My blackberry picture is a little too blurry to do them justice, but this is Scott, Steve and Kathy Olsen at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol building last week (you can see the Supreme Court building in the background) to urge members of Congress to keep limits on patients’ legal rights out of the health care bill…

My blackberry picture is a little too blurry to do them justice, but this is Scott, Steven and Kathy Olsen at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol building last week (you can see the Supreme Court building in the background) to urge members of Congress to keep limits on patients’ legal rights out of the health care bill.

The Olsens traveled to DC to meet with Senator Boxer and Rep. Filner, and share what has happened to their family since Steven Olsen fell on a stick in the woods when he was just two years old and was refused the $800 test that would have saved his vision and his health. Steven was hurt by the medical and then the legal system in California: A 1975 law that limits damages for medical malpractice victims reduced what the jury decided Steven deserved for a lifetime of lost opportunity, to $250,000.

Our message, and theirs, to Congress: Don’t pay for health reform by taking away the rights of injured patients who need our help the most. The Olsens have spent the many years since Steven’s injury advocating for patient rights and patient safety. In California, many people are injured but never able to hold their health care providers responsible for their mistakes because the limits on medical liability shield them from accountability.

State malpractice damage caps and other limits on liability for medical errors have locked injured patients out of court, degraded the quality of health care and denied justice to too many families.

You can watch a video of the Olsen’s story, and others, at JusticeforPatients.org