Courting Justice: ENT Surgeons in the Witness Box

Once relationships are formed, the offers tend to come. “You do one case, then word gets out, and your name gets suggested,” Dr. Postma said. “I’ve done lots of cases for the same groups of attorneys. If things go well and you have a good relationship with a given team, then you’re likely to be contacted for something again in the future.” He enjoys the challenge and likens it to detective work. “It may sound odd, but it’s kind of fun in that you get to go through the facts and figure out exactly what happened and what was the thought process of given individuals,” he said. “Sometimes there are interesting surprises when you do that. I’ve found things that were previously missed.”

Dr. Wei was drawn into expert witness work partly out of “curiosity and a desire to learn about the legal system, as we physicians have no training in this whatsoever,” and partly due to her own experiences of being named in lawsuits, once as an intern and twice as an attending. “Regardless of ‘fault,’ if a patient is injured, or even if a lawsuit and claim are unfounded, we physicians and surgeons are not prepared to endure such an emotionally and potentially professionally devastating experience, which is so prevalent in the U.S.,” she said. “I also wanted to learn what I can do better as a surgeon, what exactly constitutes medical negligence, and what system-based issues and personal practice patterns put patients in harm’s way.”

A pediatric otolaryngologist, Dr. Wei served on her first legal case in 2010. “A law firm reached out, and I was retained as an expert witness for the plaintiff side,” she said. “A healthy child had undergone T&A [tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy] at a surgery center, then went home and bled to death. Despite my over-busy schedule, I spent many nights and weekends reviewing every detail of the case. As the highest volume surgeon at a university outpatient surgery center, I was motivated to understand these details and compare them with my own experience and observations. Providing my assessment and expert opinion about what was considered standard of care, our practice guidelines, involvement with national societies, and working with colleagues across the country, I garnered a wealth of information—while I grieved the reality that we simply don’t talk enough about risks and complications in ‘routine’ cases.”

Navigating the Legal World