I CAN still remember the days when we used to gasp in astonishment at the litigation culture in the United States and hope it would never come here. It has, of course, and perhaps for obvious cases of negligence and malpractice that is no bad thing.
But in one area particularly, medicine, the readiness of patients to sue is a double-edged sword. The taxpayer has paid out more than £60 million in Scotland in the past five years as compensation for medical "blunders".
Fair enough when someone
has been killed or seriously harmed by "mistakes" that should never have happened, but we seem to have forgotten that medicine and surgery is not an exact science, however much we wish it was.
A lot of it, even in the hands of experienced, gifted professionals, is educated guesswork and the fear of a malpractice suit can lead to doctors being paralysed into inaction, being afraid to follow their best judgement, just in case it goes wrong.
In Hamilton, for example, a 60-year-old woman is suing a leading breast surgeon, claiming the pathology results on her tumour revealed it was not as aggressive as the surgeon first believed it to be, hence her mastectomy and reconstruction may not have been necessary after all.
She claims she has been left "looking like a freak" with one of her breasts higher than the other. She claims she should have been given the option of a lumpectomy, where just a portion of the breast is removed, and is seeking damages of £30,000.
As someone who has had breast cancer and, coincidentally, a mastectomy and reconstruction following the discovery of a non-aggressive tumour, I am appalled by this case.
Frankly, I see no blunder. To my mind, a breast cancer blunder equates to avoidable death. From the moment I knew there might be a tumour there I just wanted the bloody thing off, out of my body and in the bucket where it could do no further harm.
They found the tumour in the lumpectomy. The problem was that they couldn't catch all the pre-cancerous cells in that lump and the only option was to remove the whole thing.
Fine by me. Better safe than sorry and in a coffin. A non-aggressive tumour is not benign, it will still kill you if it's left untreated – it just doesn't travel as fast.
Inevitably with a reconstruction, one of my boobs is higher than the other. I say "inevitably" because natural breast tissue droops with age while silicone doesn't. Put on weight and the natural breast gets fatter. Silicone doesn't.
A decent bra and no-one would notice, so I don't consider myself "a freak". Au contraire, I consider myself lucky to be alive.
When he got the pathology results, the surgeon in question told the patient: "I am glad to say it was not the tumour I had thought it was," probably expecting her to be as relieved by the good news as he was.
Come the day when surgeons put a patient's vanity and their own fear of being sued before the best chance of saving a life, even if it does mean radical surgery, we will all be losers.
The patient argues she has been left depressed and aggressive, with low self-esteem.
Yes, some people find a mastectomy harder to deal with than others. Some need further treatment to cope with it but, I would venture to suggest having walked in the moccasins, not necessarily from a breast clinic.
On another planetNo-one remotely sensible, not even me at my most outspoken, could condone the vandalism and damage to Sir Fred Goodwin's house in Edinburgh, or the hundreds of death threats he has received.
But, and I know I'm sticking my neck out here, I think most of us can understand public frustration at the man's arrogance, greed and refusal to accept responsibility for his major part in the fallen fortunes of RBS.
Unfortunately for him, he has become the identifiable face of banking incompetence. We are all suffering while he and his ilk are still living in clover.
He is said to be contemplating a new life in South Africa, which at least suggests he finally realises the level of contempt in which he is held here.
South Africa might not be far enough but, until we have colonised Mars, it'll just have to do.
Row beggars beliefWhat a stooshie over the Edinburgh Festival programme which includes sketched scenes of the real Edinburgh, including dishevelled beggars, less salubrious schemes and the odd lager lout.
The traditional chocolate-box, pretty-as-a-picture Edinburgh is there for all to see. It's unavoidable. It's the truth, but not the whole truth.
What's wrong with being honest and enlightened enough to admit that, like every other city, we have an underbelly?
