Connie Spears came to a Christus Santa Rosa hospital emergency room in San Antonio in 2010 with severe leg pain and a long history of blood clots. She told the emergency room personnel of her blood clot history. But the emergency room physicians and staff negligently failed to properly diagnose or treat her; instead, they just sent her away. A few days later, delusional, swollen badly and her life endangered, she was taken to another emergency room where doctors found severe tissue damage caused by a blood clot and had to amputate both her legs above the knees.
But under "tort reform" and Texas law requires not just negligence but intentional harm to a patient for emergency care and Mrs. Spears could not find in time a lawyer or appropriate expert witness to meet the impossible standard of proving intentional harm done her by the staff at Christus Santa Rosa. As a result, Mrs. Spears has had both her legs amputated and will now have to pay the legal fees of those whose negligence harmed her so badly.
Source: New York Times
