NBC 9 News Medical Malpractice Transcript
CO Lawyer, Jim Chalat on Medical Malpractice | News Report | Video Transcript
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ED ZARDELLA: Good evening, I'm Ed Zardella.
WARD LUCAS: And I'm Ward Lucas, thanks for joining us, Gore says he
ED ZARDELLA: Relationship between patient and doctor is intimate and usually involves trust. But when things go badly a lawyer may come between them. At issue tonight, medical malpractice, 9 News anchor Jim Benemann reports what's involved when patients look to a court for healing.
JIM BENEMANN: Be Lung dedicated herself to her children.
GRAPHIC: [Woman sitting]
GRAPHIC: [Woman with child]
THOA NGUYEN: You would have to meet her to just see how she would glow when she would talk about us. I mean she is beyond being proud. She is, she literally lived through us.
JIM BENEMANN: The children fulfilled her dreams. Three became dentists, one a restaurateur, another a flight attendant and they all gathered when she needed surgery.
GRAPHIC: [Woman with children]
DZON NGUYEN: Surgery went a little bit longer than expected, and the doctor came out and had explained that one of her arteries were, was accidentally cut. And he explained it to us as a wait and see and that chances were looking good.
GRAPHIC: [Woman with daughter graduating]
DZON NGUYEN: And we just waited and she never woke up.
JIM BENEMANN: The children and their father mourned for months, then they started asking questions.
GRAPHIC: [Picture explaining transverse skin incision]
JIM BENEMANN: The coroner told them Be's artery did not rupture naturally.
DZON NGUYEN: He said the only thing that could have done it was a sharp instrument. And that was the point that we investigated and started pursuing the doctor.
GRAPHIC: [Clipping of news story]
JIM BENEMANN: The family sued, claiming medical malpractice.
DZON NGUYEN: Well, the trial was extremely difficult because it, because it occurred several, a year and a half or so after her death. And we had to actually; we had to relive the entire processing.
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DZON NGUYEN: We felt like we were on trial.
JIM BENEMANN: It was also an expensive risk.
JIM CHALAT: So the Nguyen family paid $75,000 in costs to litigate this case, to bring it through trial.
JIM BENEMANN: If they lost, they could be ordered to pay the doctor's expenses too. That's just one of the reasons why most complaints against doctors rarely end up in court.
JAN LAITOS: Despite initiatives of the United States Congress to cap liability for medical malpractice claims and despite an existing cap in Colorado, the truth is that there are not that many medical malpractice lawsuits that are brought in Colorado or elsewhere. And even if the lawsuits are brought, the chances of success for a plaintiff are extremely low.
GRAPHIC: [Clipping of news story]
JIM BENEMANN: Their attorney says the Nguyen family had the most important requirement for a successful malpractice suit, a clear case of negligence.
JIM CHALAT: You have to really know what the doctor did wrong, it can't just be a bad result, it can't be because things didn't go well, because sometimes that does happen, even at the hands of the best surgeons.
GRAPHIC: [Clipping of news story]
JIM BENEMANN: They also had a strong motive.
DZON NGUYEN: The ultimate reason that we pursued this doctor was that we just did not want this to occur to anyone else.
GRAPHIC: [Woman seated outside]
JIM BENEMANN: With that issue, Jim Benemann, 9 News.
