Ensign malpractice bill angers disabled patients

Thursday, May 30, 2002 | 9:56 a.m.

Dianne Meyer and Renee Williams cringe each time they hear the term "frivolous lawsuits" from doctors and others describing medical malpractice cases.

The only frivolity they see are the apparent misreading of test results for a kidney stone that cost Meyer both of her legs, and the apparent botched delivery of Williams' grandchild that left her daughter in a vegetative state and left Williams to care for her daughter and her daughter's four children.

Both women have lawsuits pending in District Court, and both spoke out Wednesday against Sen. John Ensign's proposed federal legislation that would limit non-economic injury jury awards -- "pain and suffering" -- to $250,000.

However, Dennis Finfrock, who is suffering from Parkinson's disease, argued that medical liability reform is essential to improve health care in Nevada.

Finfrock, who served as head of the Thomas & Mack Center and later as director of the MGM Grand Garden Arena, has to travel out of state for some of his treatments.

He has tried for years to get quality doctors to come to Las Vegas, he but has been unsuccessful, especially in the current statewide medical malpractice insurance crisis.

Victims of malpractice say they do not like being pegged as fortune hunters.

"I did not want to lose both of my legs to, as some people put it, hit the lottery," Meyer, 58, said outside Valley Hospital Medical Center Wednesday, where the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association addressed reporters before Ensign's news conference.

"I'd give anything to have my legs back. What part of lawsuits like mine are frivolous? How should I be compensated for how I have suffered?"

Both Meyer's legs were amputated below the knee a day and a half after a doctor told her that tests showed she had two small kidney stones that would pass. It was later learned, however, she had a large stone that poisoned her system, infecting her extremities beyond repair.

Williams has had to care for her disabled 22-year-old daughter, Giana Danielle Richardson, who was left clinging to life after giving birth. Richardson is so afflicted she cannot even hold her baby.

"None of the politicians who are talking about reform have asked me what I think about it," Williams said. "To put a $250,000 limit on the pain and suffering my family has endured is totally unfair."

Finfrock said the best way to improve health care in a growing community is to recruit quality physicians and make malpractice insurance affordable.

"This is a quality of life issue," Finfrock said. "We should be bringing in top physicians from around the world and hold on to the ones we've got."

Ensign, R-Nev., announced his legislation after meeting with dozens of local health care officials and business leaders Wednesday.

"This legislation is similar to that in California where patients are still getting care and still getting (jury) awards, but where the doctors are not leaving because the (insurance) rates are too high," Ensign said.

Timothy Williams, president of the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association, said since the 1970s bills similar to Ensign's have come before Congress and failed.

"Congress has determined that it should not penalize the victims," he said.

Ensign said the trial lawyers were not invited to Wednesday's roundtable discussion because they already have "clearly set out their position ... to defeat liability reform" because it is not in their best interest.

"I do not see lawyers leaving Nevada," Ensign said.

No Democrat has signed on as co-sponsor to his measure.