Extort Reform

My cell contact list reminds me of one of George W. Bush's report cards. There are many "D"s.

Doctor Connolly*. Doctor Gredlein. Doctor Jacobs. Doctor Lemma. Doctor Parris. Doctor Rastogi.

(* - the greatest eye doctor in the whole wide world!)

The list goes on and on.

Dr Rastogi is a man who went to so many schools and training courses in the field of medicine that he knows just exactly where to insert needles into the nerve masses surrounding my spine.

Trust me, there are many more enjoyable things to do while horizontal than to have that done, but it's what we are trying to do to obviate surgery. Results are yet to be seen, but all the people involved are making great efforts to help, and I appreciate it.

And as I always like to do, I appreciate getting to meet so many new people in this medical endeavor. So the other day while I was in the holding cell I mean pre-op suite at the Spine Center, I got to talking to a fellow patient. It turns out that Peggy was out in the reception area talking to his wife all the while. Their story is that he was hit broadside by another car last October and he has not been able to work since. He has lost his job, they have had to dip into their savings to scoop out money to live on, and he is in constant pain. They have kids and tuition payments and car payments and a mortgage and only one paycheck coming in.

The car that hit him drove right through a STOP sign to do so, so the fault lies clearly in the hands of the other motorist. Still, the guy says he feels bad for her and what this might do to her financially - except, as he put it, when he is lying on that gurney and the doctor is spiking needles into his back. Then, the pity ebbs away faster than Cheney supporters at a gun-control rally.

The fella told me that he has engaged an attorney and just hopes to recoup the losses he has sustained...he needs a new truck, and his lost wages, and he deserves to be made whole for the money they have put out from savings and investments. He previously did work that involved lots of lifting and moving around; he has been told he can not go back to that sort of work, so he will need occupational therapy and training for a whole new career.

My takeaway from all this, besides the fact that people really need to stop for stop signs, is to contrast his real pain and suffering with the crazy lawsuits that you read about all the time...people who burn their tongue on coffee, get hit in the face with a hot dog tossed to them by a ballpark vendor, people who get scared during a theater performance and then need a hundred million dollars to soothe their souls, now that they have lost their libidos to this incident and are unable to carry on in their accustomed connubial manner. People will break their necks to get into court over just about any silly suits like those. How about a just recompense for someone who was just trying to get to work one morning and a careless fellow citizen just about broke his neck?