When I related the story of the wicked witch at Washington Hospital, he shook his head knowingly, made a note on a form, and released us. We were denied copies of that form and all other paperwork involved in the incident, except, of course, for bills. Soon we received outrageous bills from the Clinic whose GP had initiated the whole mess, Washington Hospital, Highland Hospital, and the ambulance company. We refused to pay any of them, and except for the ambulance bill, they were eventually dropped. Finally they gave up and placed an adverse item in our credit records.
Nothing precludes legal action against private practitioners for allowing people to remain free.
To a physician ever mindful of the explosion in frivolous law suits and the whim of the bureaucracy which controls his precious medical license, the message is sure clear. When in doubt he must sacrifice the interests of patients, the judgment of concerned family and friends, the Hippocratic oath, and every other ethical consideration to the state's voracious appetite for oppression. Americans have been systematically kept in the dark about the extent of government sponsored violence against innocent people in our country and when such an incident does come to light, many of us only half believe it. Perhaps some of you feel that way about this one. Perhaps tomorrow you or someone close will become the victim of an unwarranted attack by government officials under one pretense or another.