Here is my story ---
In early 2011, I had knee surgery performed by Dr. Henry Blum at Foundation Surgical Hospital on the West Loop.
Four days after the surgery I went for a normal post-op appointment. I told him I had pain in my chest. Blum said it could be a blood clot in my lungs and sent me for a CT scan.
Said I would have the results by 3pm.
No call. I called them several times after 4pm and got put on hold repeatedly till 5pm when the answering service began picking up calls. About 6:30, Blum calls me and says the results were “inconclusive,” that I needed to go to an ER “immediately.”
Went to the ER and told them basically what you just read. They asked about my CT scan, if I had had dye in it and I said no. They quickly determined that my earlier CT scan had been “without contrast” and thus was the wrong diagnostic tool to determine a blood clot.
When I called Blum the next day he was most apologetic. He had one of his administrators, Rosa Frimm, call me to apologize and assure me there would be no charge for their CT scan.
Meanwhile I am out over $1000 in ER bills and $1600 in lost wages. (I work as an independent contractor and was to have left town for a job the evening I spent in the ER.)
When the bills from the ER visit began to come in I asked Dr. Blum if he would be willing to reimburse me. Suddenly the story changes and Blum says no mistake was made. I file in small claims court. Hey - $2600 is a lot of money to me!
And here is where everyone in the state of Texas comes in --- The full force of the Texas Civil code must be followed in small claims court ONLY when the defendant is a doctor. That is what the judge said. Normally they don’t follow it, but doctors are different.
I had some inkling of that. As the guy at the free legal hotline said - doctors are not normal humans under Texas law, they are super human. He also claimed that most attorneys have given up doing malpractice or left the state.
Since I was not claiming any physical damages, my case rested completely on medical records. Unfortunately, the records provided by Blum were both incomplete and incorrect. What that meant is that when I tried to get an expert opinion, the doctor said he couldn’t even form an opinion because he didn’t have enough information – the records were incomplete.
The defendant holds all the evidence and cannot be forced to turn it over. His lawyer was asked if the records were complete and when she said “I assume so” the Judge deemed that sufficient.
Thus, I was unable to provide an expert opinion in the required 120 day (section 74.051 and 75.052 of the Texas Civil Code) Judge Ridgway, Pct. 5, Place 1, Harris County granted the motion to dismiss the case. Blum’s lawyer also demanded I pay her fees, also part of the code, which came to more than $8,000 dollars! The judge asked her if she would withdraw that request and she said
“My client won’t let me.”
Is her client someone you want to get to know better? Is this doctor somone you would trust with your life?
