So this isn’t a criminal law matter, but it’s just too darn funny to pass up.   Eric Turkewitz (of the Park Avenue Turkewitzes) posts about the birth of a fish story.

On a blog called ER Stories, an anonymous individual who calls himself an emergency room doctor in the northeast sets forth this set of facts, but without a single link or method of authentication:

A woman comes into the ER with a claim of a fish bone stuck in her throat, and has an x-ray. The radiologist says its an osteophyte, a small bit of bone. So she gets scoped two days later and, lo and behold, a fish bone comes out, not an osteophyte.

Now the good part, our anonymous doctor continues the story with the good stuff:

A few weeks later, all three doctors get the dreaded “, esq” singed letter – they are being sued for missing the bone. Now, here is the ridiculous part. Her suffering? Severe pain? Infections? Scarring? Worse? No, SHE SUED BECAUSE SHE COULD NO LONGER PERFORM ORAL SEX! Yes, that is right.

And why shouldn’t she, though it would seem that the consortium claim would have been worth more.  One might think physicians are entirely unfamiliar with “benefits” of oral sex. 

But the problem, as this story made the grand rounds of the doctor blogs as part of their proof of the evils of medical malpractice, is that there was nothing to show that this ever happened.

[T]he original story has no case name, no documents or docket number, nor even a state where this allegedly happened.

The original author responded to the challenge of the unsourced material in the comments of Kevin’s blog, in order to “authenticate” the story, with this whopper:

Actually I posted this story. I heard it first hand from a physician (who works with me) who was a partner with the doctor that was sued. He knew the details as they unfolded. Unless he was lying through his teeth to me, it is how it happened.

This was a much better story without the explanation.  Nonetheless, it is painfully clear to me that physicians are either particularly gullible or have no appreciation of the importance of human sexuality.  In either case, this just goes to show that criminal defense lawyers don’t get all the good cases.  Or all the fish stories.