Here at Law Office of Robert a Miller in Oregon, we represent numerous women who sue their OB/GYN after suffering pregnancy-related injuries. Medscape recently did a survey of over 4,000 such physicians throughout the U.S. regarding their lawsuit experiences, and the results may surprise you.
Perhaps the most troubling statistic revealed by the survey in terms of your confidence in your OB/GYN is that 85 percent of the physicians said that at least one of their patients had sued them for malpractice. Even more alarming, 62 percent of them admitted to having been sued two to five times, while only 24 percent said they had been sued only once. The top three reasons plaintiffs alleged for these suits included the following:
- Treatment or surgery complications – 34 percent
- Disease progression and/or poor outcome – 21 percent
- Failure of or delay in treatment – 19 percent
Lawsuit time and disposition
Be aware that a malpractice lawsuit generally takes a long time to settle or go to trial. Of the 4,000 OB/GYNs surveyed, most (39 percent) of the lawsuits against them took three to five years to resolve, while 14 percent of them took over five years. Only nine percent of the lawsuits resolved themselves in less than 12 months.
Not surprisingly, 37 percent of the lawsuits ended in a settlement rather than in a jury verdict. Likewise not surprisingly, 18 percent of the OB/GYNs reported that the plaintiff who sued them received between $500,000 and $1 million. In a full 33 percent of the lawsuits, the plaintiff received $500,000 or less. The physicians split almost equally on their opinions of whether or not they believed the settlement or jury verdict was fair, with 53 percent saying it was and 47 percent saying it wasn’t.
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