I am a victim of medical malpractice. I have cerebral palsy because my mother's obstetrician committed malpractice in the way he handled my mother's labor when I was born in 1978. All the physical problems that you can see I have today are because of that obstetrician's terrible error. My parents did not want to bring a malpractice suit against the doctor who delivered me.

Filing a malpractice suit was one of the biggest steps I have ever made in my life. The way I looked at it, if I got any monies from the lawsuit it would be for things I needed to live a somewhat independent life so that I would not have to be a burden on my parents or the State. These things include:

1. A computer so I could seek gainful employment
2. A desk so I have the proper space so I can do my work
3. Motorized scooters and walkers to assist me in traveling long distances

I found out eighteen years later that I could file a lawsuit against the doctor who delivered me. The defendant doctor only had a $500,000 malpractice insurance policy at the time when I was born. The doctor agreed that the case should be settled for the policy limits. If you considered the rate of inflation, this settlement is worth $100,000 in 1978 dollars! If you consider what I have had to live with for over a quarter of a century, I doubt anyone would call this "jackpot justice". If the obstetrician has a one million dollar insurance policy, he would have ended up having to agree to settle for a million dollars. That amount is still not sufficient to compensate me for what I have suffered in the last 25 years, much less the rest of my life. This obstetrician should have been required to have insurance with a limit higher than one million dollars because injuries like mine are far too common a result of medical malpractice. The obstetrician had retired to Florida, where his assets were protected against any judgment I could obtain against him.

My understanding is that the Board of Medical Examiners exists to protect the public, and patients specifically, from physicians who are not competent, are drug-addicted, are abusive to patients, are crooked, or are otherwise a danger to the public. The role of the Board of Medical Examiners should not be to somehow offer protection or immunity to physicians from the public that those physicians have an obligation to treat with care. Before deciding to reduce the minimum amount of liability insurance the physicians must purchase in this state, please consider whether there is any testimony presented to this Board that would suggest that somehow the economic cost of caring for someone who is catastrophically injured because of medical malpractice like me has not increased over the last 10 years since this Board last changed the minimum amount of insurance that physicians must carry to one million dollars. There is no question that this economic cost has substantially increased in the last 10 years. Therefore, this Board cannot reduce the amount of liability insurance coverage for physicians below one million dollars without such a reduction constituting a complete failure of the Board's obligation to protect the public from dangerous physicians.

The act of reducing the amount of liability coverage that a physician must purchase can only be seen as an attempt by the Board of Medical Examiners to give an economic benefit to fellow physicians at the expense of the patients injured by those physicians. The Board of Medical Examiners is not a mutual benefit society of physicians. This Board is supposed to be policing the ranks of physicians to restrain those doctors who are likely to harm their patients. The only issue before this Board should be whether to increase the minimum amount of liability insurance to be carried by physicians and how to reduce the amount of malpractice that is committed by this state's physicians.

As for ways to reduce the cost of medical malpractice insurance, the only way for this Board to influence the cost of malpractice insurance is to more strictly police the individuals in this state that have been granted a license by this Board to practice medicine. Limiting the practice of those doctors who repeatedly injure patients and requiring the appropriate medical re-education of any doctor who commits malpractice will reduce the cost of insurance while providing greater protection to the public. The less malpractice that is committed, the lower the cost of malpractice insurance, and patients will be safer as a result.It is always assumed that people without physical disabilities have a decent amount of intelligence. When people first meet me, they assume that I am mentally retarded. Since my speech is greatly affected it takes me a bit longer to get the point across that I do have some kind of intelligence! Children come up to me and ask what happened to me. I have had to explain CP to them and sometimes even their parents. You haven�t the slightest clue what it feels like. I have been teased so many times in my life for something I have no control over. Some people have compared it to racial profiling, but unfortunately, Cerebral Palsy isn�t only skin deep. Talking over the phone to someone who isn�t familiar with my speech is nearly impossible. I always enjoy telling people about the time my scooter broke down and when I tried to call the police for assistance, the dispatcher thought I was a prank caller.

Living with Cerebral Palsy is like receiving a life sentence for a crime I didn�t commit. I can�t do things other young men can do, like shave myself. I have to have one of my parents shave me, which is always hard for them because of my uncontrolled movement. Cerebral Palsy is funny because the more I try to control my body, the more it moves around. You wouldn�t believe the amount of energy it takes just for me to dress myself in the morning! I need to ask for help whenever I have to wear a suit or even a tie. Whenever I want to go somewhere, I have to rely on somebody else, usually my parents, to drive me. This was ok when I was young, but I am twenty-five now and am desperately seeking more independence even though I know I will never get it.

Lowering the minimum amount of malpractice insurance to below one million dollars would take away the only opportunity that a person like me, who has suffered permanent disability because of a doctor's malpractice, has to live a life with some amount of independence and to enjoy some of the normal dignities of life most people take for granted.

Thank you for your time.