The Hall Chair: A Satirical Novel on the Medical Malpractice Crisis in America

By Christopher Smythies

Book Overview

When Julie Winter is admitted to Columbia Medical Center by an orthopedic surgeon for routine back surgery, nobody expects disaster. But when she suddenly becomes quadriplegic in the dead of night following her operation, she and her husband hire hotshot attorney-nurse Maxine Doggett and sue the doctor for damages. But are they suing the right doctor? The one they name, Hugh Montrose, is a talented and compassionate neurosurgeon who wasn't consulted until late the next day. And does Maxine really have their best interests at heart, or does she have a secret agenda of her own? As the lawsuit progresses to trial, the principle characters battle with each other both inside the courtroom and out. When another neurosurgeon at Columbia, Richard Forrester, shoots himself in the head, Montrose suspects that Maxine is somehow involved and swears to uncover the truth. What he finds out is more diabolical than he might have ever imagined, and even after the jury renders its verdict, the plot keeps accelerating towards a climax that will leave you breathless.As gripping as today's headlines and told with caustic wit, The Hall Chair is a smart, savvy satire of the tangled world of medical malpractice litigation. A bold, fierce, and funny new voice in literature, and a thrilling page-turner you won't ever forget.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1419640631
• ISBN13: 9781419640636
• Release Date: January 1863
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 1.3" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Amazing Story

The Hall Chair is an amazing story in many ways. Dr. Smythies' account of a physician's horrible experience with being wrongly accused of malpractice was such an eye opener into the medical-legal systems. It's amazing that states that do not have malpractice suit ceilings even have enough physicians to care for patients, and this novel helped me realize that changes need to be made through Federal legislation. I highly recommend this well written page-turner. It would not surprise me to someday see The Hall Chair made into a great movie.

Malpractice Stories

I felt the book was well written, and kept me in suspense through the whole book!! As a member of the medical community, it hit home for me some of the medical issues that we deal with. It was also a very humorous with some of the side plots within the book. A great read!!!

Required reading for all physicians.

A perfectly rivoting tale presenting entwined threads of authentic operating room drama, action both humorous and tense, and the hair-raising ruthlessness of ambulance chasing trial lawyers scrapping amongst the ruins of thier client's lives. The readers will find themselves on the edge of their seat, replete with sweaty palms, elevated heart rate, dilated pupils and a stomach in knots as Dr. Montrose deftly places a silver clip on a ruptured intracranial aneurysm. Imagine yourself waking up on an operating table finding all the surgical team rendered sensless by a shotgum blast that blew apart the anesthesia machine spraying the gases all around, and you with your brain exposed and your head locked in a clamp. Dr. Smythies describes the beauty of the human brain as seen through the surgical operating microscope, obviously he writes from extensive firsthand knowledge. The book leaves one wondering how in the world our society elevated the wolves of the courtroom so far above the healthcare workers that dedicate their lives to bringing those most obscure and cryptic lesions hidden in the human central nervous system into the light of day.

Fascinating and Frightening

The Hall Chair by Christopher Smythies is a fascinating, informative, page-turner of a medical novel. It's frightening to learn how medical malpractice policies impact both physicians and patients.

I loved it...

I read it in one sitting. I love Dr. Smythies' dry sense of satire and wit. Of course as a surgeon myself I have little compassion for malpractice plantif's attorneys. I also think it captures the esssence of a real looming crisis in health care. Coverage of America's ER's with professional American trained physicians in the needed specialties is alreaya problem in most smaller cities and will soom be a problem in our larger "trauma centers" as well.