On the blogs: Flea's regrets

Kevin, M.D., links to two Flea sightings. You'll remember Flea as Dr. Robert Lindeman (left), the Natick doctor who blogged anonymously as "Flea," a disparaging term for a pediatrician. He kept up his commentary even during -- and about -- his malpractice trial related to the death of a 12-year-old patient. Until he was outed in court, that is, after which he settled the case.

One link is to a long Q and A by New York lawyer Eric Turkewitz. Asked what he was thinking when he blogged about the trial, Lindeman answers that he was not thinking clearly.

Then Turkewitz asks if he has any regrets.

"You're kidding, right? Where do I start?" Lindeman answers. "I regret that this boy died. Boys aren't supposed to die, particularly when physicians are trying to help them. I regret the effect that all of this had on the boy's mother. I regret that her pain was drawn out and exacerbated by a plaintiff's lawyer whom I suspect cares very little for her and for her boy. I regret the effect this had on my wife, who suffered mightily from beginning to end...

"I regret the enormous waste of time and energy on the part of everyone involved in this case.... I
regret that five-hundred years of the rule of law and trial by jury have left us with this enormity that you call malpractice litigation. Is this really the best we can do?

"I regret that I may have chilled some of the dialogue in the medical blogosphere. If I didn't chill it, I suspect I turned down the temperature a few degrees."

Kevin, M.D.'s second link is on doctors' online musings:

"No wonder when doctors write, they write namby-pamby noncommittal crap," Lindeman told the National Review of Medicine, a Canadian biweekly newspaper. "It might get you in trouble someday." His advice? "Don't blog anonymously. For physicians, writing is dangerous. There is something really messed up about that."