With this reasoning, there is really no justifiable reason for the person, you, to ask the surgeon, defendant in your world, to perform the procedure. Your reasoning dictates that you, the patient, know more about knee surgery than the surgeon, defendant. You, the patient , know more about anesthesia than the anesthesiologist, defendant. Therefore, under deductive reasoning , it would be safer for you, the patient , to fix your own knee without anesthesia , as clearly stated. Great, you can do this in the garage on the weekend and invite your friends for cocktails afterwards!!!!!!

Let's pretend, for just a second, that the doctors and nurses performing surgery on my person are working for me. You know... where I pay for a service and expertise and, crazy I know, think I have something to say about a procedure that I am not only paying a tremendous amount of money for but also a procedure that is HAPPENING TO MY PERSON.

To you, I am just another piece of meat to get through before your dinner with the Chief of Surgery. Me, this is a situation where a screw up costs considerable more than an enhanced insurance payment.

Why don't we start with the same level of customer service that you demand from the highly trained mechanic that is fixing your Beemer and work backward?

So, let's drop the tin-god attitude and pretend that I have more than a working brain cell and a paid up insurance plan and make me a part of the process rather than just another idiot that doesn't know enough to actually contribute to his/her own care.

Throw all the terms around that you want... yes, your education in this area is vastly superior to my own. That doesn't mean that you are a good doctor... and it certainly doesn't give you the right to discount my opinion as to my care.[/QUOTE]