Edwards Announcement
 

As much as my heart goes out to any woman who not only experiences the horror of breast cancer but now with near certainty realizes the likelyhood of a slow difficult passing to come due to a recurrence.....

......in many corners of America this afternoon despite the weakness of character that surrounds this admission there is satisfaction on some level acknowledging the certain symmetry in having the most successful malpractice attorney in the history of the world ,certain to lose his betrothed, suffer such a crushing loss that cannot be undone by the millions of dollars in physicians blood he has extracted over the years.

A number, to be fair not all, of this man's crowning achievements have ruined careers of hard working well trained physicians that were victims of courtroom theatrics that had nothing to do with the standard of good sound medical decision making.

This country clearly needs a system to oversee the actions and omissions of health care providers that harm from poor performance, impairment, and omission. What it does not need however is a folksy speaking lawyer becomming his own 100 million dollar benefactor on the suffering of others.

My sincerest prayers for his wife and their children.

That's a little classless, if I may be the first to say so.

A post that essentially says haha you blood sucking lawyer your wife may very well be going to die doesn't quite seem appropriate.

Call me a softy.

Yeah lets feel sorry for doctors. The same group who have, for the most part, single-handedly destroyed medicare.

Pants

physicians have destroyed medicare how again???

This was not about empathy for physicians but the loss to society for:

1) kids don't go to school to be physicians in anywhere near the same numbers.....not a good thing for us all

2) the impact on your insurance premiums that this one guy had is uncalcuable

3) I don't disagree that the antiphysician sentiment abounds it's deplorable. In "practicing" my specialty it cost me 10 years of my life after college and 250K neither I nor my family had. I take responsibility for the choices but I think I've earned the privlege. There is so much more your not aware of....so before you want to speak poorly of all physicians you might want to consider the alternatives.

I am very sincere about my sentiments and empathy for his wife but I believe if you were aware of some of the things this guy was associated with you might think differently about him.

Which would have certainly been worth bringing up for discussion at, well, any time other than this, and especially with that smarmy little one liner "this admission there is satisfaction on some level acknowledging the certain symmetry in having the most successful malpractice attorney in the history of the world ,certain to lose his betrothed, suffer such a crushing loss that cannot be undone by the millions of dollars in physicians blood he has extracted over the years."

Debating the merits of his former career certainly seems fair, but your timing and choice of words is beyond tasteless, except for that part where you "genuinely" express empathy for his wife right after talking about the "satisfaction" her cancer brings.

Sounds totally genuine to me.

It's totally classless to call him out on a day when he announces his wife has had a reoccurance of cancer.

I'm aware that many doctor's have taken advantage and abused medicare to the point that health care in this country is on the verge of bankruptcy. I'm aware that physicians are in bed with the pharmaceutical companies and are overprescribing patients because they make extra $$$ and wouldn't want to risk not seeing that hot pharmaceutical rep again.

It's wrong that you call out Edwards for what he's done. It's selfish and partisan. Doctors are just as guilty, if not more, than lawyers for abusing the system.

My god, how can anyone justify starting this thread? Classless isn't strong enough a word to use here...I'll pray for Mrs Edwards and hope for total recovery...I can't imagine the hate a person must feel to respond in any other way to the news of her illness!

Being bound, as all physicians are, to the Hippocratic Oath, I find it not only alarming that you've stated this, regardless of what day you chose to make such a statement, but I preferred to believe that this kind of thought-- incapable--from a practicing physician.

Mr.Edwards' largest settlement and most famous case had absolutely nothing to do with doctors. It was a product liability case that led to a settlement of 25 million for a child and her family, here in Carolina.

I'm inclined to agree with the above, the medical profession has done far more to harm programs than has the law professsion, and that is with John Edwards included.

I'm acquainted with, for many years now, the Dean of Admissions of Duke Medical School, and I do believe students are still applying at a fine rate. Though, as I'm told, today's physicians are far different from those of the past. Today's group spends their 10 years of life in the trenches studying, yes; all to want payment for their education and their first 25 years in private practice within their first 5 to 8 years of having their shingle out. Private practice, netting far more than the physician that stays on in practice at teaching/research hospitals and facilities.

Edwards lost his oldest child at 16 years of age to an automobile accident that was not his fault. Now, his wife's cancer has returned. A quite normal breast cancer which was found reocurring, only by chance--having cracked a rib.

That rib bone is where the cancer has resurfaced. And yes, this is a horrible tragedy because bone cancer is one of the most difficult and painful of all.

No, I will feel for Mr.Edwards, as deeply as his wife, and his children.

And I hope that somehow, you will come to feel the same.

I couldn't agree more. Well said.

Again I am sorry for any harm, pain or angst this has caused any of you as any scrutiny of my posts will reveal this to be very different.

The whole thread is a complete misinterpretation of the information intended.

Is is bad form to bring this out today......probably so and again I apologize for any pain it caused.

It's not worth trying to state the content again as it is not being evaluated fairly. Someday when others more articulate say the same perhaps there will be an honest open discussion but not today.

No physician should use the privilege of the training and knowledge of the gift of a medical education to make over 100 million dollars by taking 1 in every 3 dollars awarded to the suffering of others.

Docicu3, I don't see anything other than generalized, unfounded accusations in your posts about Edwards, while Grits came back with something specific. If you have specifics in Edwards' cases, of how he made his money targeting innocent doctors, then post it. Otherwise, it just comes across as partisan mudslinging, and in light of the sad news about Mrs. Edwards, pretty nasty partisan mudslinging at that.

I should point out, the reason many accident lawyers take 30 percent of the damages is because they don't get anything if they lose the case. That's a lot of unpaid hours to risk. High risk, high reward- isn't that how it goes?

That little girl had her intestines pulled out through her body by a faulty pool drain, is that right, Grits? And will spend the rest of her life hooked up to machines. I'm sorry; I don't remember the specifics all that well.

Although the thread started out pretty harsh, I wanted to put in what conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan (who is HIV positive) said about the announcement-

<<So, despite earlier reports, Edwards will not suspend his campaign. Good for him. The diagnosis is not as dire as it seemed only a little time ago, it seems. And if anyone did not know of Elizabeth Edwards' extraordinary character before, they do now. What I saw in this press conference was the reality of family values - not the rhetoric, not the divisiveness, not the politics, just the reality of an actual family dealing with real issues. We all face such issues. Cancer survivors and their families know it all too well. So do those of us who live with HIV, diabetes, Parkinsons and many other diseases that patients can now live with, rather than die from. In this, John Edwards is doing a public service. He was admirably candid about his wife's cancer being treatable, if not curable. That paradigm is increasingly common - and it's affirming to see someone in public life live through it so positively, so admirably and so passionately. She shouldn't give in to it. One key to surviving serious illness is to live positively and candidly while you treat it. With HIV, I learned to repeat to myself a triad that was essential to surviving any serious medical condition: Own it, face it, beat it. That's what the Edwardses did today, and they will help a lot of people through their example.

The campaign should go on, as life goes on. The cancer should neither help nor hurt it. But I will say this: Elizabeth Edwards is a truly remarkable human being. And her marriage is an inspiration.>>

Okay, that got me a wee bit weepy. Here's hoping she can keep it treated for many years and see her kids all grow up.

See DaHoss, we do agree on some things!

Docicu3, I'm a thinker and in so being, I try to not be unkind or show malice, though I am direct, and I can crash and burn, as I did yesterday. I believe that anyone that says they do not make small mistakes, even bigger ones, in this life each day is lying. We all do.

And you, just like everyone else here, I do not know from Adam. I feel though that you simply made a mistake today, something said at an extremely inappropriate time. About a man who is one of the top 100 trial lawyers in the US that came before judges and juries to plead cases representing his clients, and won, therefore creating change in the lives of some of your fellow physicians and colleagues.

This is not just any ambulance chasing attorney, HE IS a fine attorney, and brilliant in a court of law.

There is much wrong in this . . . the greatest nation on Earth's healthcare system and there are countless aspects involved that fuel this growing crisis. One being, that doctors and hospitals are now run by insurance companies with their demands. Telling doctors what they will cover, what they will not, when to admit a patient, and when they are to be sent home, regardless how serious their condition, or its recovery. Other concerns include the skyrocketing cost of medical equipment in hospitals, clinics and doctor's offices today, the cost of prescription medications, which to me, includes what amounts to THE most abhorrent gouging of taxpayers; the cost of services to the uninsured that hospitals never see and taxpayers absorb in their own insurance premiums. These, along with the ever burdening cost of long-term care for the growing population of elderly are all part of the crisis.

I am not articulate, and I'm not evaluating any of this in the correct manner I'm sure. I like to believe though that the decades relationship that I have with Duke Medical Center gives me a small glimmer of insight. Either way, it is something that all Americans are affected by everyday. And it can certainly fire up hot spots.

At Duke, I've heard doctors refer to attorneys as DOGS, literally; and there is reason that they do so. The attorneys are not helping the medical crisis in this country, they are adding to it, profusely.

I may misunderstand your statement above, I may not. But it is true, if I am following you correctly--no one earning 100 million dollars should be able to take 1 of every 3 dollars won to suffering patients in decisions of medical malpractice awards.

At the same time, I think Chairmans and CEOs are not worth their salaries either. To me, this IS a crime of even greater proportion.

Anyway, you troubled me with your comments, but in being concerned as much for you this evening, I feel they simply were a mistake, ill felt, born from experience, and stated at the worst of times.

Please understand that I hold no disregard for you skill, your work ethic, or how hard you had to work to get there.

So with this, rest well, morning comes quickly.

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.

You're right; I'm naive enough to think honorable and good members of a profession would consider getting incompetent ones out of said profession a top priority. But in fact, humans tend to work first towards protecting our own, whether those people deserve the protection or not. My uncle, a retired cop, gets angry anytime the news runs a segment on corrupt cops-- at the news channel.

On the lighter side- something sweet about the Edwards- they celebrate their anniversary every year at Wendy's because when they were first married they were too poor to go anywhere else so that was where they spent their first anniversary.