Admissions: Life as a Brain Surgeon by Henry Marsh

Author:Henry Marsh [Marsh, Henry]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2017-10-03T04:00:00+00:00

8

LAWYERS

I had to return to London from Nepal earlier than I had originally planned because I was due to appear in court. A patient was suing me. The case had been dragging on for four years. I had operated for a complex spinal condition causing progressive paralysis, and the patient had been initially left worse than he had been before the operation. As far as I could tell he had eventually ended up better than before the operation, but apparently he was deeply aggrieved. A neurosurgeon – justly famous for the very high opinion he had of himself, although less famous for his medico-legal pronouncements – was of the opinion that I had acted negligently. Just for once, I was as certain as I could be that I had not, and I had reluctantly felt obliged to defend myself. It was just like Nepal, I thought. All these surgeons attacking each other. I had had to attend various meetings about the case and many thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of pounds must have been spent in legal fees. At the last moment, after I had come all the way back from Nepal, the claimant and his lawyers abandoned the case two days before the trial was due to start. The solicitor handling my defence was most apologetic about the waste of my time.

‘But it’s better than needing twelve policemen,’ I replied cheerfully, without explaining what I meant.

Many doctors do what is called medico-legal work, providing reports for lawyers in cases involving personal injury or medical negligence. It is a lucrative but time-consuming business. I did a few such reports myself when I became a consultant, but quickly gave it up. I preferred operating and dealing with patients to the many meetings and lengthy paperwork which medico-legal work requires. I only became involved with lawyers if I was being sued myself – always a very distressing experience, whether I felt guilty or not.

This occurred four times during my career, including the case which had forced me to return from Nepal and which had now collapsed. The other three cases had all been settled, as I blamed myself for what had happened and did not want to defend myself. One case had been for a retained swab after a spinal operation (in the days when swab counts were not being done in the old hospital) which had not caused any severe injury, and the other two were cases where I had been slow to diagnose serious, although almost uniquely rare, post-operative infections. One of those patients had come to serious harm, the other to catastrophic harm.

But a few years ago I was subpoenaed to give evidence in a personal injury compensation case, which I regarded as an absurd and complete waste of my time. So I attended reluctantly, a series of High Court orders having been served on me over the three days before the hearing. The men serving them had never been able to serve them on me in person – which, strictly speaking, I believe the law requires.

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