If You’ve Been Injured by a TB-Infected Lawyer…

It ain’t easy being a nurse. I try my best to take good care of people. I carry liability insurance. Still, I live with the fact that being human I will make errors. I hope that I never do any one harm, by commission or omission. So far, so good, I just do my best every day.

I don’t work nine to five, and when I do I’m likely to be in a facility where there is a tv in every room, so I’ve heard the commercials that run in the daytime when the desperate and unemployed are watching… “If you’ve been injured in an accident, or by medical negligence, call Butch Litigious, Esq.â€?

Now, I want to make it clear that I think there should be compensation for people who are injured by their medical practitioners. They have to deal with expenses, plus pain and suffering, and it’s not fair for them to carry all that alone. But this system of leaving the individual to launch a personal lawsuit is the worst possible answer. There are countless people with a valid claim of injury who never have the money or aggression to go through the process. Remember that these folks might be sick or injured and not up to it. The commercials for the personal injury lawyers are aimed at those who are tough enough to go through the process and get a settlement that will be a profit-maker for the lawyer.

Are these lawyers the bottom-feeders they appear to be? Darned if I know — having never been involved with one, as either a plaintiff or a defendant. I hope I never get close enough to find out.

But there’s one personal injury lawyer who has gained international fame.

The Toronto Star reports today that the mystery tuberculosis patient who hopped on international flights, eluding health authorities who were warning him to stay put and not endanger countless innocent passengers, was a personal injury lawyer named Andrew Speaker.

“Speaker said in a newspaper interview that he knew he had TB when he flew from Atlanta to Europe in mid-May for his wedding and honeymoon, but that he did not find out until he was already in Rome that it was an extensively drug-resistant strain considered especially dangerous.

Despite warnings from federal health officials not to board another long flight, he flew home for treatment, fearing he wouldn’t survive if he didn’t reach the U.S., he said. He said he tried to sneak home by way of Canada instead of flying directly into the U.S. He was quarantined May 25, a day after he was allowed to pass through the border crossing at Champlain, N.Y., along the Canadian border. “

My sincerest wish for Andrew Speaker is that he makes a quick recovery because I hate the tuberculosis germs more than I hate any humans. Far more, I hope that he harmed no one by his selfish and reckless disregard for the safety of others– a disregard that borders on psychopathology. I mean, did he even care whether he infected his bride? She was up close and personal– close to ground zero you might say.

Finally, I hope that every person who was within coughing distance of this [kmareka doesn’t allow profanity] fool, and has spent a sleepless night worrying about the small but real possibility that they could have been infected with a type of tuberculosis that has a 33% fatality rate, will sue him for mental suffering. I hope that Andrew Speaker is staying up nights thinking about what a really aggressive personal injury lawyer could do with this case.

Salud.

7 thoughts on “If You’ve Been Injured by a TB-Infected Lawyer…”

  1. One can only express dismay at the repeated foolishness of Mr. Speaker. Rather than postpone his wedding trip to Rome, knowing full well that he had TB (but not the bad TB?), he still makes the journey, exposing his new bride and all those about him. Perhaps he saw too many repeats of “Tombstone” or “Wyatt Earp” and imagined himself as Doc Holliday, merrily gambling and drinking and saying profound things. But then, he lears he has the bad TB, and the exposure saga of “TB Andrew” continues by airliner and automobile. What of our erstwhile Homeland Security folks. Sure, overworked and tired and told to process, process, process, they let the guy in even though a warning to stop is on the computer. makes us feel real secure, doesn’t it. Why, we can use technology to stop potential threats.

    I certainly hope Mr. Speaker recovers, both for his sake and his family’s, but also so that there can be an accoounting. This hideous TB strain is nasty stuff. Modern medicing has brought us miracles of science, but the treatments and drugs are so Darwinian; the superbugs survive. One must wonder what new perils, what new Mr. Speakers await us.

    Like

  2. Thanks for your insightful comments, Mr. Wolberg. This is particularly frightening to me, as we just returned from passing through the Canadian border in New York, though in Buffalo, not Champlain. Amazing how some people simply feel “immune” to the rules, whereas they are actually endangering the immunity of everyone around them.

    Like

  3. You are so correct Kiersten. Living here in one of the most charming parts of the U.S., New Mexico, we enjoy our surroundings, but yet confront bubonic palgue (yes, plague is endemic); a higher than usual amount of TB (and it is true Doc Holliday spent time here, but the TB arrived earlier), West Nile Fever and a host of other exciting maladies. Nerw Mexico is the Land of Enchantment (our state motto) but being enchanted has a price. The same will become as true for mush of the U.S. Internationalis has a marvelous flavor, but there is also a price in uninvited organisms and in uninvited diseases.

    Like

  4. after 9/11 i really thought that we would revive the public health system as a security measure. that’s since justice, compassion and the example of other developed nations had not moved us to provide health care for all americans. one of the few public health resources in rhode island is the provision of free treatment for tuberculosis. we should apply that same common sense principle to all diseases. a healthy, well-informed population with access to medical care is the best protection against infectious disease.

    Like

  5. An adequate Public Health system is a security measure, especially as the threat of disease as a weapon remains a significant concern.I think the real challenge is in rural America, where delivey systems are challenged. But I also think that serious infectious diseases can more easily gain a foothold in rural areas first, just because of the inadequacy of care facilities.

    (How is the Newport Tower doing by the way–one of my favorite “mystery” sites.)

    Like

  7. Many thanks for the reference. The Tower is indeed fascinating whether it has that Arnold link or even older link.

    Like

Comments are closed.