New medical guidelines for treating young patients who are fat could provide the basis for lawsuits against pediatricians who do not follow them, especially if they do not refer overweight and obese children to “intensive health behavior and lifestyle treatment” as the guidelines require, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who started the fat lawsuit movement which has already had more than a dozen successes.
He has also been called “The Law Professor Who Masterminded Litigation Against the Tobacco Industry,” a “King of Class Action Lawsuits,” and “a Driving Force Behind the Lawsuits That Have Cost Tobacco Companies Billions of Dollars.”
The official “Clinical Practice Guideline for the Evaluation and Treatment of Children and Adolescents With Obesity,” issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics [APA], provide that “Pediatricians . . . should provide or refer children 6 y and older . . . with overweight (BMI ≥85th percentile to <95th percentile) and obesity (BMI ≥95th percentile) to intensive health behavior and lifestyle treatment. . . . the most effective treatment includes 26 or more hours of face-to-face, family-based, multicomponent treatment over a 3- to 12-mo period.”
So pediatricians could be the next major target of so-called fat lawsuits – at least a dozen of which have already been successful – says Banzhaf, and the lawsuits may be coming faster than many doctors believe because of the growing concerns and enormous costs of the growing epidemic of childhood obesity.
Banzhaf’s law students initiated the first successful fat law suit against McDonald’s, one which resulted in a $12.5 million settlement. Subsequently the fast food giant was forced to pay an additional $8.5 million to settle another fat law suit.
A new fat lawsuit target may be pediatricians who refuse to follow these official guidelines to help treat obese children as young as 6. If, for example, a young child subsequently develops diabetes or another disease caused by his untreated obesity as many do, the doctors could be liable for medical malpractice, says Banzhaf.
“Just as it is medical malpractice for a physician to fail to warn a patient about a cholesterol level of 250, and to fail to suggest appropriate methods for dealing with the medical problem, so too it appears it may now be considered malpractice for a pediatrician to fail to warn parents of the serious health risk obesity causes for a child, and also to “provide or refer” the child to effective treatment for the condition.
The legal standard of practice against which a physician’s behavior is measured in a malpractice trial – “reasonable care” – is “that which is customary in the medical community.”
When the major medical association in a particular field makes a very specific recommendation – especially one using the mandatory word “should” – as the appropriate standard of care, both judges and juries are likely to see it and adopt it as a customary and appropriate standard of care, and to find those who do not live up to it to be liable for medical malpractice, explains Banzhaf.
This is especially true, says the law professor, since many parents may not realize that their children are obese (and not simply “chubby” or with some “baby fat”), and the very serious risks of diabetes and other deadly diseases pediatric obesity tends to cause.
“If a doctor simply told a patient that he has a a cholesterol level of 250, without telling him what it meant, the very significant medical risks it indicates, and various treatments and other steps which the patient should take, he would clearly be guilty of medical malpractice,” says Banzhaf. “Why should it be any different if a physician tells a parent the child’s weight, or even his calculated BMI, and doesn’t provide similar warnings and medical followup?”
Many studies have shown that warnings about health problems from physicians – whether related to smoking, blood pressure, drinking, illegal drugs, or obesity – can have a very important impact in making them realize how serious the problem is, and in managing to make the difficult behavioral modifications necessary to deal with the problem.
But surveys consistently show that many physicians don’t even warn patients about such problems, much less provide, in this situation, the “intensive health behavior and lifestyle treatment” the APA has determined “should” be provided to obese youngsters, argues Banzhaf.
Years ago, where a psychiatrist was successfully sued for failing to warn anyone when a patient threatened to kill a named individual and then did so, most psychiatrists immediately changed their behavior and began warning about such threats.
Malpractice law suits have also forced hospitals to make important changes in the way patients are monitored, operations are performed, and drugs dispensed, and have led to many other changes in medical procedures and practices.
“The day after the first pediatrician is sued for failing to effectively treat an obese child who as a result develops diabetes or some other serious medical problem is the day you will begin seeing many doctors begin doing what they should have been doing all along,” says Banzhaf, noting how effective law suits have been in getting restaurants to pay attention to inebriated customers, and corporations to crack down on racial discrimination and sexual harassment.
Indeed, since history shows that medical guidelines are often not followed unless and until lawsuits are filed, malpractice lawsuits against pediatricians who refuse to follow established guidelines for treating obesity may be the most effective tool available today to fight the growing epidemic of childhood obesity, suggests the professor.
Republished from column authored by John Banzhaf
Categories: Commentary
I’d much rather we could sue them for continuing to promulgate the lie that the COVID “vaccines” are safe and effective.
The government, both state and federal is now in the kid feeding business because they have put forth the notion that it is no longer the responsibility of the procreators (formerly referred to as parents). Government kept kids home from school and convinced them that no place was safe from COVID so please dont go outside and interact with others. Even with schools closed, they send hot meals to homes using schoolbus drivers. Doesn’t that implicate government as well in the obesity epidemic?
I wouldn’t place blame on pediatricians for childhood obesity, I’d place it on parents and even more so on the food industry, the hustlers that sell the ‘food stuff’ and the government that refuses to regulate the industry.
Oh, I left out the soda industry. There are 12 teaspoons of sugar in 12 ounces of Coke. Kids are addicted to it. Too much sugar causes diabetes. Childhood obesity is tragic.
Good thing we are continuing on the journey of taking the parents entirely out of the loop in Vermont for any form of accountability, oversight or responsibility for their children.
Pink Floyd had it right, “ All in all, just another brick in the wall.”
All of this is getting out of hand.
Back in the ’70’s and ’80’s, there was more understanding of the need to consume whole foods, whole grains, legumes, etc., etc., etc.
Processed food, hormone disrupters, epigenetics… and of course it’s “too dangerous,” to let kids play outside on their own, or ride a bike across town. Besides, there’s all that homework, or better yet, TikTok. But hey, you can be healthy at any size, you fascist-adjacent fat-shamer!
Obesity is a ‘co-morbidity’ in medical terms, and a set up for other health issues like respiratory diseases — now by law- obesity cannot be a reason an employer doesn’t hire you. Have you checked out how many postal employees are hundreds of pounds overweight, and how many sick days they take?
The cause of respiratory illnesses is – by sheer weight alone on the lungs our breathing apparaturs – obesity and airborne particulates, or… masks.
The idiocy of ‘fixing what ain’t broke’ (a perfectly good respiratory system extant) in breathing by cutting down one’s oxygen intake 30% wearing a mask (now with proven lowering of IQ and OSHA’s warning of permanent brain damage due to oxygen deprivation from overuse of masking – or just the wrong kind of mask) – is the rotten apple at the core of this barrel of b.s. we are being fed about our health.
I was brought up to eat healthy, exercise, NOT to opt for a sedantary lifestyle, and look at the causes of illnesses by what I had taken into my body including mold, dust, pollen, and now, from chemtrails, carcinogenic particulates used to faciliate clouds.
Our health has been hijacked with so many lies, that the ONLY option is to opt out of the allopathic medicine snake oil sales pitch, and figure out that what goes into our bodies is what causes our health to be good or not, and that THAT is our own personal choice.
It doesn’t help the USFDA food being given to low income humans puts poisons into the body, and does not provide the greens and detoxing foods for our daily living health issues now.
Food, air, water are all toxic now to humans, and if we are not addressing detoxing daily, then we are …ill. Our bodies aren’t functioning at top levels.
As a former elite athlete, health 101 for top performance.