Connie Plumlee is a survivor. After beating breast cancer, completing chemotherapy and having a double mastectomy, the rest was supposed to be easy.
Reconstructive breast surgery was supposed to be the last step in beating cancer; instead, it was the beginning of a lifetime of disfigurement and pain.
A retired eighth-grade English teacher, Plumlee was severely burned while having surgery in December 2009. A cauterizing tool ignited the alcohol the surgeon had used to disinfect Plumlee, burning her from the waist up.
According to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO), approximately 100 surgical fires a year cause as many as 20 serious injuries and one or two patient deaths.
Plumlee wants to educate Oklahomans about medical mistakes and the effect of caps and other tort reform on people who have been severely injured.
Senate Bill 863, which places a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages, will further harm Plumlee and others who already have suffered so much.
Plumlee noted that jurors are responsible for deciding whether to send people to jail. Yet some politicians think juries can’t be trusted to decide cases of medical negligence. Medical errors are the sixth leading cause of death in America.
“A jury should decide what my injuries are worth, but now, after taking over health care, politicians want to take away our right to let a jury decide what is fair,” Plumlee said. “They would rather bail out careless doctors and insurance companies than pay attention to our rights in the Constitution.”
Instead of taking away injured patients’ rights, lawmakers should focus on making hospitals safer, she said.
Plumlee now has difficulty swallowing. She drools because of the burns to her face. After teaching generations of middle-school students in Owasso and Collinsville, she is forced to relive the experience every time she leaves the house.
Plumlee said she would rather endure cancer and chemotherapy again before suffering through the disfigurement, and constant pain.
