I contacted Todd C. Case, MD, a plastic surgeon in Tucson, AZ because I needed an expert witness for a medical malpractice case. I was suing a doctor in the San Francisco area because he operated on more than a dozen of the wrong parts of my body, including the wrong leg. I couldn't find a bay area doctor willing to testify against this butcher, so I had to go out of state. Before I paid Dr. Case, I specifically asked him if he would be willing to testify against this doctor if he found from the medical file that what this guy did was malpractice. Case said yes. So I sent him $500 along with the complete medical records.

Case sent me a letter saying that it appeared that this doctor had operated on my right inner thigh without consent. That's it. I called Case and asked him, what about the other 18 parts? He wouldn't give me a direct answer. I asked him about the X's this idiot carved into my hips for no reason and without my consent. I asked him what about the damage to my knees , also operated on without reason or consent. I asked him about the dents on my right outer thigh, back of thighs, the chunks of my body missing from my hips and calves, all without reason or consent. I sent Case a letter, I left messages on his voicemail, telling him I needed his statement to pursue the medical malpractice case. I told him I would be willing to fly to Tucson if he needed to examine me in person. I reminded him that he had agreed to give me an unbiased assessment of my medical records, and I told him I was broke, having lost my business because I was so depressed over what that doctor had done to me. I couldn't afford to hire another expert, and I was up against the deadline to declare an expert witness to the court. No response. I then left a message telling him that if he wasn't going to give me the rest of the report that I wanted my money back - that he was essentially stealing money from me, someone who had been the victim of battery, which is what it is called when a doctor operates on the wrong parts.

But apparently Dr. Case didn't care. I never heard from him. Either he thinks that operating on 19 of the wrong parts is OK, or he decided that he didn't want to testify against a well-connected, powerful, wealthy doctor. This "code of silence" among doctors is well known.

I lost the medical malpractice case because I didn't have an expert witness, thanks to what Dr. Case did to me. I have almost constant pain in my knees, and I don't have full use of them. They were perfect before that disastrous surgery. I am currently recovering from 8 hours of surgery to try to fix that doctor's numerous mistakes. I will still need at least one more surgery, and there are no guarantees that I will ever be back to normal again. I will never be compensated for my injuries, which will probably effect me for the rest of my life. Do you really want to have a doctor operate on you who considers that staying on good terms with other doctors is more important than helping a badly injured patient? I think one should consider a doctor's ethics, or lack thereof, when choosing a doctor.

Do you really want to have a doctor operate on you who considers that protecting a bad doctor is more important than helping a badly injured patient? I think one should consider a doctor's ethics, or lack thereof, when choosing a doctor.