When I became embroiled in the debate between Eric Turkewitz of New York Personal Injury Blog fame and the even more famous Flea, a new world opened up to this Blawg.  Before, the readers here were largely limited to lawyers and people interested in criminal defense law.  Suddenly, the physicians appeared. 

At the end of each piece is a survey.  I don’t know why it’s there, but it came with the program.  The survey allows readers to vote on whether the liked the piece.  Let me be blunt:  The doctors hated my pieces on the Flea.  I’m fairly certain that they don’t care much for me either.  More so than anyone else, the docs responded to the survey, and let me know what they thought.  For that, I thank them.

There have been a number of lessons learned.  Not the lessons the docs thought they were teaching.  Oh no.  I would like to say that I am shocked by all this, but I’m not.  It’s sad, but not surprising.

As readers here no doubt know already, the Flea is on trial in a med mal case for the death of a child.  That a child died is, of course, sad, but hardly indicative of med mal in and of itself.  On the other hand, it doesn’t mean that no medical malpractice occurred.  The outcome does not prove the fault. 

Lawyers realize this, unless of course they are blinded by bias.  But what the fans of the Flea have proven is that doctors, supposedly strong in the analytical approach, are as blinded by self-interested bias as, say, cops (see, I’ve tied this into my general theme).  Physicians have blindly supported the Flea in droves, despite the fact that they know absolutely nothing about the facts other than they like the Flea’s blog.  Is it possible that a guy who writes a fun and interesting blog can commit malpractice?  Absolutely.  What does one thing have to do with another? 

Now I would take no issue with any doc providing words of encouragement to a perceived “friend”, albeit a virtual one, during a trying time.  But that’s not where these supporters go.  No, they are certain, and indeed quite zealous, in their absolute belief that the Flea could never commit malpractice.  No, no, no.  No way could the Flea be wrong!

Is the Flea wrong?  How in the world would I know?  I know nothing about the case.  But neither do the docs.

Non-physicians generally want to belief in the Marcus Welby syndrome.  Doctors are healers.  They are kind and wonderful people who have dedicated their lives to alleviating the pain and suffering of their patients.  We believe this because we need to believe it.  We need to believe that there is someone out there who can help us.  So far, so good.  We also need to believe that docs can cure anything and everything, because the opposite is too difficult to accept.  We reject the notion that there is pain and suffering that cannot be fixed.  We choose to reject that notion so that we can sleep at night.  That’s a pretty heavy burden for docs to bear.  So they don’t.

Physicians realize pretty early that they cannot fix everything.  And once that is beaten into their heads, they become steeled to the idea that they cannot collapse in frustration and empathy when their skills prove lacking.  It happens.  It will happen again.  Get over it.  This is the only healthy approach.

So hardened are they to the limits of doctorkind that they can jump to the Island of Conclusion when their good buddy Flea is on trial.  The real jury of his peers has found him not guilty.  No facts needed.  Case closed.  Unfortunately, the Flea will still have to suffer the decision of 12 mere mortals. 

And so, the physicians have revealed, courtesy of the anonymity of the internet, their true feelings.  They will circle the wagons and protect their own against the enemy patient, and the archenemy lawyer, when their supremacy is challenged.  Does this make us admire you all the more, doctor?  Or does this make you as mundane as, say, a cop?  It appears that all of us have far more in common than you want to admit.