Re: Reading X-Rays In Asbestos Suits Enriched Doctor
From: Dean Huffman . (dean@thehuffpeople.net)
Wed Nov 30 20:26:27 2005
..
Is the opinion available on the internet?
Dean Huffman
- - - -
Quoting zygote@icsi.net: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 20:00:51 -0600
> the original opinion is from the south Texas fed court and the opinion is 258
> pp or so
> long and little kicks posterior of P atty for their frivolous suits etc.
> Certainly Harron was
> vital cog in the process. For that loss of licensure is appropriate cure.
>
> On 29 Nov 2005 at 9:21, Dean Huffman . wrote:
>
> Date sent: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:21:30 -0600
> Send reply to: ob-gyn-l@obgyn.net
> From: "Dean Huffman ." <dean@thehuffpeople.net>
> To: Multiple recipients of list OB-GYN-L
> <ob-gyn-l@dns.obgyn.net>
> Subject: Reading X-Rays In Asbestos Suits Enriched Doctor
>
> > .
> >
> > Reading X-Rays in Asbestos Suits Enriched Doctor
> >
> > NY Times, November 29, 2005
> >
> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/29/business/29asbestos.html?hp&ex=1133326800&e
> n²c1654b6cafb25e&eiP94&partner=homepage
> >
> > BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. - About a decade ago, a radiologist in this small town
> > gradually stopped seeing patients and instead adopted what turned out to be
> a
> > much more lucrative practice: reading X-rays full time.
> >
> > Skip to next paragraph
> >
> > Dr. Ray A. Harron, a physician, stopped seeing patients over the last
> decade.
> > Instead, he made a lucrative business of interpreting X-rays.
> >
> > Rand Corporation Report on the History of Asbestos Litigation (pdf)
> >
> > Testimony of Ray A. Harron The doctor, Ray A. Harron, now 73 years old,
> reviewed
> > as many as 150 X-rays a day, or one every few minutes, and produced
> medical
> > reports for $125 each. Some of his reports supported claims by more than
> 75,000
> > people seeking compensation for lung injury caused by inhalation of
> asbestos.
> > For his work, he probably earned millions of dollars over the years.
> >
> > Plaintiffs' lawyers who have used Dr. Harron's services recently did not
> return
> > phone calls seeking comment. But in the eyes of defense lawyers fighting
> some
> > of those claims, Dr. Harron was not a professional rendering an
> independent
> > opinion, but a vital cog in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit machine. They
> contend
> > that Dr. Harron's X-ray evaluations are unreliable at best, fraudulent at
> > worst.
> >
> > The defense lawyers are not the only ones who have questioned Dr. Harron's
> work.
> > This summer, a federal judge found that Dr. Harron "failed to write, read,
> or
> > personally sign" reports supporting 6,350 claims by people saying they had
> > inhaled silica, another potentially dangerous material.
> >
> > Congressional investigators are now looking into asbestos and silica
> litigation.
> > Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are also looking into asbestos claims,
> and
> > while it is not clear whether they are looking at Dr. Harron's work, they
> have
> > sought documents from a medical screening company that used his services
> and
> > from others involved in asbestos and related litigation.
> >
> > Dr. Harron has not been formally accused of wrongdoing. In depositions and
> court
> > appearances he has not acknowledged any wrongdoing and has defended his
> work.
> >
> > The spotlight on Dr. Harron's work comes at a time when critics of
> plaintiffs'
> > lawyers have portrayed the sweeping product liability litigation over
> asbestos
> > and silica as an effort to game a system set up to compensate injured
> workers.
> > Defense lawyers have criticized expert witnesses and diagnosing doctors in
> the
> > past for supporting lawsuits that the lawyers say lack merit.
> >
> > While Dr. Harron rarely appeared in court, his medical reports were
> clearly
> > crucial to tens of thousands of claims. Court documents in the asbestos
> and
> > silica litigation show the critical role that can be played by doctors, who
> are
> > less often maligned than the lawyers who hire them.
> >
> > "This is the tip of the iceberg," said Walter G. Watkins Jr., a lawyer at
> Forman
> > Perry Watkins Krutz & Tardy, a firm in Jackson, Miss., that has defended
> > companies facing asbestos claims and silica claims. "There are a lot of
> other
> > Ray Harrons out there."
> >
> > Through a lawyer, Lawrence Goldman of New York, Dr. Harron declined to
> comment
> > for this article.
> >
> > Litigation involving asbestos, and more recently, silica, has grown into a
> huge
> > business. Over the last 30 years, more than 700,000 claims have been filed
> > involving inhalation of asbestos, a fire-retardant material that can cause
> a
> > particularly pernicious form of lung cancer, and more than $70 billion has
> been
> > spent on asbestos litigation - $49 billion as compensation, according to
> the
> > Rand Corporation.
> >
> > Dr. Harron, corporate defense lawyers say, had some role in providing
> medical
> > documents supporting thousands of claims against other companies that made
> or
> > used asbestos.
> >
> > As Dr. Harron stepped up his involvement in screening potential asbestos
> > claimants, he began to travel and was around Bridgeport less and less, said
> Dr.
> > Douglas McKinney, a urologist who said he had kept a practice in Bridgeport
> for
> > nearly 20 years. "He started doing this evaluation business and he was
> very
> > seldom around," said Dr. McKinney, adding that he saw Dr. Harron only three
> or
> > four times a year.
> >
> > But Dr. McKinney said he was baffled when he learned from a newspaper
> article of
> > challenges to some of Dr. Harron's work in asbestos and silica litigation.
> "I
> > was surprised at that, because he had always had a straightforward
> business
> > here," Dr. McKinney said. "I sent him a lot of my business for routine
> X-rays
> > and ultrasounds and such."
> >
> > Dr. Harron is not an active member of the county medical association,
> according
> > to the organization's executive secretary. A few local residents who said
> they
> > knew him and tenants in the two, two-story blue-sided office buildings he
> owns,
> > on a small plaza called Harron Square off the two-lane road that runs
> through
> > town, said only that he was a nice man.
> >
> > A 1999 court decision gives some idea of the nature of Dr. Harron's work.
> He was
> > sued by the widow of Raymond Adams, whose lung cancer Dr. Harron had
> spotted
> on
> > an X-ray. Dr. Harron, who had never met the man, drew the possible cancer
> to
> > the attention of the law firm that had sent him the X-ray as part of its
> search
> > for potential plaintiffs in asbestos lawsuits. The firm never passed on
> the
> > information to Mr. Adams, according to court documents, and his cancer
> went
> > undiagnosed for about a year. He eventually died.
> >
> > Skip to next paragraph
> > Rand Corporation Report on the History of Asbestos Litigation (pdf)
> >
> > Testimony of Ray A. Harron The court found that Dr. Harron was not Mr.
> Adams's
> > doctor and so did not have a duty to make sure he sought medical treatment.
>
> >
> > The distinction between a person's doctor and an independent litigation
> expert
> > is critical for Dr. Harron, and it is one that he has mentioned repeatedly
> in
> > depositions taken by defense lawyers over the years.
> >
> > According to the transcript of a deposition in 2004 , Dr. Harron graduated
> from
> > New York Medical College in 1957, completed an internship at the United
> States
> > Marine Hospital in New York in 1958, was a radiology resident in New
> Orleans
> > and then moved to West Virginia in 1961, where he practiced as a
> radiologist
> > for more than 30 years.
> >
> > Beginning in the mid-1990's, he stopped treating patients and began
> reading
> > X-rays and identifying possible cases of dust-related diseases. In 1994
> his
> > medical reports supported fewer than 2,000 claims to one of the oldest
> trusts
> > set up to compensate asbestos victims, the Manville trust. In the next
> year
> > that number grew to more than 6,000; he averaged about 6,400 reports each
> year
> > thereafter.
> >
> > "The dog died and the kids left home," Dr. Harron said in the 2004
> deposition.
> > "My responsibilities were over, so I kind of gave up real medical work."
> >
> > He devoted himself nearly full-time to reading X-ray films. Sometimes, Dr.
> > Harron said, he would conduct a physical examination. Usually he also
> received
> > a medical history, completed by an employee of a screening company, that
> would
> > include a statement that the person was exposed to asbestos. Dr. Harron
> said he
> > relied mostly on the X-ray review, not on the history.
> >
> > Screening companies have portable X-ray equipment that they can set up in
> hotel
> > ballrooms or in other temporary locations. Some days, Dr. Harron would
> review
> > more than 100 X-rays a day, he said during his deposition. He charged $125
> an
> > evaluation, but would also charge a flat fee - perhaps $10,000 - if he had
> to
> > travel to a faraway screening site, in California or Hawaii, for example.
> If he
> > had charged $125 per medical report for the 76,224 claims submitted to the
> > Manville trust, Dr. Harron would have made more than $9.5 million from
> those
> > claims alone.
> >
> > If Dr. Harron found the X-ray's findings were consistent with signs of
> > asbestos-related illness, he said he would dictate a report to his staff,
> who
> > would then stamp it with his signature, he said. The report, along with
> the
> > other documentation, would be provided to the law firm that had hired the
> > screening company and Dr. Harron. The law firms would file the report with
> a
> > claim seeking compensation for asbestos-related injury.
> >
> > Dr. Harron's son, Andrew Harron, a doctor in Kenosha, Wis., has also read
> > X-rays. The Manville trust announced in September that it would no longer
> pay
> > claims based on reports by Dr. Harron or his son, as well as several other
> > doctors whose work has been questioned by defense lawyers.
> >
> > Jed Stone, a lawyer for Andrew Harron, said that defense lawyers' attacks
> on
> > doctors were "an attempt by the manufacturing industries to close down"
> > litigation over diseases caused by exposure to asbestos and silica.
> >
> > "For years they settled these asbestos cases, and now they want to open
> them up
> > again," Mr. Stone said. "I don't get a do-over in my life," and neither
> should
> > the companies battling asbestos claims, he added.
> >
> > In a video recording of the 2004 deposition, the elder Dr. Harron strongly
> > rejected the suggestion that he had any incentive to find signs of
> > asbestos-related injury in the people whose X-rays he reviewed.
> >
> > "I get paid the same no matter what I say," he added.
> >
> > But Dr. Harron's credibility suffered a serious blow in the course of a
> legal
> > proceeding in Corpus Christi, Tex., before Judge Janis Graham Jack of
> Federal
> > District Court.
> >
> > Dr. Harron testified about his diagnoses of silicosis, a lung disease
> caused by
> > exposure to silica, a hard, glassy mineral used as a cleaning abrasive as
> well
> > as in making glass, paint, ceramics and other materials. The doctor's
> diagnoses
> > supported thousands of claims filed against companies that manufactured or
> used
> > silica.
> >
> > Judge Jack wrote that the diagnoses relied on X-rays and on medical
> histories
> > taken by screening companies or law firms, not on physical examinations, as
> the
> > reports under his name claimed.
> >
> > Most disturbing, though, was another finding by the judge. "When Dr.
> Harron
> > first examined 1,807 plaintiffs' X-rays for asbestos litigation," Judge
> Jack
> > wrote, "he found them all to be consistent only with asbestosis and not
> with
> > silicosis." But after re-examining X-rays of the same 1,807 people "for
> silica
> > litigation, Dr. Harron found evidence of silicosis in every case."
> >
> > It is possible for someone to have developed both diseases as a result of
> > working in a place where both silica and asbestos were used. But both
> illnesses
> > generally take years to manifest themselves, so it is unlikely that
> someone
> > could develop signs of silicosis that were not discernible on an X-ray just
> a
> > few years earlier. The diagnoses "were manufactured for money," the judge
> wrote
> > last summer in an opinion that sent some claims back to state courts and
> imposed
> > sanctions on one of the plaintiff firms. "The record does not reveal who
> > originally devised this scheme, but it is clear that the lawyers, doctors
> and
> > screening companies were all willing participants," Judge Jack wrote.
> >
> > When defense lawyers began to ask Dr. Harron about his findings in February
> at a
> > hearing that led to Judge Jack's opinion, he asked for a lawyer.
> >
> > "If you're accusing me of fabricating these things, I think that's a
> serious
> > charge," Dr. Harron said.
> >
>
> Robert J. Carpenter, Jr. MD
> 6624 Fannin, #2720
> Houston, TX 77030
> (O) 713-795-4600
> (F) 713-795-4422
>
> "Life is difficult"
> The Road Less Travelled
> by Scott Peck
>
