NorthJersey.com Letters to the editor
Thursday, June 19, 2003

In a June 11 speech in Chicago, President Bush asked for limits on compensation in medical malpractice cases, calling such lawsuits "junk."

My life has been ruined by senseless medical malpractice that happened during my mother's delivery - the umbilical cord prolapsed during labor, requiring a Caesarean delivery that was not performed.

For more than 25 years, I have lived with cerebral palsy. I did not file a "junk" lawsuit and certainly wouldn't compare my settlement to a "jackpot." The damages I settled on in my lawsuit for were a mere fraction of the amount I deserved based on everything I have endured and will continue to endure, both physically and emotionally throughout my life.

Every penny of this small settlement is going toward the services and care I need so that I am not a financial burden to my parents or the state. Before I settled this lawsuit, my parents had to fight their insurance company for me to have surgeries to walk and have some kind of an independent life. They paid for most of my services out of their own pockets.

I do not want to see any more children be injured by doctors, yet I understand the public's fear of "striking doctors." However, medical malpractice is the problem, not the amount of damages being paid out by juries.

The key to lowering premiums is stopping the malpractice to begin with, not limiting the amount of damages a victim can receive and certainly not amending the statute of limitations.

Justin Mattes

Woodcliff Lake, June 12