Even if they remain remorseful and tragic story cases of a medical professional’s failure to exercise reasonable medical judgment are no longer a surprise to hear. These reported failures, often referred to as medical negligence have been increasing in number for the past several years. Every person must have had heard, if not experience, one of these stories. The victims come from different places, different illness, different ages and different walks of life.
Is it time to make a claim for medical negligence?
Negligence by a medical professional can include an error in diagnosis, treatment, or illness management. If such negligence results in injury to a patient, a legal case for medical malpractice can arise against: the doctor, if his or her actions deviated from generally accepted standards of practice; the hospital for improper care or inadequate training, such as problems with medications or sanitation; local, state or federal agencies that operate hospital facilities.
Everyone is vulnerable to be victimized by their mistakes. Medical negligence can happen to young girl from a remote province to a humungous body builder in a metropolis.
A Health Ministry disciplinary committee has found a local doctor who prescribed steroids for “Mr. World” guilty of serious medical negligence. This the first time that an Israeli doctor has been charged with professional medical negligence for prescribing bodybuilding drugs, and the first time the Health Ministry has officially declared that high dosages of such drugs may cause bodily harm. Dr. Yehuda Chen gave Eli Hanna,Israel’s leading bodybuilder, six prescriptions for unusually large amounts of medications, steroids and growth hormones. Hanna, 35, has won several international bodybuilding titles including “Mr. World,” “Mr. Universe” and “Mr. Europe” as well as numerous “Mr.Israel” titles. Hanna used the prescriptions to import the drugs toIsrael in 2002, but they were intercepted by customs officials at Ben-Gurion airport. Consequently, the Health Ministry launched an investigation against the doctor who issued the prescriptions.
The ministry’s disciplinary committee recently concluded, after two years of debate, that “administering steroids and growth hormones could cause the user bodily harm both in the long term and short term.”
Dr. Na’ama Constantini, the director of the Center for Sport Medicine Sciences and Research at the Wingate Institute, provided the medical opinion and main testimony that led to Chen’s conviction. She told the disciplinary committee that the quantities of chemical substances that Chen prescribed for Hanna “require a permit from the district veterinarian.” She added: “It’s a crime … A doctor’s job is not to make someone world champion but to heal him. A doctor must not cause his patient damage. The dosages are up to five times the customary amount for bodybuilders.”
The committee presented its recommendations to Health Minister Dan Naveh, stating that Chen’s conduct was improper and constituted a breach of the accepted norms of a doctor. The drugs, which are not registered for use inIsrael, were prescribed ostensibly for anemia and for asthma. In fact, Hanna did not suffer from these, and the medication was not intended to cure him, but to be used to enhance his bodybuilding qualities.
Hanna testified that he had filled in the drugs’ quantities on the forms while the doctor had only signed them. He said he had already won the world championship three times and had “ample experience in this field, more than many doctors.” Hanna said he takes five prescribed pills a day and injects growth hormone three times a day.
He told Haaretz that he consults doctors and nutritionists abroad, explaining “a man who deals with bodybuilding is like a woman who wants to be a beauty queen. She will do anything to be more beautiful, and a bodybuilder will do anything to be bigger and more muscular – even if he is told the treatment may cause liver problems.”
“There is no `Mr. World’ who has not used steroids. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who won the title of `Mr. Universe’ five times and `Mr. Olympia’ seven times, used them all his life. If you’re using it already, it’s better to do it under a doctor’s supervision,” Hanna said.
Hanna added that he does not see what the problem is with using a growth hormone “because all the rich Israelis know a senior doctor in Tel Aviv, who works inIchilovHospitaland prescribes growth hormone as part of his anti-ageing treatments.”
A two-and-a-half-year-old girl, a victim of health problems reportedly caused by pesticide endosulfan, died today allegedly due to medical negligence on the part of a doctor of a government hospital here. Official sources said the doctor, Narayan Naik, of the Government General Hospital has been suspended on the basis of a probe by the District Medical Officer, after the incident sparked widespread protests. The child, Prajitha, was taken to the state-run hospital yesterday after her condition worsened. However, the child specialist in the hospital was on leave. Later, her relatives took her to the clinic of the doctor, who allegedly asked for Rs100 as fee for providing medical care to the child in a critical state. The child was later taken to a private hospital where she died today, sources said.
The government doctor was suspended from service based on DMO’s probe ordered by state Health minister P K Sreemathy. “This is a most tragic incident, which should not have happened,” Sreemathy said. Activists of CPI (M)’s youth outfit DYFI marched to the doctor’s clinic demanding stern action against him.
It is therefore important that the patients are well protected and that the governments pay close attention to medical negligence claims. No win no fee medical negligence schemes have also be supported by many governments.
In the end, it can’t be further debate that medical negligence can indeed cost our lives. The physicians should not only know that but fear this fact as well.
