Jun 1, 2007
Dr. Flea, Pediatrician blogs his own med-mal suit, learns the perils
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By: lukegilman | Other Posts by lukegilman Go to Comments | Be the First to Comment |
A month or two ago I stumbled on the blog of Dr. Flea, a pediatrician in the north east who was being sued for failing to diagnose a condition one of his young patients later died of. Medblogs are among the most interesting I find, primarily because the information they impart is exactly what blogs are good at, creating a window on a point of view we would never get to see otherwise. What made it interesting is that Dr. Flea was liveblogging his own litigation, discussing his experience, how he felt, his attorney, the plaintiff, even strategy. It was a rare, fascinating glimpse at a seldom seen human element of medical malpractice, the doctors being sued.
Then it was gone just as quickly as it came (just as I was working up a post on it, annoyingly) - the last few posts discussed the advisability of blogging so intimately about ongoing litigation in which one is a party. Then poof - it was gone.
The Boston Globe fills us in with the backstory - Blogger unmasked, court case upended:
Shortly before the end of his second day on the witness stand, while focusing on Lindeman’s views of a pediatric textbook, Mulvey asked him whether he had a medical blog, she recalled. He said he did. Then she asked him if he was Flea. He said he was.
The exchange may have been lost on jurors, but Meyer said Mulvey had telegraphed that she was ready to share Lindeman’s blog — containing his unvarnished views of lawyers, jurors, and the legal process — with the jury.
The next day, the case was settled.
Oops. More on the fallout.
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