I probably overreacted, but the language felt incredibly inflammatory. My lawyer reassured me, saying “it’s not personal, it’s business.” It was just the way lawyers do things. It certainly felt personal to me. A few months later—malpractice cases grind you down slowly—I had a conference with my attorney, who had gotten a medical record from the camp saying that the patient got a massage from a bunkmate after their visit with me and then complained about severe neck pain. I thought this would end things. Someone else obviously caused the problem. I started to feel better about myself. But I was wrong.

Two years after being served, I finally gave a deposition. It was short. Honestly, I didn’t have much to say as I had a brief medical record and no independent recollection of the encounter. My lawyer had prepared me to “only answer the questions asked” and not to answer any question about facts about which I was uncertain.

It was another year before anything else happened. A trial had been scheduled. This occurred in Portland, Maine, in the summer of 1984, seven years since the incident and three years since I was sued. Today, I can still vividly see the courtroom, the judge, the jury box with eight people who would judge whether I was guilty of malpractice, my attorney and his assistant, and the plaintiff and their attorney.

I was on the stand for a short time, as I didn’t have much to say except that I didn’t do what the plaintiff alleged. The camp nurse was unable to attend the trial and a video of her deposition testimony was presented. My expert was a local chiropractor, who I knew and had referred patients to when I was in family practice. He told the jury that the maneuver so precisely described by the plaintiff was a common chiropractic maneuver that was abandoned because too many chiropractors injured themselves doing it.

The plaintiff’s expert was a neurologist, who had been one of my instructors in residency. I felt betrayed. He testified about the plaintiff’s alleged injuries. When asked by my attorney in cross examination to give his diagnosis, he stated “cervical myalgia.” Then came the part that I will never forget. My attorney said, “We are just simple folks up here in Maine. Can you please explain what that means?” He just answered, “a pain in the neck.”