Never Say Never: "Never Events" in Medicare‪.‬

INTRODUCTION In 2004, James Klotz suffered a heart attack. After he was admitted to the hospital, surgeons surgically implanted a pacemaker in him. (1) While he recovered from surgery in the hospital, Klotz developed a drug-resistant staph infection that required fifteen additional operations and eighty-four additional days in the hospital. (2) Klotz subsequently "lost his right leg, part of his left foot, a kidney, and most of his hearing." (3) Klotz sued his heart surgeon for medical malpractice. In 2008, a jury awarded Klotz and his wife $2.5 million. (4)