This collection of 19 provocatively titled stories presents dramatic encounters in what Klawans calls the arena of adversarial law, the battlefield of winning and losing. Each depicts a patient as a victim of an improper diagnosis or treatment: a pregnant woman's dehydration is mistreated with excessive glucose, which locks her into a permanent coma; a 62-year-old woman is convinced by a neurosurgeon that immediate surgery is the only means of avoiding a stroke, then suffers one as the result of the surgery; a meek, family ...
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This collection of 19 provocatively titled stories presents dramatic encounters in what Klawans calls the arena of adversarial law, the battlefield of winning and losing. Each depicts a patient as a victim of an improper diagnosis or treatment: a pregnant woman's dehydration is mistreated with excessive glucose, which locks her into a permanent coma; a 62-year-old woman is convinced by a neurosurgeon that immediate surgery is the only means of avoiding a stroke, then suffers one as the result of the surgery; a meek, family-oriented, overworked attorney is charged with killing a young girl, apparently in his sleep. In each of the cases he presents, Klawans illustrates that asking the right questions is as critical in the practice of medicine as it is in the practice of law.
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