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A chance at justice: some cases seem untouchable: brought by unsympathetic plaintiffs, ridiculed as frivolous, and faced down by a public conditioned to suspect injury claims. But sometimes all those considerations are drowned out by a cry for justice so loud it can't be ignored.

Article Excerpt
The client who wouldn't let me give up

My firm gets many calls from people who believe they are victims of medical negligence. For 23 years the one type of case that I universally rejected was the claim that medical negligence caused a postoperative infection. That is, I rejected these cases until a man named Bob walked into my office.

Over the years, hundreds of prospective clients have told me they survived major surgery only to contract an infection afterward. Most people suffer only minor complications after surgery, but some endure repeated surgeries, organ failure, septic shock, long courses of intravenous antibiotics, and disfigurement.

Some die from the infection. So why did I reject these cases? Because they seemed impossible to prove. Medical experts, while admitting that many infections are preventable, point out two things. First, it is universally understood that almost every medical procedure carries a risk of infection. Second, assuming an infection was preventable, there is no way to prove when and how it happened. Behind closed doors, experts agree that most operative wound infections are caused by failure to follow time-tested aseptic techniques. But you certainly won't find evidence of this failure in the medical record.

So I kept reluctantly saying no to deserving potential clients. Often, their stories...

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