Iowa Mixed-Martial Arts Fighter Paralyzed in Fight – Tort Reform put the bills in your mailbox.
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The MMA slogan is “Ready, Connect, Fight” and so they did. Zack Kirk landed a fight for May 23, 2009. He connected, fought for a bit and then fought his way into a broken neck.
The story is pretty simple, at least as far as the fight goes. After landing on his head Zack Kirk broke his neck. The move was a double-leg takedown that resulted in his neck being broken. That was three weeks ago on May 23, 2009. Today it’s reported he is regaining some movement in his arms. Good for you Zach, keep fighting. According to KCCI Mr. Kirk did not carry a health insurance policy. And that’s what I want to focus on in this article. This is a story about the tort reform mentality and what they don’t want you thinking too much about because if you do it will, or should, anger you.
A discussion on Fanhouse on the MMA website indicates neither the fighters nor the MMA have a medical insurance policy protecting its fighters.
“According to local news reports, the 20-year-old Kirk has some use of his arms after doctors replaced his fifth vertebrae with bone from his hip during a recent surgery. Doctors are unsure if he'll ever be able to walk again.
Kirk was 2-0 heading into a matchup at the Mayhem Martial Arts show in Shenandoah, Iowa, but the injury happened in the opening seconds of the bout as Kirk went for a takedown. His opponent tied up Kirk's arm in an attempt to stop it, but instead they crashed to the canvas with Kirk's head taking the brunt of the blow. His body immediately went limp, and the fight was stopped seconds later.
The reports are the doctors took a piece of hip bone and replaced his fifth vertebrae. Let’s hope it works. Let’s pray it works better than it’s ever worked before this operation because there are going to be bills, bills and more bills arriving in someone’s mailbox with no income to deposit into an account and to write a check to cover them.”
Here is the additional MMA spin of the post events, spin that completely ignores the misery this family will surely suffer and who ultimately ends up paying the freight for catastrophically injured fighters.
“As we've seen in the past in the MMA world, the fight community is making an effort to come together and support him. A benefit show is being planned, with information here, while donations for his care can also be sent to the Kirk family directly via Paypal at rkirk77@hotmail.com.
Kirk and his family hold no ill will to the sport, telling KETV, "It's a real safe sport. You've just got to watch what you're doing."
Kirk and his family hold no ill will to the sport? Nice spin for the corporate sponsors. Am I suppose to understand that the family takes full responsibility for his neck being broken? Or that a good tort reformed minded public never holds the corporation responsible when someone who uses their products or services is catastrophically injured? Where have we heard this spin before. And just wait till the money the MMA raises is gone. You want to hear ill will; come on back in a year or two.
Look at the damage control going on here. Instead of looking at the long range consequences of quadriplegia this business entity is spinning the news towards how the fight community is coming together and the family currently holds no ill-will towards the MMA. Anyone buying this spin is either naïve or suffers from a lack of a good education. The long term costs of warehousing a quadriplegic person are in the tens of millions of dollars. The long term suffering with bed sores, catheters being inserted and removed and reinserted along with the dreaded loneliness of visitors slowly drifting away into their own busy lives are what catastrophic injuries are all about. If you wonder why personal injury lawyers fight so hard against tort reform efforts that shift costs to the patients, just go visit Zach in his hospital room or the rehabilitation center Madonna Rehabilitation Center in Lincoln where he’s soon to be moved for extensive therapy. You’ll have plenty of time to visit him because at age 23 his life expectancy is over 53 years. That means for the next 53 years, short of a miracle he’ll be lying in bed with a full staff of rehabilitation personnel working day and night, 24/7/365 trying to manage his misery. But he won’t be alone with misery management. You and I and all our other working taxpayers will be toiling right alongside Zach, because Zach Kirk has no medical insurance. That means you, me and our kids get to pay the freight fro Zach while the MMA improves its profit line. Now that's tort reform in a nutshell.
The promoters make money off of these amateur fighters exposing themselves to brain damage, quadriplegia or paraplegia and neither the MMA nor the fighter carried a catastrophic health or disability insurance policy. Who came up with this business model? As a taxpayer I’m sick and tired of paying for more and more and more. No one is looking at the costs and who is paying. We love to hear about how tort reform is going to save us money on premiums but we never think of the consequences or ask this simple question: If so then who pays? The problem with tort reform is it has nothing to do with reducing the number of injuries and accidents. The effect of tort reform is to affect what happens after the injury takes place; tort reforms simply shift the cost to the injured or in this case the taxpayers.
The problem with tort reform is it has nothing to do with reducing the number of injuries and accidents. The effect of tort reform is to affect what happens after the injury takes place; tort reforms simply shift the cost to the injured or in this case the taxpayers.
No one is looking at the fine print of tort reform and how it changes the address on the hospital's billing envelope to warehouse the catastrophically injured. We taxpayers do that because we are so accustomed to thinking the government will do it. Well, guess what, we are the government. Taxpayers are paying. If you’re tired of paying higher tax bills and your government running a deficit then smarten up and start seeing tort reform for what it is. Its cost shifting to you and me; the working taxpayers.
So who will get to pay for Zack Kirk’s care? You and me, that’s who; we will get the bills through Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security Disability programs for the next 53 years. And that’s what they don’t’ want you thinking too much about and it’s why they have to rile up your emotions against trial lawyers. If you hate, then you don’t think; and if you’re not thinking you won’t put two-and-two together and come up with your wallet getting lighter as your tax bill gets heavier. Tort reform is about the shifting of costs that go along with health care and wage losses. It’s the shifting of costs to the fighter and his family and when they can no longer shoulder the burden it’s you and I who get to pay the freight. Tort reform has nothing to do with reducing the number of injuries only the number of corporate America’s profit.
This is the butt-ugly side of tort reform that the American Tort Reform Association isn’t going to talk about. This is the cost shifting that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce isn’t talking about. It’s the face of tort reform they don’t want you thinking too much about. They keep talking about one cup of hot coffee, one pair of pants, a laptop computer and a pet goose on the public sidewalk outside a store. The issues are much broader than these four cases. The issues are more important than a couple of young eager lawyers learning how to practice law.
Here is the agenda from the ATRA that talks about fairness. But ask yourself; “fairness for whom”, the taxpayers who have to pay for the people who can’t work and walk or the corporations making money off of these young adults exposing themselves to catastrophic injury? The fairness is measured in dollars and cents at the bottom of a profit and loss statement for corporate America. Fairness to tort reformers has nothing to do with how much your tax bill is going to increase. The Chamber gets the bucks and we get the bills. Fair? You be the judge.
ATRA's Agenda: Fair Laws, Fair Judges, Fair Courts
ATRA supports an aggressive civil justice reform agenda that includes:
Health care liability reform
Class action reform
Promotion of jury service
Abolition of the rule of joint and several liability
Abolition of the collateral source rule
Limits on punitive damages
Limits on noneconomic damages
Production liability reform
Appeal bond reform
Sound science in the courtroom
Stopping regulation through litigation
Here is what MMA is all about. Taxpayers, realize it or not this what your tax dollars pay for after they suffer brain or spinal cord damage.