Psychiatrists Can Perform Medical Malpractice Too
It has been said that the human brain is the most powerful thing on earth, and when you consider the things of which we are capable, it’s hard to argue with the premise. Jets, computers, modern cities, fast cars, the internet and pharmaceutical drugs are all man-made inventions. If you think your brain isn’t all that powerful, compare your brain to those of all the other species on the planet. There isn’t another species on the planet capable of doing what human beings have done. Squirrels will never build cars, fish will never build a subway system, and despite what current movies are saying, apes will probably never rise up and take over the world.
Unfortunately, there can be a downside to having an intellect. Consider what happens when your own brain turns against you. There are examples of this everywhere you look. Many of the homeless people that you see on the streets aren’t homeless because they are drug addicts or drunks. Many of them are homeless because they are mentally ill and can’t afford treatment. They suffer from severe schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, each of which are illnesses that can leave a victim incapable of living a normal life.
As sadly common as these examples are, more extreme consequences of untreated mental illness certainly exist. Congresswoman Gabby Gifford’s would-be assassin Jared Loughner was suffering from a severe form of schizophrenia. Convinced that Ms. Gifford was an agent of a worldwide criminal plot, Mr. Loughner shot 19 people, six of them fatally. John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan because as a result of his mental illness, he thought that doing so would impress the actress Jodie Foster. Mark David Chapman was delusional and paranoid when he shot and killed John Lennon. These are some of the more high profile examples, but there are several other examples that don’t get nearly as much attention.
Treating someone who is deep in the throes of mental illness can be a daunting task. In the first place, one of the chief hurdles is the frame of reference of the victim. A person suffering from insanity will adamantly swear that there is nothing wrong with him. An additional problem in treating the mentally ill is that our for-profit medical system makes treatment cost prohibitive. An insane person can’t hold a job, so he has no money, so he has no health insurance, so he can’t see a doctor, so he can’t get the treatment or prescription drugs that he needs, and his condition gets worse and worse. It’s a fairly vicious cycle.
When someone who suffers from mental illness is fortunate enough to have the resources to get medical treatment, he or she relies almost entirely on the skills and professionalism of the psychiatrist. It’s the psychiatrist who determines the form of the illness, it’s the psychiatrist who determines how severe the illness is, and it’s the psychiatrist who determines what course of treatment to take. And while any medical doctor can make a mistake, a psychiatrist is the only medical doctor whose mistakes can get people who are not the patient hurt or killed.
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's top court is allowing the family of a man charged with stabbing his mother to death during a psychotic rage to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against his psychiatrist.
The lawsuit claims Dr. Derek Johnson O'Brien committed medical malpractice when he ordered two of Victor Bruscato's medications be discontinued.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that a jury should decide the lawsuit brought by Bruscato's family in Gwinnett County. The ruling settled a debate about whether the lawsuit should go forward that had divided Georgia courts.
Authorities say Bruscato smashed his mother in the head with a battery charger and then stabbed her 72 times.
It would be one thing if this very sick man had not received any treatment whatsoever and then committed this crime. But the fact is the doctor involved knowingly altered an effective course of treatment which resulted in his patient’s psychosis getting worse. It would be hard to imagine that Dr. O’Brien had no inkling of what his patient was capable of, and why he simply cut off two medications in his patient’s treatment regimen without at least looking for substitutes is beyond our understanding.
When most people think of medical malpractice, they think of instruments being left in a body cavity after surgery, or a doctor who doesn’t recognize an obvious diagnosis when it is staring him in the face. But psychiatrists are medical doctors, too. They went to med school, they took gross anatomy, they did their internships, and they passed their medical boards. They are just as capable of medical malpractice as a surgeon or regular doctor. And as we said before, their mistakes can have consequences that go way beyond just the patient.
Greenberg and Bederman is a Maryland medical malpractice law firm that serves the entire Washington, D.C. and Baltimore area. We are currently offering legal counsel to those who have suffered severe injuries due to the negligence of a doctor, surgeon, nurse or psychiatrist, contact a Greenberg & Bederman lawyer for a free consultation.
![BlogSearch.com](<A HREF="http://www.blog-search.com"> <IMG SRC="http://www.blog-search.com/images/smallbutton.gif" WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=15 BORDER=0 ALT="Blog Search: The Source for Blogs"></A>...){kind=link}