This fall, while campaigning in Iowa, Santorum told reporters that he backed some limits but that his wife did not sue for “pain and suffering, which is the area I think we should cap.”
Although the lawsuit did not seek a specific figure for pain and suffering, the former senator testified in the case about the emotional and physical toll on his wife and how that justified a sizable monetary award, transcripts show. The judge in the case also made clear that the majority of the $350,000 the jury awarded the family was largely for unspecific losses and pain and suffering, an amount he concluded was “excessive.”
Santorum’s campaign advisers and spokesman did not respond to repeated requests by phone and e-mail for comment. But
he has said in the past that there was no conflict between his testimony in his wife’s medical suit and his push to curtail payments to victims of medical malpractice.
Opponents of limiting malpractice claims disagree.
“It’s pretty hypocritical of him,” said Steven Bergstein, an Allentown, Pa., lawyer who represents medical victims in malpractice cases as well as corporations. “Politicians complain about these kinds of claims, but when they speak out publicly, they don’t think about the real people affected by these tragic events. When they are the real person affected, suddenly they have a totally different view.”
The lawsuit stemmed from a family tragedy, when in 1996 Karen Santorum gave birth prematurely to the couple’s fourth child, a son who died the same day. Suffering lower-back pain after the delivery, Karen Santorum sought out a Burke chiropractor, David Dolberg, for help.
Dolberg performed a spinal manipulation, which he and other experts testified was a standard, recommended therapy for her symptoms. Karen Santorum said that the treatment caused a herniated disk in her spine, which was surgically removed a week later.
Dolberg declined to comment.
Brewster Rawls, Dolberg’s attorney in the suit, defended his client.
“The medical evidence was clear that Mrs. Santorum suffered no serious injury,” Rawls said. “Quite simply, the outcome of this case — even with the trial court reducing the verdict by 50 percent — was entirely unfair to this good doctor.”
The Santorums unsuccessfully sought to seal the records in the lawsuit against Dolberg and the center where he worked, saying her husband’s role as a senator would draw attention to the case and violate his wife’s privacy.
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