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medpundit |
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Friday, September 19, 2003A trust responsible for distributing a multibillion-dollar legal settlement to people who took a potentially harmful diet drug sued a cardiologist Thursday, claiming she diagnosed thousands of people as being ill without properly evaluating their health. The suit, filed by the AHP Settlement Trust, accuses Dr. Linda J. Crouse of turning her Kansas City, Mo.-area practice into an 'assembly line.' The suit said Crouse improperly certified people who had taken the drugs Pondimin and Redux as suffering from valvular heart disease. ....In many cases, the suit claims, Crouse took only a few minutes to evaluate echocardiograms and she rarely met patients in person, reviewed their medical records or took a medical history. It said that for 11 months of work, Crouse was paid $3.2 million by law firms representing people who hoped to win a share of the $3.75 billion settlement paid by American Home Products, the company now known as Wyeth that made the medications used in the fen-phen diet drug cocktail. During that time, the trust claims, Crouse signed 2,500 certificates, dubbed "green forms," designating that a person could participate in the settlement. That's a welcome move. Making dubious diagnoses for class action suits is becoming a bit of a cottage industry in medicine. Asbestos is the worse. Several of my patients have come in saying that they've been diagnosed with asbestosis by "the union's lawyer's doctor." Needless to say, neither the union, nor the lawyer, nor the doctor ever share their findings with me, even when asked. And not one case has been confirmed by our local pulmonologist when I've referred them on. That is if they'll let me. Some of them don't want to have a second opinion - don't want to miss that payout. (That's not to say I haven't had cases of asbestosis. But curiously, all of my asbestosis cases were not diagnosed by lawyers.) posted by Sydney on 9/19/2003 08:31:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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