And I was wondering why we were going so in-depth into genetic metabolic disorders in class yesterday. In a related brilliant budgetary move, California recently discontinued the program to screen all newborns in the state for more than 25 disorders detectable at birth. (Many, like phenylketonuria can be managed with diet, vitamins, and drugs if they’re detected early enough.) [via Overlawyered]

It’s absolutely terrible that Michael’s early test came back as a false negative. In all these malpractice cases, I can’t help but think that malpractice rates would substantially drop if everyone had guaranteed health care, and didn’t have to worry about future possible medical complications (my emphasis):

bq(quote). Baum said $56 million of the verdict was to cover the costs of care, and $14 million was for lost future wages. The remainder was for suffering caused by brain damage. Evidently, “the jury felt that something needed to be done to take care of this child for the rest of his life (and) wanted to find somebody responsible, ” Sheuerman said. He said the hospital was unlikely to appeal the verdict.

2 Comments »