LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Families of victims of
medical negligence gathered Monday to urge voters to support a political
effort for greater patient safety protections.
Carmen Pack – a mom who says her two children were killed due to
medical negligence – and Annette Ramirez, a South Bay mother who lost
her arms and legs due to infection after surgery, both say passing
Proposition 46 will prevent other families from suffering similar
tragedies.
Supporters say Proposition 46
creates greater accountability for medical negligence by indexing a
38-year-old cap on damages for inflation and detecting and deterring
physicians’ over-prescribing and substance abuse.
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer was among several officials on hand to endorse the Yes on 46 campaign, which released its first Spanish language television ad featuring Pack whose husband Bob is the author of Prop. 46.
The Pack’s children, Troy, 10, and Alana, 7, were killed by
intoxicated driver who had been recklessly prescribed narcotics by
multiple doctors at the same Kaiser hospital.
According to the Packs, they were unable to hold doctors legally
accountable because of the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act.
Passed in 1975, MICRA places a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages in
medical malpractice cases.
“If your loved one is killed by medical negligence, no matter how
serious or egregious and it’s a child who dies, there’s no wage loss or
medical bills, you won’t get an attorney,” said Jamie Court of Consumer
Watchdog.
Court says the initiative would raise the existing cap on damages to
$1.1 million, giving children and seniors who cannot demonstrate lost
wages as a result of their injuries a chance to hold doctors and
hospitals accountable for their mistakes.
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