Tearful victims of medical malpractice brought their campaign against capping malpractice awards to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's hometown yesterday and apparently will have a fight in the Tennessee legislature as well as in Congress.
Lobbyists for Tennessee doctors and hospitals already are working on state legislation, patterned after a federal proposal, to set a $250,000 limit on non-economic damages in malpractice cases. Non-economic damages include such things as pain and suffering, which cannot be measured as easily as financial losses.
Members of the Center for Justice & Democracy, a national consumer organization, met with Frist staff members after a news conference at the Legislative Plaza. Frist is backing the $250,000 cap in Congress.
…
Representatives of the consumer group, which are taking their message on a nationwide bus tour, held a news conference at the Legislative Plaza. Among the participants were the parents of Amanda Travis, 5, who checked into Nashville's Parkside Surgery Center in 1991 for a routine tonsillectomy and died, her mother said, after she was given the wrong drugs.
"I lost a 5-year-old who was very vibrant," Tammy Travis said. "She had an earning capacity of $250,000 to $300,000 a year. She could sing at the age of three. I wake up every morning and look at her picture. She would have been a senior in high school this year."
For a copy of the complete article, contact CJ&D.
The Center for Justice & Democracy is the only national consumer organization in the country exclusively dedicated to protecting our civil justice system. If you'd like more information, please contact us.
