After reading all the posts, I feel compelled to tell you WHY I feel the way I do.

11 years ago, my daughter suffered from headaches and vomiting. Having a medical background, I thought it might be something neurologically wrong. I took her to a specialist who diagnosed her (after many tests) with a "sinus infection". I never questioned him because, afterall, he was an M.D. and I was only a paramedic. It was right around X-Mas time and she was driving to Florida with her father and stepmother for two weeks. He told me to bring her back when she returns from Florida and he'd do a CT scan of her sinuses. He said that the infection would probably clear up while she was isn Florida because of the warm air.

Christmas eve day, she began going into mini-seizures. She was rushed to the hospital and had an emergency CT scan done. They found a lemon-sized tumor on the stem of her brain. Talk about devastation. I immediately flew down there to be with her.

She had brain surgery which took 9 hours. They couldn't do a biopsy on the table so they sent the tumor to Duke University. It took them 2 weeks to find out it was Pineal Blastoma, the worst kind of malignancy because it metastisizes (it grows and attaches itself). They removed 75% of it through surgery and the other 25% with chemotherapy and radiation.

My point is, I blame the damn specialist. My daughter was a vibrant, beautiful young girl in the prime of her life with long, curly locks and a great personality. His screw up changed all that and I will never, EVER forgive him. After her surgery, she was paralyzed on her right side, had to learn to do everything all over again...walk, talk, feed, clothe and bathe herself. She lost her beautiful hair which never grew back, so she has to wear wigs. She has double vision, corrected by prisims in her glasses, has no emotion whatsoever (can't cry, get mad, etc.). She is a totally different person. She lost a year of school, all of her friends stopped coming around (she was quite popular in high school) yet she never complained. She was so much stronger than I ever was during the whole ordeal. Her positive attitude amazed me.

The quack that screwed up her life never once called to see how she was doing or apologized. To add insult to injury, he's still in practice!!!

I was as a paralegal at the time and consulted one of the attorneys I was working for. He told me that unless I could prove that from the time she was misdiagnosed to the time she collapsed that the outcome COULD'VE been different, it would a very difficult case. In other words, the "good old boys", both doctors as well as attorneys, stick together. It would be impossible for me to find a doctor to testify that one of his colleagues screwed up.

I had a vet test my 9 week old kitten for feline leukemia and aids which came back positive. She immediately wanted to put Marina down, saying "So, when do you want to euthanize her??" instead of taking blood and sending it out to do a involved test (she did the easy "snap" test which takes 10 minutes)

I'm sorry I rambled on like this, but I do not trust doctors OR vets anymore. Before I have anything done to either myself or my pets, I do my own research. And I still stand by my vote that YES vets SHOULD be sued if they screw up.

There are some very good points both pro and con regarding the increase in fees. But the bottom line is, these are LIVES they are responsible for. And if they mess up, they should be held accountable.

Thanks for listening to me guys. It's kind of a very sore subject with me. The good news is Amy has been in remission for over 10 years!!!!