Jeanette Johnson suffered a bile duct injury<\/a> while having her gall bladder removed in 2002. When she returned to the hospital a month later, Portage County surgeon Randall Smith reportedly held her hand and apologized for the complications she was suffering.<\/p>\n \u201cI take full responsibility for this,” he allegedly stated. “Everything will be okay.”<\/p>\n Later that year, Johnson filed a medical malpractice lawsuit<\/a> in which she admitted Smith’s statement as evidence of his negligence. When she dropped the lawsuit in 2006 and refiled it in 2007, she lost that right.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n September 13, 2004, Ohio enacted the “medical apology statute,” which states that a doctor’s apology cannot be used against him in court.<\/p>\n \u201cPhysicians are and should be sympathetic and empathetic. Fear of future legal action shouldn’t impede that,\u201d Dr. William Wulf, medical director of Central Ohio Primary Care, told the Columbus Dispatch<\/em>.<\/p>\n Johnson filed an appeal, and the 11th District Court of Appeals ruled that Smith’s (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jeanette Johnson suffered a bile duct injury while having her gall bladder removed in 2002. When she returned to the hospital a month later, Portage County surgeon Randall Smith reportedly held her hand and apologized for the complications she was…<\/span><\/p>\n