Resuscitation. (The Goodness of America).

According to the American Medical Association (AMA), at least a dozen states currently face serious medical liability crises, largely fueled by an ultra-litigious cultural mind-set and jury awards jumping by more than 70 percent (to an average of $3.5 million) between 1995 and 2000. Medical malpractice insurance rates have kept pace with the ominous trend, forcing more and more physicians to retire early rather than continue coping with metastasizing annual premiums. In Ohio, one of the states on the AMA's dire-straits list, the top eight insurers raised their medical malpractice rates by 52 percent this year alone.

In late July, Dr. Romeo Diaz, a surgical oncologist in Westlake, Ohio, reluctantly informed his patients and staff that he was retiring (at age 60) due to his soaring liability insurance bill. Two years ago, the premium was $26,000. Last year, it jumped to $46,000. This year, it rocketed to $83,000, due by August 7th.

Kathy Fritsch of Vermilion has been a patient of Dr. Diaz since 1993, when she began fighting the first of two bouts with breast cancer. She describes him as "a man who I feel saved my life twice." She recently made an appointment after noticing a lump near her rib cage. When she arrived at Dr. Diaz's office on July 29th, she immediately felt that something was wrong, since some patients appeared to have been crying and the staff was less cheery than usual.

Happily, the lump she had noticed turned out to be nothing more than fatty tissue. Her relief turned to dejection, however, when Dr. Diaz, with "a tear in his eye," told her that he was closing his practice.

As reported in the September 2nd issue of the AMA newspaper American Medical News "Fritsch didn't want to lose her physician, so she rallied Dr. Diaz's other patients for a common cause: They would raise $40,000 to cover the insurance increase and keep their doctor from retiring." Fritsch began contacting the news media and made the first contribution ($100) to the ...