Sept. 21, 2002, 1:14AM Brocail files suit against Tigers By DALE LEZON Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Astros relief pitcher Doug Brocail, who has been sidelined with injuries for two seasons and underwent elbow surgery Friday in Houston, took his pitching setbacks to Houston civil court Friday. Brocail filed a multimillion-dollar medical malpractice suit against the Detroit Tigers, his former team, claiming the club failed to properly diagnose and treat an injury that caused him to "blow out" his pitching arm last year. Brocail, 35, claims the Tigers' physician misdiagnosed an injury to his right elbow in 2000 and prescribed incorrect treatment for it. His suit asks for damages, lost wages and lost future wages, which could amount to millions, said his Houston attorney Thomas W. Pirtle "It's a little more tricky than a medical malpractice case," Pirtle said. "We have evidence that showed he shouldn't have been pitching or rehabbing." Brocail's surgery Friday at Methodist Hospital was to repair nerve damage in his right elbow. He did not return a phone message seeking comment. His agent, Phil Tannenbaum, said the Tigers were "grossly negligent" when they originally diagnosed and treated him in September 2000 for bone chips in his right elbow. The condition was far more serious than just bone chips and he needed more surgeries in 2001 and 2002 because of the misdiagnosis. "As a result, Doug's career is now in jeopardy," Tannenbaum said. But he said Brocail can rehabilitate his pitching arm and play again. Brocail's suit also names as defendants Kyle Anderson, a physician who treats Tigers players, and several Texas-based health-care facilities. While playing for the Tigers, Brocail had surgery Sept. 22, 2000, and underwent rehabilitation. In December 2000, the Astros acquired him from Detroit in a multiplayer trade. Brocail missed the 2001 season after he had another surgery to repair torn a medial collateral ligament in his right elbow.
Actually...he may have a good case. The standard for med mal is whether the doctor exercised the standard of care common in the medical community. If the doctor did not exercise said care then they committed med mal...that Brocail could have seen other doctors is largely irrelevant.
I find it hard to believe that a top flight team like the Tigers would have anything less than the best medical team available to them.
Thanks Doug, for playing your part in driving up the costs of medical care -- and driving future doctors away from the field because of the hideously expensive malpractice insurance.... I think Drayton ought to sue Doug Brocail for not throwing one pitch in two years and still collecting his salary.
So if a doctor fouls up and you're permanently injured you should be able to do nothing about it? How strange. Oh is it because he plays baseball? Only the poor should be able to enforce their rights to bodily integrity in court? The fact is that in Texas frivolous med mal suits seldom get to trial due to the necessity of a letter from an independent physician submitted to the court (with the doctor's C.V.) within 90 days of filing suit. Health insurance NOT PAYING doctors when services are rendered is what is driving doctors out of business...med mal is a small part of the problem financially for doctors.
Refman -- You've clearly been brainwashed by law school. When doctors are faced with $100,000/year premiums for their malpractice insurance, they decide it is not economically attractive to enter the profession. Combine those levels of premiums with huge debt burdens left over from undergrad and med school, and you've got yourself a recipe for poverty into your late 30's. You know good and well that our society is becoming dangerously litigious. Your man, George Bush, made that an important part of his campaign platform. Look, Doug Brocail was on his last legs as a pitcher 2 years ago when this surgery was performed. Even if it were done properly and he recovered, he still would have been a 35-year old middle reliever on the decline. This looks like a last ditch effort to make some money before his playing career is over.
Here's a look at Doug Brocail on his last legs: 1997 ERA: 3.23 1998 ERA: 2.73 1999 ERA: 2.52 2000 ERA: 4.09 Now, given that he's claiming the injury occured in 2000 doesn't it seem to you that pre-injury he was doing pretty damn good? Or is a 2.8ish ERA over 3 years a sign of a pitcher on the decline? I'm looking forward to your explanation on this one... Oh, I almost forgot. I want to sound really authoritative so it looks like I know what I'm talking about, so Game, set and Match!
I'm sorry, but a 33-year old middle reliever with an ERA of over 4 coming off ligament replacement surgery is most definitely on his last legs. Perhaps that is why the Astros were able to sign him for under $1 million per year, *well* below the MLB average. Imitation is the highest form of flattery.
I'm sorry...do you know me? Do you know what other sources of information I may have on this topic? For instance a father in law who is a neurologist in the Metroplex. No...you didn't...but yet you assume that I'm just a wacky lawyer who knows nothing about the medical profession other than what you can learn from a first year law text. Not a good assumption to make. I have spoken with my father in law at length regarding the problems facing the medical profession. He has told me that med mal premiums are a HUGE concern (although it isn't even remotely close to $100k a year as you claimed). However the biggest problem facing his practice is that health insurance companies are refusing to pay at an alarming rate. Those that do pay seldom pay in an amount commensurate with the work done. If you look at the increases in med mal premuims AND at the rate of increase in claims, you will find that the two have a tangential relationship at best. Why the increase you may ask. My hypothesis is that the increases have come about to offset poor real estate and stock investments by the insurance companies. Last year med mal premiums increased 100% across the board in Texas...do you think that claims did as well? NOT EVEN CLOSE. That was verified by my wife who is a med mal DEFENSE attorney. I am one of the most pro-doctor, pro-med mal reform guys you will ever meet. You just make wild assumptions about me because you know I have a law degree. BTW...you're brainwashing comment was insulting and completely out of line.
Let me just remind you that you were the one that incited this exchange with your sarcastic and condescending response to my innocuous comment that malpractice suits increase health costs. The fact that malpractice insurance drives up health costs is indisputable. The fact that Doug Brocail has been worthless to the Astros over the past two years is also indisputable. CASE CLOSED.
I asked legitimate questions in response to your assertions. The black and white manner in which you have chosen to talk about the ills of the medical profession clearly exhibits your lack of understanding of the industry. NOW the case is closed.
Wait..but you said Brocail was on his last leg...yet there was stastical evidence indicating he was still quite competent as a Major League pitcher...you said he was on his last legs, but it looks like the year immediately proceeding the surgery, he was pretty good...oh, and you said that insurance premiums were around $100K/year...you're not arguing those points now, so you must be waiving those arguments and admitting you're wrong. So as to those issues, CASE CLOSED. you speak with authority on this (and all other issues, for that matter) as if you know what the heck you're talking about...it seems to me that none of us can tell from this article whether or not he was misdiagnosed...i'm held accountable if i commit malpractice...doctors should be held to no less of a standard. if the misdiagnosis led to unnecessary treatments and further injury, he should be compensated for that. that's fair...that's the law, plain and simple. GAME, SET, MATCH...STRIKE ONE, STRIKE TWO, STRIKE THREE...YOU'RE OUT...BLAH BLAH BLAH...YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE DRILL....
Shhhhhsh MadMax, you're flattering him. See, he doesn't understand the difference between imitation and parody...
