Doctors save lives

My son has a severe allergy to bee stings and recently was stung. My neighborhood was built after the map of our area was made and took longer than usual for the ambulance to arrive. He became even more ill than usual.

My son was taken to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Belleville. The doctors were wonderful and saved my son's life, which is not an exaggeration.

After he was stable the nurse told me that due to all the costs of medical malpractic, St. Elizabeth's had no pediatric care. He was transferred via ambulance to Children's Hospital in St. Louis.

Children's is a great hospital and my son received the best of care but now I must pay for two ambulance trips. Taxes from what I paid to Children's will go to the state of Missouri and not the state of Illinois.

The system is in desperate need of repair. No trial lawyer ever saved a child's life, but if things continue they may want to cross-train because we need someone in Illinois to treat us and our children.

Since the lawyers have some elected officials in their corner they won't need to worry about frivolous suits. The system has been warped to conform to the greed of lawyers and we are the victims.

There are very few cases where doctors have been negligent and deserve what they get. With that being said, most doctors are lifesavers and should be applauded not driven from practice by the greed of lawyers. Tort reform is badly needed to fix this broken system.

Chris Heatherly
Smithton