OPINION: Villainizing victims of malpractice is a harmful distraction

Recently I met with Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board members, my attorney, Cid Lopez, and New Mexico Safety Over Profit Director Johana Bencomo. Although telling my story of being a medical malpractice victim is difficult, I wanted to do it, so the public would get real information about medical malpractice, instead of the continued attacks against the people who represent victims of medical malpractice.

Seven days later, the Journal published its story about our meeting. Not one word was printed about my experience as a medical malpractice victim. In fact, my name was not even printed. That’s been the continuing problem in the debate. Instead of lifting up the voices of victims of medical malpractice, we have been erased, silenced or put on the sidelines.

On behalf of all victims of medical malpractice, I’m sharing my story and ask you to remember me and other victims when corporations and insurance companies are proposing law changes that reward them for harming people by not requiring them to pay for their wrongdoing.

At 24, pregnant with my second child, I laid in the emergency room vomiting, sweating and describing feelings of an elephant sitting on my chest. I was terrified for myself and for the child I was carrying. I was having a heart attack, but the hospital didn’t test for that, diagnose it or treat it for three days.

I not only lost my baby, but I lost my state. In order to breathe, I had to leave New Mexico to live without altitude. Nineteen years later, I have severe health issues and will need at least one and possibly two heart transplants. I can never be pregnant again.

I learned I could make a difference for other victims with a newly created organization called New Mexico Safety Over Profit. NMSOP is proudly funded by trial attorneys (multi-billion-dollar corporations and their foundations fund our opponents.) Just like the interview where my voice was silenced, corporation and insurance company-funded efforts have tried to silence victims’ voices by villainizing the place where we are empowered to help prevent medical malpractice — NMSOP.

With NMSOP I also don’t feel alone. Every victim’s story is different, but we are connected in the same way: We are silenced and our attorneys are targeted while the corporations and insurance companies laugh all the way to the bank.

I’m still in touch with my attorney. He’s not only an advocate for me but he’s become a friend.

He’s a trial lawyer, part of the group that fought the opioid industry, unclean water sources in Ferguson, holding Tesla for allegations of creating unsafe vehicles and companies that are testing driverless semis on New Mexico roads. The profession that fights for our civil rights, our right to vote and today, is on the front lines fighting for our democracy.

If you’re reading this, my ask is simple: talk to some of the thousands of medical malpractice victims in New Mexico and evaluate any law changes with our stories in mind. Does the legislation do anything to solve the doctor shortage problem or does it line the pockets of corporations and insurance companies?

Included in this ask is to listen. Our stories are being ignored but they are at the very core of this issue. Hearing from more of us will counter the insurance companies’ and corporations’ strategy of distracting the public from their profit. Our stories will also reveal who is advocating to reduce lawsuits by reducing the actual harm to New Mexicans (and to doctors) by profit driven medicine. There is a doctor shortage and I will fight for solutions to it. New Mexicans deserve quality care and doctors deserve to be given the right to practice safely, without quotas, and without having to pay back part of their contract if they don’t meet those quotas.

I don’t want what happened to me to happen to anybody else. That’s why I’ll keep telling my story — whether it’s printed or not.

Bryanna Baker is a former New Mexico resident and wrote this on behalf of New Mexico Safety Over Profit.