Member-only story
A Nurse Overdosed Me On Opioids, But Legal Experts Said I Was Too Healthy to Sue
I lived, but that was the problem.
I nearly died after my twins were born. The “nearly” here is important because when I contacted five lawyers afterward to try to sue for medical negligence, the fact that I was alive and well was a problem. If I hadn’t been, they would have taken the suit in a heartbeat (or…lack thereof). After my fifth rejection from a medical malpractice law firm, I didn’t try any further.
One lawyer asked me, “And there’s nothing wrong with you now?”
“Other than extreme emotional distress to both me and my husband, no,” I said.
“Well, that’s not enough,” he said.
I didn’t hold it against him. He knew how the system worked. If I had to be alive, I needed to be damaged in a way that would make jury members cry. It didn’t matter that what had happened to me could happen to someone else, and the hospital should be forced to make changes to prevent that. All need for that was considered irrelevant because I was “fine.”
But I didn’t feel fine. I had nearly died. I had nearly left my then-husband alone with two itty-bitty infants. A doctor even suspected I might wake up brain-damaged, but medical malpractice lawsuits for the big bucks need…
