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CBS 4 – Boston
May 13, 2005
Hundreds of patients and their families are affected by medical mistakes every year. But Josh Binswanger shows us why more doctors are actually being encouraged to say they're sorry for their errors.
Linda Kenney went in for routine ankle surgery in 1999, but almost died when the anesthesia was accidentally administered to her heart .
"I started to lose consciousness, I went into grand mal seizures and went into full cardiac arrest."
Linda's anesthiologist went against the hospital's advice and actually apologized to her. And instead of suing, they're actually friends.
Linda Kenney, Patient
"For him, it was like a great weight was lifted from his shoulders. For me it was like freedom to move on."
There is now a growing effort to encourage more doctors to say they're sorry.
Doug Wojcieszak, Sorry Works Coalition:
"What we're encouraging doctors to do is apologize for errors and to apologize for mistakes quickly and also offer compensation up front."
Doug Wojcieszak is trying to get more doctors to apologize for medical mistakes.
He founded "Sorry Works," a coalition that trains doctors how to apologize.
Wojcieszak believes apologies matter and points to research showing hospitals and municipalities that adopt this approach see liability costs drop by a third and lawsuits are cut in half.
"There's a common myth out there that medical malpractice lawsuits are driven by greed. In fact, most medical malpractice lawsuits are driven by anger."
Several Massachusetts hospitals are considering including the apology component as part of a larger effort to prevent medical errors. But they want to make sure that employees would be legally protected so that nothing they said could potentially be used against them in a lawsuit.
Dr. Alan Woodward, Mass Medical Society:
"You want to have an open discussion about what has happened, why it has happened and assure the patient that you're going to make sure that it doesn't happen to another patient."
Linda Kenney has started a support group to help other medical personnel and patients and their families who have been involved in medical traumas called Medically Induced Trauma Support services.
For more information, log onto mitss.org or call 888-36-MITSS.
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