Got a call several months ago, out of the blue, from a law office in Durham, North Carolina. I had worked at Duke Medical Center there over three years ago, seems a patient I had taken care of was suing the hospital, and all the docs involved in his case.

They tracked me to Seattle, asked if I'd be willing to give a deposition. I said, sure, but I remember nothing about the case, even after reviewing the documentation they sent to me.

July 14th, a lawyer from Duke arrived on my doorstep to prepare me. He said to stick to the facts, and simply state what I could. He added he'd been surprised that the accuser's lawyers even wanted to make the trip, as I really was simply a bit player, not even named in the case.

We arrived at the law office, a conference room had been set up with a video camera, a court stenographer, my counsel, and then the plaintiff's lawyers arrived.

The younger guy was slicked back, overtanned, oozing arrogance and narcissism. The second guy was a balding, bespectacled weasel of a guy, pale and thin. Reminded me a bit of Gollum.

During the small talk, we realized there was a convention here in Seattle of plaintiff's lawyers....suddenly it was clear why they'd sent two guys across the country. They were going to the conference, this way they could bill the client for the trip and hours. Sleazy.

Started the "interview". Gollum did the talking, making me repeat myself, review the charting, asking opinions, trying to make me state a mistake was made, calling my skills, judgement, and intellect into question, attempting to engage me in a diatribe, trying to get me to give him what he was looking for.

He did get me monologuing a few times before I caught myself, realizing my answers and explanations were simply giving him more questions, more trails to trot down. A big part of my job is explaining things to non-medical people, when he feigned ignorance and asked for assistance, he got me a few times. Slightly mad at myself about that.

Three hours later, I was released into the bright sunshine, blinking. What a waste.
I requested a transcript so I'd have some record of my wasted day. My counsel said I did good, but got a little long-winded near the end. I'd already realized that though, so I was OK with the experience.

Depositions suck. Personal injury lawyers suck. Here I am, keeping people alive, and I get three hours worth of questioning because I was busy keeping the patient (who is now suing the hospital) alive rather than ignoring the patient and ensuring my documentation is completely accurate and complete. It's because of jerks like this that hospitals to require more and more time away from the patient, typing on a keyboard, ensuring the DOCUMENTATION is priority one, not keeping patients alive.

Oh yeah... this guy, it was his second bypass graft operation. Duke had already saved his life once, saved his life a second time, but he had a few complications the second time around, and was blaming Duke, saying he couldn't work anymore. Now looking for a big payout. Nice.

Glad it's over.