The Connecticut Supreme Court ordered a new trial in a medical malpractice case. The reason was because Dr. Todd Albert, an orthopedic surgeon and expert surgical witness in the trial, told the jury that suits of this kind drive up health care costs by forcing doctors to practice defensive medicine in Connecticut. Albert testified that the boy's surgeon complied with accepted medical standards and that any doctor in Connecticut would have done the same thing. Albert further stated that malpractice suits are the reason that many doctors, especially in Connecticut, cannot receive malpractice insurance and, thus, have to practice elsewhere. This Connecticut Supreme Court decision allows the boy and his mother another chance to argue their case before a jury.
The boy had to endure repeated spinal surgeries and may have future back problems because his surgeon failed to obtain timely X-ray photos prior to his operation to remove a benign, spinal tumor. The photos the surgeon used were more than nine months old. Furthermore, the plaintiffs argue that the surgeon burst the tumor during surgery, causing the growth to seed itself elsewhere causing debilitating spinal pressure. The prosecution claims that this could have been easily avoided had the surgeon taken more recent X-rays. As a result of the surgeon's mistake, the boy had to undergo two corrective operations and his back is now enforced with metal rods. The original surgery occurred in 2001 when the boy was only eleven.
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