WASHINGTON – Every once in a while, you hear a story you know you will remember for the rest of your life.

On July 5, 2002, Tony Dyess of Mississippi, a father of two, suffered head injuries in an auto accident. He was rushed to the hospital, but the only doctor able to perform a procedure to relieve pressure on Tony’s brain had been forced to quit just days before. Because of rising legal costs brought on by lawsuit abuse, the doctor’s malpractice insurance carrier had stopped writing policies.

Tony was airlifted to another hospital, but it took six hours, during which time the damage continued.

Tony and his family had good health insurance. But Tony didn’t get the help he needed, because lawsuit abuse had driven the doctor away.

Today Tony is in a vegetative state. His wife is now both mom and dad to their children. Lawsuit abuse is taking a terrible toll.

Consider this quote about the doctor shortage brought on by lawsuit abuse: “OB-GYN Shelby Wilbourn wonders who will deliver the 500 babies born each week in Las Vegas and if there will be any OBs to take emergency calls like the one he recently answered. The patient was 34 weeks’ pregnant, in premature labor and hemorrhaging, and her baby’s heartbeat was frighteningly low. Wilbourn arrived in minutes, and both mother and children made it successfully through childbirth. “If this were next year,’ he contends, “that baby would have died.”‘

It’s a year later now. That quote is from the July 1, 2002, issue of U.S. News & World Report.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a world-class surgeon, says 12 states are in health care crisis because of lawsuit abuse while 30 others are in near-crisis.

A recent survey found 76 percent of physicians believe liability concerns are hurting the quality of medical care. Some $50 billion annually along with incalculable discomfort is wasted on unnecessary tests to guard against lawsuits. Unreasonable awards cost Americans $70 billion to $126 billion extra in health-care costs every year.

“Medicine has suffered a kind of nervous breakdown,” says legal author Philip K. Howard.

Doctors see patients as potential plaintiffs and are unwilling to be frank, fearing that admission of uncertainty might lead to lawsuits. They are reluctant to disclose mistakes, hampering the profession’s ability to make improvements, and are less willing to provide volunteer emergency care.

And, Howard says, they are retiring early.

Americans joke about stupid lawsuits. About people who sue McDonald’s because they got fat. Or the man who claimed a car accident made him homosexual, so he sued and won $225,000. But stupid lawsuits are no joke when they harm us.

There is, however, a way to ease the crisis: placing reasonable caps on lawsuit awards for non-economic damages. California enacted caps years ago and now has some of the nation’s lowest malpractice insurance premium rates.

Between 1976 and 2000, malpractice premiums nationwide increased 505 percent, or 7.8 percent annually, but in California they went up just 4.2 percent annually.

On July 9, the Senate considered legislation, previously approved by the House, to limit pain and suffering awards to $250,000 and punitive damages to the greater of $250,000 or twice the amount of economic damages. Economic damages were not limited. Limits also were set on lawyers’ fees.

The Association of Trial Lawyers of America, cited by the Center for Responsive Politics as America’s fourth-largest campaign contributor, vigorously opposed the measure. The bill – supported by 49 senators and opposed by 48 -was killed by filibuster.

How many more lives will be ruined before Congress passes sensible malpractice reforms?

Amy Ridenour is president of the National Center for Public Policy Research.

This essay is available to Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service subscribers. Knight Ridder/Tribune did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Knight Ridder/Tribune or its editors.

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(c) 2003, National Center for Public Policy Research

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services

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