I am asking the court to increase the statute of limitations of medical malpractice until the age of 18 for a minor.

My son was injured by a negligent doctor; however, the laws for medical malpractice in Louisiana are some of the strictest (if not strictest) in the nation. Other states allow a child to sue until the age of eighteen if they are permanently damaged by the hands of a doctor, but we do not have that protection here in Louisiana. We are to file within one year, but even if you know something is wrong and you try to file, you do not have a case if another doctor will not go against the previous doctor in court. This was the problem we encountered when our son was violated by a doctor.

I will tell you a very short summary of my story:

My son was mutilated by my OB/GYN while he performed a circumcision. The doctor removed almost all of his shaft skin while leaving the foreskin. The doctor was in a rush and did not listen to our concerns about a hydrocele and did not administer Tylenol nor lidocaine as requested. The doctor also broke infection control regulations by allowing his wife and toddler daughter into the circumcision room as well. The aftermath of this rash  decision has caused our family immense pain for years and no protection from the law.
We visited multiple urologists who said to wait until he was two to see if he would "outgrow" his retracted penis, even though we kept saying he was not like this before the circumcision.  

It was only a few days after the three year statute of limitations passed that a doctor would finally acknowledge that the doctor who did my son's circumcision was negligent and that he would need surgery. When I called the lawyer I had spoken to before, he said that even though I had contacted him before the three year statute of limitations was over, another doctor would not claim that the previous doctor was wrong until after the statute of limitations, meaning we had no case. I wonder how many kids and adults have had the run around to prevent lawsuits? I wonder how many children and adults have been hurt by the hands of a doctor with no protection?

After 6 years of trying to get help for my son and trying to find a doctor who felt he could do surgery to fix my son, we finally found one. The next battle was finding the money to pay for this expensive surgery and fixing the damage to his self esteem. We had  to personally raise the money to pay for his corrective surgery, since the law did not protect my son.

No family should be go through the torture we went through. My son cried from the physical pain of not having shaft skin, his psyche was damaged from being different, my son still has issues with people seeing him naked or getting dressed around people, my family has spent thousands of dollars and thousands of hours trying to help my son due to a doctor's negligence and no one should be pushed away from the so called system that is supposed to be there to protect victims, not doctors.

When I wrote the medical board of Louisiana, they said the doctor did not do anything negligent. I wonder if that is how they would feel if that was their son? How would you feel if your son could not urinate properly? If your son could never have a sexual relationship? If your son might not ever have children because of a doctor's negligence? Even the woman who receives the complaints at the Medical Board called me and said she was extremely sorry after reading our story and that she could not imagine if this happened to one of her son's, but the actual board found nothing negligent. That means no one will ever see on his record what he did to my son and he could potentially do this to other children, if he hasn't already.
Can you honestly say you felt my son received justice? I think we all know he did not and I do not want this to happen to any other family!

Did you also know that if you find scissors left in you after surgery, but you are past the statute of limitations, you cannot sue?! How is that fair for the patient/victim?

Louisiana needs to change its barbaric laws and start protecting the citizens of Louisiana.

Protect the people of Louisiana by increasing the statute of limitations!



 Louisiana laws:

 A medical malpractice action for injury or death must be filed within one year from the date of the alleged act, omission, or neglect, or within one year from the date of discovery of the alleged act, omission, or neglect. La. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 9:5628 (West Supp. 1997). In no event may such claims be filed more than three years from the date of the alleged act, omission, or neglect. Id. In Whitnell v. Silverman, 686 So. 2d 23 (La. 1996), the Louisiana Supreme Court overruled a lower court holding that the three-year period was unconstitutional. However, it declined to consider whether the statute might be unconstitutional if applied to bar a lawsuit by a person with a disease with a latency period of more that three years, because plaintiff did not have such a disease and so lacked standing to raise the argument.

A wrongful death action must be brought within one year from the death of the decedent. La. Civ. Code Ann. art. 2315.2 (West 1997). There is conflict among the appellate courts over whether § 9:5628 applies to wrongful death cases involving medical malpractice. Taylor v. Giddens, 618 So. 2d 834 (La. 1993).

The limitations period for minors and incompetents is the same as that for competent adults. La. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 9:5628 (West Supp. 1997); La. Civ. Code Ann. arts. 3467 and 3468 (West 1994).