A view from the trenches

Although we turn on the news every day and hear of those who died in a hurricane, or a war very far away, death holds a different grip when you stare it in the face. As a young lawyer I have had to come to grips with cases involving child abuse, rape, and a whole host of things that you quickly attempt to put in the compartment of your mind labeled “work” in order to come home and still greet your new wife with a smile.

However one case this year changed everything, a case I still cannot put out of my mind, a case I now feel compelled to share as your faithful conservative blogger, as all of us enter what may otherwise be an uneventful election cycle. This was a case that turned my “political bent” upside down.

I entered our conference room and was greeted by two people in tears. They had come to us because their six-year old son had died. A diminutive woman sat beside a passive man, both cried quietly. The woman could not even speak. The man in broken English began to describe to us how his son had developed a tooth infection, then a swelling. In choked words he talked at first slowly and than he picked up speed, describing what he thought was a fever for days caused by a January flu. Visits to the doctor with nothing but an assurance that it just a flu, that his son just had a tooth ache. As the days passed his son got worse. His fever continued to climb, the doctors continued to ignore the signs. His son had sepsis (an infection that spread into the blood). Finally, this six year old’s body was overwhelmed, his fever went up to 107 and the child entered a comma, never to wake again. Both father and mother stood over their once vibrant child in a Seattle hospital and had to make the decision just days later to end his life support. Days after they buried him. All because a doctor was negligent. A $15 dollar of penicillin would have likely saved his life.

The parents of this child had no money to pay our fees. They were not even truly seeking money for their child. The parents wanted justice. They wanted good lawyers that could stand up to the doctors. They needed our help. Ahead of us was years of litigation, hundreds of thousands of dollars to be spent on experts, depositions, and court fees. The very real chance of losing a case that most lawyers lose.

Before Initiative 330 we said yes to this case, and many like it. Of course there was no wages lost for a six year old child. When an infant dies there is no “economic value.” However to these parents who had lost everything such comparisons are sickening. After initiative 330 we will say no, as the costs of the case itself will far outpace the insurance companies cap.

So as the conservative blogger I was asked to write something meaningful about this year’s election. I thought about the drama of whether the monorail will ever relieve the poor Scandinavians desperate to make it from their homes in Ballard into the city. Or whether Gregoire's gas tax was a brilliant idea in the mist of an oil shortage. Or whether any one will actually vote this year at all.

Then I thought again of this six year old child.

I guess there is a reason for me to vote.

I guess all of this really does matter.