Paid opinion

The Internet never forgets

In many medical-malpractice cases, a hospital will pay a doctor to testify as an expert that the hospital was not responsible for the death or injury.  Some of these doctors will say almost anything for the big fee, such as stating that members of a nursing staff did not deviate from the standard of care when they ignored both a physician's written orders and the hospital's printed protocol for treating hypoglycemia.

That's what Dr. Matthew C. Leinung said  in an affidavit for Samaritan Hospital in Troy, NY  in my lawsuit over death of my wife, Lisa, in 2003 after what is now called a 'never event'.  The judge - who had made  no effort to hide his sympathy for the hospital - accepted that opinion and dismissed my claims.

Despite his unusual name, Leinung apparently thought he could hide; his list of qualifications left out the preceding 12 years of his career - during which he worked just 12 miles from us at Albany Medical Center Hospital.

Here is a story I posted on my blog in 2008 about Leinung's paid opinion.   With that post is a link to a follow-up piece I wrote in 2009, pointing out that on the Internet, your past never goes away.

Read it HERE

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