Bloodsuckers

Just hung up with a bloodsucker. Not a vampire (that would be kinda cool), but a real live bloodsucker. Some people like to call them lawyers.

Of course it was over the whole Vioxx litigation. I believe that there are some circumstances where litigation may be necessary, you know when a previously healthy person with not cardiac risk factors develops a cardiac condition after taking Vioxx for a bum knee. But some of these people filing suit are doing so simply out of greed.

So why is this bugging me. Today the bloodsucker was calling to request info on a deceased patient with regards to their history of Vioxx use. Here are the reasons why I'm not a fan of the lawyer:

• We have no record of the patient. The attorney was contacting every pharmacy within a 25 mile radius of the deceased's home to try to gather records
• The deceased was born in 1916. Vioxx was approved in 1999. That means that if the patient started Vioxx as soon as it was released, they would have been 83 when they started therapy. Just an observation of mine, but a lot of folks over the age of 80 have heart issues. Occasionally they have heart attacks and strokes. I believe (but I don't have the data to back this up) that your chance of having a stroke increases as you get older.
• I hate trial lawyers. Especially the ones who advertise on the television. You know, the ones with phone numbers like 1-800 BAD-DRUG.

Our health care expenses are high enough already. These lawsuits are driving the prices up even more. Maybe if lawyers fees were capped at 5 percent, we wouldn't see all of these ridiculous lawsuits.

But that's just my opinion.