I received stitches 3 months ago after having a lot of glass removed from my foot. The recovery went well until about 2 weeks ago when I developed what turned out to be an abscess next to the wound. I went to a small clinic yesterday and they said I need to go back to the original hospital because there was a big chunk of glass in foot and that is why this abscess formed. Needless to say, I had it removed at the original hospital and they had took a small chunk of foot in the process.
It appears recovery from this will go smoothly and hospital admits fault and will cover any medical from here on. I wonder if others would just move on and forget or ask for private settlement from hospital. No lawsuits of course.
Don’t know about your chances on this, or hospital policy either, but it might be worth a try – after all, with the recent rash of reported hospital “mishaps,” they might be persuaded to part with something in order to prevent you going to the press.
I don’t think there’s much chance of success, though.
What do you mean? They botched the second operation as well? I don’t think you’ll get much luck with a malpractice suit here. Malpractice suits don’t seem to go anywhere unless the victim gets major press coverage (that’s why victims go to their legislators to air their grievances in public and get front-page coverage in the media.)
Even grievous instances of medical malpractice go unpunished, so “a small chunk of foot” wouldn’t even raise eyebrows among the medical or judicial powers here.
the second job wasn’t botched. I am just a little upset that now I have a new wound pretty deep as a result of the doc not removing the glass in the first place. I must wait sometime to let tissue grow back and wait clean constantly to prevent any infection
By the way, the hospital has already agreed to sit down to discuss some kind of settlement. I just haven’t laid down my cards yet so was curious about other peoples opinion.
If they’ve already agreed that settlement is in order, you should be looking at some kind of restitution. I don’t really know what you’d like us to tell you, though.
If it were me, however, I’d make sure I was wearing at least a knee-high plaster and using a crutch at the settlement meeting. Maybe you could also slur your speech or develop some kind of nervous tic – because of all the painkillers you are forced to take as a result of their negligence.
The problem with settling now is that if you find out at some later stage you are permanently affected you will not have been compensated for that. You might like to wait until after treatment is completed, or explicitly reserve your right to bring a complaint some time in the future in respect of any permanent disability.
The wording might read something like: “In consideration of your paying me X dollars I agree not to sue for the the distress and suffering caused by the initial botched operation, but if I am crippled I reserve the right to sue in respect of any permanent loss of mobility / pain / distress”
You might need a lawyer to help with the wording of any settlement. Remember any contract or agreement is only of value to the extent that you can successfully bring a suit on the basis of it. Plenty of pieces of paper are signed in Taiwan which would not stand up for 10 minutes in a courtroom. (Teaching contracts spring to mind !!!)
