[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 34 (Tuesday, March 4, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H1492-H1493]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 NATIONAL SOLUTION NECESSARY FOR CRISIS OF MEDICAL LIABILITY COSTS AND 
                         OVERREACHING LAWSUITS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bishop of Utah). Under a previous order 
of the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to protest the increase of 
medical liability costs in an environment where it has become all too 
commonplace to name the innocent in lawsuits, drive good doctors from 
the practice of medicine, and play games with the health care of 
vulnerable patients.
  This crisis has reached my home State of Texas, and even reached the 
cities and towns that I now represent in Congress. For instance, my 
neighbor, Dr. John Marsden, a vascular surgeon in my district, must pay 
$6,600 per month for his medical liability coverage. That is nearly 
$80,000 a year just to purchase insurance to stay in business. I do not 
think we would find it acceptable if other kinds of businesses had to 
absorb that kind of overhead.
  After being named in numerous unfounded lawsuits where there has been 
no affirmative finding in favor of the plaintiff, Dr. Marsden notes 
that if he sustains another increase in his medical liability rates, he 
will be forced to leave his medical practice. If he ceases his surgical 
practice, the city of Lewisville and the outlying areas of my county 
would no longer have ready access to a vascular surgeon, severely 
impacting the health of Dr. Marsden's elderly and institutionalized 
patients. They would then have to travel a longer distance to receive 
health care, or perhaps even a life-saving operation.
  Another surgeon in my district, Dr. Hatton, has an equally similar 
situation. Dr. Bill Hatton is a surgeon at the Medical Center of 
Lewisville. In 1994, he performed an operation, a gall bladder 
operation, on a pregnant woman. At the time, he found she also suffered 
from appendicitis. The appropriate operation was done and the woman was 
sent home to recover from her surgery.
  Four weeks later, the same woman was admitted to the hospital. She 
had signs and symptoms of infection. She had a very high fever. It was 
feared that she could be suffering from peritonitis, an inflammation of 
the lining of the abdominal cavity, and that the cause was a breakdown 
of the surgical site inside her abdomen. The symptoms were so severe 
the patient was in what was called high output congestive heart 
failure. If nothing was done, the

[[Page H1493]]

mother would surely die. However, in trying to save the mother, the 
child's life would be put in jeopardy.
  Surgery was performed on the woman, expecting that there was this 
problem at the appendectomy site, but no evidence of an anastomotic 
leak was found. The child was delivered but, sadly, died of extreme 
prematurity; but the mother, after the operation, immediately improved, 
and within 24 hours, was nearly well and was discharged from the 
hospital a few days later.
  After these tragic events, an attorney sued Dr. Hatton on behalf of 
the shocked and saddened family of this young woman. Every practitioner 
involved in the case was sued, but Dr. Hatton was the ultimate target. 
The case went to trial and Dr. Hatton prevailed. What the attorney 
should have recognized at the point of the depositions, had he not been 
blinded by greed, was the fact that, in this tragic and sad case, there 
was no negligent party.
  However, that attorney continued to drag Dr. Hatton through a long 
and arduous legal battle, and delayed the time that that family could 
eventually heal from their psychological wounds. This was a costly, 
time-consuming, and an emotional process for both the doctor and the 
family, all for the agenda of a third party.
  There are thousands of other doctors with similar stories. The crisis 
is at a breaking point. Doctors are being driven from their practices, 
leaving the Nation with a serious health professional shortage. The 
legal environment in which doctors must work is lopsided to favor a 
very narrow special interest group, that of the trial lawyer. Patients 
are losing access to specialized care that they need because doctors 
are being driven out of business.
  Trial lawyers prey on vulnerable patients and doctors rarely in 
pursuit of justice, but frequently in pursuit of material gain. Nearly 
every State in the country now faces this crisis. A national solution 
is needed now. Fortunately for us, H.R. 5, which we will debate this 
week, will immediately address this problem by providing the national 
solution that is needed when it comes to the floor. I urge passage of 
H.R. 5.

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