What Is Goin’ On?

Tom, just like most of us trusted his doctor, Dr. John Robert Stripling, III. In this case, Dr. Stripling performed laser surgery on Tom’s prostate and within a few hours Tom was having significant problems. A few days later Tom was dead. Why did he die? What do you think? He had two holes in his bowel, which allowed feces to leak into his abdomen, which caused an infection to set in, which killed Tom.

With just these facts, who or what would any rational person think is responsible for the holes in Tom’s bowel? The laser surgery! What else! Ah, but a medical malpractice case is not so easily made. Logic does not necessarily govern the rules of law as applied the the negligence of doctors. The law requires proof. And to get that proof, you have to do two things that doctors and insurance companies hate: you have to hire a lawyer and and you have to sue the doctor.

And, I might add, based on what happened in the malpractice suit filed by Tom’s widow, the people of Forsyth County hate it, as well.

What Dr. Stripling did to Tom was negligent. What the people of Forsyth County did to his widow is shameful.

All the experts agreed that if Dr. Stripling burned the holes in Tom’s bowel, he was negligent. The only thing is, Dr. Stripling took the position that something other than his laser surgery caused the holes. And to “prove” this, Dr. Stripling’s insurance company hired an expert who testified that Tom must have swallowed Advil or Ibuprofen pills, because that is the only thing that could have done it. Imagine coming up with something that stupid!

Doctors, their lawyers and insurance companies do it all the time because they believe that jurors will believe something stupid before they will rule against a doctor. Fortunately, most jurors are not that stupid, at least not unless they come from Forsyth County, Georgia.

Twelve citizen jurors of Forsyth County, sworn to be fair and impartial, believed (against all logic) that there must have been such a “magic pill.”

Those good people of Forsyth County thought it was much more important to rule in favor of the doctor. than to do their sworn duty to decide the issue based on the “preponderance” of the evidence. The sad truth is that those misguided, pathetic citizens of Forsyth County would probably never award money to an injured person or family against a doctor. That is how deep their hatred of lawyers and lawsuits and courts and justice really is. What is worse, they are basically proud of their bias and prejudice. They admitted it when they were questioned during the jury selection process.

I don’t know any of those misguided jurors (thank goodness), but if any of them claim to be Christian, they really need to read the Bible a little more closely, particularly Deuteronomy 1:17 or Exodus 23:6 or Leviticus 19:15.

In this interview, Steve Lowery, the lawyer who represented Tom’s family, tells the story much better than I can summarize it hear.

Steve’s law firm had to file the lawsuit against Dr. Stripling in Forsyth County because that is where he lives, even though his office is in the metro Atlanta area. They would have preferred to have been in some other county, but the law requires you to sue people where they live.

I do not know what disease infects the people of Forsyth County. I don’t really care. All I know is that they made a mockery of everything the courts and our system of justice stands for. They cheated justice and truth. They cheated Tom’s family as well. They cheated all of us because they put their bias and prejudice above the law and justice. Jurors have the power to ignore their oaths, but they don’t have the right to do so.

The good citizens of Forsyth County have sown injustice. Now, the question is, when and how will they reap it.