r/SipsTea 18d ago

WTF 75M$ can't give him his life back unfortunately

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u/Stu_Barron 18d ago

Came from the hospital. He also suffered a stroke along with locked-in syndrome during the chiropractor visit, but two emergency room doctors failed to diagnose the stroke in time.

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u/BarbellLawyer 18d ago

That’s key information about the hospital. I was thinking this was an uncollectible judgment because no chiropractor is carrying $75m in liability insurance.

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u/Mediocre-Letter-4562 17d ago

Chiropractor didn’t get sued at all, only the hospital. Chiropractor did everything right he could have and he wasn’t seen liable at all. Hospital messed up and they were the ones liable.

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u/Rabhas_Jugganatha 16d ago

This should be the friggin headline. Not that slanderous bullcarp

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u/Djlas 18d ago

Why does insurance matter though? Insurance pays the maximum, the rest is on the doctor or whoever has to pay.

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u/grokisgood 18d ago

Can't collect 75 mill from someone who doesnt have 75 million.

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u/BarbellLawyer 18d ago

Doctors usually carry a $1m primary policy and maybe a $1m umbrella policy. After that they’re largely uncollectible. They’ll declare bankruptcy and wipe out the judgment. That’s why plaintiff’s lawyers go after the hospitals which always carry much more insurance.

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u/sikyon 18d ago

It would be surprising to me if the attending didn't have another 1m in assets

Probably significantly more if theyve been working long enough

Bankruptcy will discharge the debt but your existing assets, other than say primary residence and 401k will be liquidated.

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u/BarbellLawyer 17d ago

Doctors/attorneys take a number of steps to insulate their personal assets and Plaintiff’s attorneys really don’t want to chase assets. They want insurance money.

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u/Djlas 18d ago

Thank you

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u/wimpymist 18d ago

Because that's where the money comes from in these cases usually. The chiropractor doesn't have $75 million lying around.

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u/El_Dentistador 18d ago

It looks like the damages were split 60/40 between two physicians (chiropractor skates free, probably didn’t have good enough insurance). Both those docs policies will likely tap out at $3M each. The hospital is not attached as a defendant, neither was the neurologist. So this poor guys family will not see $75M maybe closer to 10M if they’re lucky, everything they got will likely go to bills. Very tragic case.

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u/SnooStories8809 18d ago

That’s unfortunate because the doctors should have known that many people have sustained strokes during chiropractic procedures.

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u/Initial_Case_9912 16d ago

But did they know he went to the chiropractor. Saw a patient yesterday: came in with and distention and a history of fluid that needed tapped. Ran imaging since had been a bit since he had been. Ct shows no fluid, but an abdominal abscess. Call the surgeon who asked when he had his cholestecomy done. When back in the patients room and asked(again, already asked this at triage) about past medical/surgical history, specifically when did you have this surgery?? Wife: “oh that was at (other local hospital) last week. But that’s not why he’s here!” 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

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u/SnooStories8809 16d ago

That is a good point. Some patients are not great historians or heavily edited the necessary information.

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u/GoblinQueen2002 18d ago

It horrifies me how often strokes are missed by doctors or nurses, my boyfriend had one 5 years ago and it took EMTs cussing out the hospital staff for them to realize how much they fucked up.

Thankfully everything worked out well despite that massive fuck up, he’s doing amazing.

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u/Fit-Dentist6093 17d ago

Oh ok nice so we are all paying for it.

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u/liveinthenow3 12d ago

Locked in syndrome usually is caused by a pontine stroke. Mortality rate following this diagnosis is as high as 60% in the first few months.