Apparently the reason you never hear your doctor say “Oh crap, uh, I’m really sorry about that one.  Man, that was, really, ah, wow I didn’t see that coming.  Jeez, that must have really really hurt.  Man, my bad.  It should probably grow back, I think.”  is because they have been told to never apologize because it can be used against them in a lawsuit.  Thankfully there will soon be a law in Ontario that lets them at least say sorry (for God’s sake, is it so hard?) without any fear of additional litigation.  Now, shake on it, and let’s all agree to never again talk about why that instrument was never designed to go into that place in the body, and no that’s not what medical school taught you, and yes anybody would be rather upset about it all, wouldn’t you?

This is not the first time that we have discussed why doctors might want to apologize, or other high-profile apologies, or the art of apologuising, which this law probably can’t prevent.

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