Canadians who experience medical harm at the hands of the health-care system they pay for are often chagrined to learn that, if they pursue their legal remedies in court, they are also footing the bill to defend the very physicians they claim have harmed them. Now it seems that Canadian taxpayers have been victimized by this system, too.

When patients cannot be fully engaged with their care and the decisions being made, that responsibility becomes the family's. There is no more precious gift you can give your mom or dad than the gift of hospital safety. My mother's doctors repeatedly warned that her demise was imminent. Without a vigilant family, it would have been.