Surgeon Badmouths Me on YouTube Video Reply

It was inevitable. A surgeon had recently watched about six or seven of my videos on YouTube and began leaving comments on each one of them. Some of those comments were intelligent and well thought out. Other comments were simply childish and came down to calling me names because of what I do for a living.

At first I was taken aback that someone as educated and intelligent as a surgeon would take to calling another professional childish names. They were nasty names. Names I did not particularly like reading.

However, two calming thoughts occurred to me while I was reading the rantings of this surgeon.

1. This doctor was actually taking the time to sit and listen to my videos, and
2. He felt compelled to join my conversation and leave passionate comments about the topics I was discussing on video.

I was once against struck with the realization that we live in a wonderful country where we have free speech and enjoy the opportunity to speak our mind.  I also recognized that the physician was not directly pointing his rants toward me personally, but rather to attorneys who represent injured victims and that I was simply the lightning rod by which to channel his frustrations.

Reading his comments again, I recognized quickly that many of his disagreeable comments were nothing more than frustrations being verbalized. I had two options after reading those comments. I could have easily deleted those comments so no one online could see them. Or, I could enter the conversation and begin a dialogue with this physician. Before I tell you what I did, ask yourself, if you were in my position, what would you have done?

My Decision

I chose not to delete those comments and instead decided to engage this doctor in conversation by replying to his comments. I was not aggressive but acknowledged his frustrations. I was not apologetic, but instead stood up for the rights of every citizen in New York and explained that they had every right to seek compensation if they believe they were injured as a result of somebody else's wrongdoing.

I made it extremely clear that no matter who we are in our society, we are accountable and responsible for our own actions. Regardless of whether you are a janitor or a cardiac surgeon. If you cause injury or harm to someone else because of carelessness, you must stand up and take responsibility for your actions. It is that simple. The surgeon did not agree with me, and I certainly was not going to waste my time and energy trying to convince him otherwise.

Instead, I offered him an opportunity. I offered him the chance to write a guest blog post on my website. In fact, I challenged him to write a guest blog post that I would gladly put up on my website without editing. I asked him to write about his concerns and frustrations with lawsuits and why he feels that injured victims should not receive compensation for their injuries.

When I proposed this challenge to him, I truly hoped that he would take me up on my offer since it would be a great opportunity to let readers of my website see a contrarian viewpoint coming directly from a physician who is passionate about these issues. Despite offering him the opportunity to write whatever he wished on my website, he has failed to take advantage of my highly unusual offer.

Who knows, he might think that it is taboo for a physician to post an article on an attorney's website who deals primarily with helping injured victims obtain compensation for their injuries. For whatever reason, he has not risen to the challenge.

Lawyers ask me all the time what they should do if someone posts a negative review online about them. My answer is the same as the one I've discussed here in this blog post. Don't delete it, and don't ignore it. Instead, start a conversation which now gives you an opportunity to explain to the reader. Embrace it as an opportunity to teach and educate even though it may initially sting.