Initial Perspectives For Professionals – Attorneys

I learned early on about the 'mother’s milk' of cross examiners in injury cases to ask a non-surgical testifying physician, “Dr… you’re not an orthopedic surgeon, (or neurosurgeon)are you?”  with just enough invective to remind the jury members what is already almost certainly their own conviction – that the surgeons are the masters. But once I understood, I made the attorneys cringe when I responded that while I wasn’t a surgeon, the problem wasn’t surgical, and since I was an acknowledged expert in the non-surgical aspects of orthopedics – which is about 80% of orthopedics – I was the authority.

I relate this for practical purpose as I seek some equivalence here for an issue that I desire you consider. The law is easily used with cynicism, yet it has also produced some of the most sociologically beneficial changes through punitive damages for callousness in product liability failures when nothing else did. 

The perception of “soft tissue injury” became a legal pejorativethe through obeisance to the orthopedic surgical assertion that if musculoskeletal conditions do not comply to their diagnostic criteria then they essentially do not exist. While that pillar is slowly dissolving, the law lags, and the damage it has afflicted for many decades is certainly reason for a long overedue reconsideration. This site, especially Release From Pain, are dedicated to that need.

The application of knowledge of clinical biomechanics shreds the basis of litigation as it has been historically practiced under the guidelines of orthopedic surgical influence. An example came from Canada. I had lectured in the Midwest, and a Canadian physician was impressed and sent one of his patients to me in California. The man had been injured. He had persisting symptoms. The examinations hadn’t explained them. The neurological deficits and biomechanical dysfunctions involved his upper cervical spine, what I termed an “invisible area.” The findings were consistent with his complaints. I repeat: The finding were consistent with his complaints! Not somebody's writing, or attitude, or prejudice - the patient's complaints. I was able to convince with my report, and the case was satisfactorily settled. He was fortunate among the masses who are regularly discarded because ‘something doesn’t show on the x-ray.’

At the same time, the law, particularly in workers compensation (at least in California) went down a near psychotic road in some of its conclusions that may be valuable for you to visit in Release From Pain. I wrote my book as a legacy for the restoration of sound medicine. I trust it will be used appropriately often enough.

Be well,

PHG