Consumer Law

Chicago Tribune Acknowledges the Reality of Medical Malpractice

By Andy Hoffman

Let?s face it.  There probably isn?t a newspaper in the country more rabidly in favor of limiting the  compensation of patients injured by reckless medical care ? especially by OB-GYN?s - than the Chicago Tribune.

So when the Tribune published this two-part story (Part 1, Part 2) about the suffering of patients victimized by a couple of Chicago OB-GYNs, with decades-old records of malpractice allegations from ?the families of dead and brain-damaged children,? we were left wondering ? does the editorial board of this paper read its own news stories?

The story centers around a suburban Chicago clinic, currently known as Homefirst, that specializes in home births, run by Dr. Mayer Eisenstein and his longest-serving doctor, Dr. Peter Rosi.  Rosi, by the way, once practiced in Alaska where the State Medical Board found he ?committed a serious error in judgment? by not hospitalizing a newborn who had breathed in his own waste and died.  

According to the paper, Eisenstein?s practice, ?has faced at least 19 malpractice cases in the last three decades, and two Homefirst doctors were involved in 15 of those cases -- more than what's typical.  In 80 percent of the cases involving those two doctors, a jury either sided with the plaintiffs or the cases were settled, court records show.? The paper describes some of those horrendous cases in chilling detail.   

According to the paper, both Eisenstein and Rosi sometimes blame parents when children under their care die.  In one case, Eisenstein said the parents ?killed the baby.? Rosi said, ?Eighty percent of complications in childbirth are psychological?Babies can be killed by a mother?s attitude.?  The paper also reported, ?documents show that Eisenstein has stretched his credentials, changed his story under oath and been accused of fraud.?  As to a recent  $1.275 million malpractice settlement that ?Homefirst must divide among six families over seven years,? Eisenstein called it ?the cost of doing business.?

Notably, ?the Illinois Division of Professional Regulation has never disciplined Eisenstein, Rosi, the two other full-time Homefirst doctors or the two part-time osteopaths in the practice.?

Yes, there are exactly the types of patients that are subject to Illinois? compensation cap, which the Trib?s ed. board pushed ? and which hopefully will be struck down as unconstitutional any day now.  Let?s hope the paper has finally seen the light.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on May 22, 2009 (boomark / email).