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May 02, 2005

A New Source of Med Mal Risk

Erin O’Connor points to this Boston Herald article about Heidi Baer who is dyslexic.  She has failed three times in her attempt to take her medical school second year exams (which apparently must be passed to go to the third year).  She is asking a federal judge to use the Americans with Disabilities Act to order the National Board of Medical Examiners to provide her extra time on a fourth attempt.  One of O'Connor's commentators (JC) sums it up by asking

So what happens when, through a series of such special dispensations, she becomes a doctor and misreads a BP of 191/95 as 119/59 and her patient subsequently suffers a stroke? Ask the patient for a do over?

I do realize her case is not a slam dunk, but if she were to win and she were eventually to become a physician, how many med mal insurers would line up to give her coverage? 

 

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» Disabled docs' demands from Overlawyered
Gail Heriot (May 3), Erin O'Connor (Apr. 30), and Martin Grace (May 2) all comment on the case of Heidi Baer of Quincy, Mass., who having failed the medical boards three times is now suing... [Read More]

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