical Center performed caesarean sections on three women in October using electrical cauterizing instruments in a delivery room with dangerously low humidity, creating conditions that could have sparked a fire.

California's medical board is less likely than those in other states to revoke doctors' licenses or take other serious disciplinary action, according to a consumer advocate's report released this week. California ranked 41st among boards in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in taking serious disciplinary action against doctors last year, according to the report released Monday by Public Citizen, a Washington-based consumer group. The report, based on Federation of State Medical Boards figures, defined serious discipline as license revocations, surrenders, suspensions and probation or restrictions.

Less than a month after Dr. Andrew Rutland was barred from performing surgeries after an abortion patient's death, state medical authorities say they caught the physician in an undercover sting apparently violating the court order. For the second time in as many months, state officials are seeking the immediate suspension of the Chula Vista physician's license. A hearing is set for Thursday in San Diego. Rutland could not be reached for comment. His lawyer, Paul M. Hittelman, said Rutland did nothing to violate the court's order.

Last year, as Democrats launched their healthcare drive, the nation's trial lawyers thought they were in trouble. Critics, especially Republicans and doctors, had long complained that the medical malpractice system showered huge fees on attorneys, did little for ordinary Americans and added billions of dollars in costs. With Democratic strategists looking for ways to woo Republican support for the overall healthcare bill, changes in so-called tort law seemed likely. Even President Obama in a speech to the American Medical Assn.

A judge Thursday ordered a Southern California obstetrician-gynecologist to immediately stop performing abortions and delivering babies until a formal disciplinary hearing can be held about the death of one of his patients during an abortion. Administrative Law Judge James Ahler stopped short of granting a request by attorneys for the Medical Board of California to immediately suspend the license of Dr. Andrew Rutland, opting to temporarily limit his practice instead. Deputy Atty.

The frantic knocking of home health nurse Orphia Wilson startled the boy's parents awake just after dawn. Their 3-year-old son, who suffered from chronic respiratory failure and muscular dystrophy, had stopped breathing. The boy's mother raced to his side and began performing CPR as Wilson stood by. It was too late. Jexier Otero-Cardona died at a Hartford, Conn., hospital the next day. In the months that followed Jexier's May 2005 death, Connecticut health officials discovered that Wilson had fallen asleep, then ignored -- or possibly turned off -- ventilator alarms that signaled the boy was not getting enough oxygen, state records show.