Contracts for Silence

          When does an act become a crime? When a law is broken. And how does our Court system deal with that crime? Why, when it comes to a law broken by a doctor, they usually ignore and bury it. They are nearly always successful. In issues of medical malpractice that enter the criminal realm, the Courts have become full partners with the doctors and the hospitals in covering up medical misdeeds that are far more serious than simple negligence. And, with the complicity of the Courts and healthcare system, rarely does the victim know that a crime has been committed
           Recently three of CMS’s founding members spent the day in Court. That is what we do. A brilliant oral argument was delivered to 5 presiding Appellate Court Judges by one of our members, describing how a law was broken, New York State Mental Health Law §33.04. The Law regarding restraints is now also a Federal Law. The Law states that restraints must never be used if there are other alternatives. The son of our 2 members was shackled in clear violation of that Law without Informed Consent while withdrawing from a prescribed medication. As a result of this criminal act, their 23 year old son died. The hospital, the internationally known medical monolith known as Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in the City of New York, brought out their big guns, their lawyers, to offer a Contract for Silence that included removing the parent’s very descriptive website of their case against the hospital. The hospital sure didn’t want this story to get out. The Court had placed the grieving parents under such duress with subtle and not so subtle threats that they signed the contract. In short order, they realized they could not be silent about the crime and cover-up and so refused to accept the money, no small sum for their silence for this horrific crime. Nine years have gone by and these friends have carried their passion for Justice from Court to Court and appeal to appeal, pro se. They represent themselves and their son, spending endless hours and days in the law library in their quest for Justice. They have learned well how to navigate the legal system for they are unique. Five judges had no answers to the issue of the breaking of the Law and then the cover-up. If there is Justice, why did this Court not take action and do the right thing? The Court should have removed that portion of the settlement that required silence, and still awarded the parents reparation money. But they did not.
          What the Court has said in essence is that doctors are not held accountable unless it can be proven that they shot someone and are caught doing so with the hot smoking gun in their hand.
          If the Judges had made the right decision and done the right thing, it would have led to major changes in the current medical malpractice system. The Public would only benefit and be better protected. Gag orders that violate our First Amendment Right of Free Speech would be eliminated. To speak out about such injustices would help to stop them and shame the perpetrators. Now the parents will wait for still another response from the next higher Court.
          If ever a case should make its way to the Supreme Court it’s this one, a landmark case for it highlights First Amendment Rights abuse and the lack of Due Process. These abuses that occur under the cover of Law are complicit in the death of literally tens of thousands of lives from medical malpractice. When you click on to a copy of the Court papers (http://www.med-malpractice.com/appealsintro.htm) you will see why a major hospital wanted to shut down the case and the website. The two parents, our founding members, are an M.D. and a Nutritionist and they couldn’t save their son from the sickness infesting our healthcare system.

HOSPITALS AND THEIR DOCTORS CANNOT REMAIN EXEMPT FROM THE LAW. AND SO, UNTIL CHANGE COMES, WE WILL REMAIN "SHOCKED AND AWED" AND EVEN MORE.