Leanne Dyess talks about her congressional testimony regarding tort reform.(Melanie Duncan The Vicksburg Post)

[3/10/03]She didn’t plan it or expect it, but a Vicksburg woman has become a national advocate for tort reform.

Leanne Metzger Dyess told members of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C., last week that her husband, Tony, lost precious hours while being transferred from Garden Park Hospital in Gulfport to University Medical Center in Jackson so specialists could ease the swelling from his brain.

On July 5, Tony Dyess was headed home to Vicksburg when his car crashed into several trees along Mississippi Highway 49 between Gulfport and Wiggins. None of the specialists who could have helped Tony Dyess were available on the coast because they had left the state or were no longer practicing because of the rising cost of medical malpractice insurance, Leanne Dyess said.

Dyess said she and others believe Tony Dyess fell asleep while driving, causing the accident, but that no one knows for certain. It was six hours before he made it to UMC.

“His wreck was what propelled me into this,” Leanne Dyess said.

“When it hits close to home, that’s when you start to become an activist. You start thinking about someone else and you want someone to be there for them,” she said.

After hearing about Tony and Leanne Dyess and their two teenage children, the Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Health Care, a Washington-based tort reform advocacy group, contacted Leanne Dyess.

She has recorded radio and television spots, which will begin airing in selected markets across the country this week, and testified before congressional committees in both chambers.

“Before, I was like most Americans, I was not aware that just below the surface of our nation’s health-care delivery system, serious damage was being done by excessive and frivolous litigation, litigation that was forcing liability costs beyond the ability of doctors and hospitals to pay,” Leanne Dyess told members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in February.

This week, Dyess will again be in Washington as the full House is expected to take up House Resolution 5, the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-Cost, Timely Healthcare Act of 2003. The bill would cap non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits at $250,000.

During a special session last year, Mississippi lawmakers limited non-economic damages to $500,000.

Doctors and medical providers say the Legislature did not go far enough with tort reform while lawyers and consumer groups say the law hurts the victims of medical malpractice.

Others, like Linda McDougal, an accountant from Wisconsin who received a double mastectomy she did not need after her test results were switched with a woman who had cancer, told members of a Senate committee that caps on malpractice lawsuits would limit the rights of victims.

Leanne Dyess, whose husband now requires 24-hour care and lives with his parents in Columbia, said it is a tragedy when a medical mistake results in a serious injury, but that frivolous lawsuits and “lottery-like” jury awards are placing financial strains on doctors, making it too expensive for many to practice.

She also said she never considered filing a suit against the Gulfport hospital.

“It’s not their fault the doctor didn’t have insurance to work in the emergency room,” Leanne Dyess said. “How could I sue someone who helped with every ounce of energy they had?”

The radio and television ads featuring Leanne Dyess and her trips to Washington are sponsored by the Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Health Care, which represents hospitals and insurance companies. Mississippi members are Mississippi Baptist Health Systems and University Medical Center, both in Jackson.