HEART OF THE MATTER…THE REST OF THE STORY
Ending lawsuit abuse preserves a Mississippi family’s medical legacy
The Kevin Galloway story
The latest commercial from the Barbour for Governor campaign entitled “Heart of the Matter” features Dr. Kevin Galloway recounting how sweeping tort reform helped the Mississippi healthcare community and enabled him to refocus his attention on patients rather than lawyers. Now you can read the rest of the story…
Almost out the door
“How close was I to leaving? I had signed contracts in my hands that I hadn’t mailed yet. I had called the moving trucks to see how long it would take to load equipment and move. I had flown out there to look for houses.”
Dr. Kevin Galloway, the OB-GYN featured in the latest Barbour for Governor campaign commercial, describes the desperate times before Governor Haley Barbour signed the sweeping 2004 Tort Reform Act.
Dr. Galloway says the out of control lawsuits, the outrageous malpractice insurance rates, and the atmosphere of legal threats nearly pushed him to abandon his practice in Mississippi.
“I had calls from Arizona, Nevada, California, with money on the table. Have you seen the Western mountains? Beautiful. In Mississippi, we were at war. Lawyers turned patients against their doctors. Doctors threatened not to treat lawyers. I began to wonder why I shouldn’t move.”
Dr. Galloway says Haley Barbour’s persistent and reassuring discussions persuaded this Calloway High School and Jackson State University student to remain in his native Mississippi, and serve his community as a physician.
“Haley Barbour assured me things would be different. He asked me to give him a chance to make a change and that we’d get it done. He is the major reason I stayed. And he is a man of his word.”
A family tradition
Dr. Galloway grew up in Jackson and attended Calloway High School and Jackson State University. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of his cousin, Dr. Paul Rice, one of the first African-American OB-GYNs in Jackson. “We used to talk about maybe one day, I would be a doctor and we could practice together,” Galloway remembers. “He was a pioneer here in Jackson with the largest African American OB-GYN practice in the Jackson area. Paul was this successful and professional man, and I wanted to be like him.”
After earning a degree in Texas, his medical degree in Chicago, interning and residency at Tulane and in Detroit, he returned home to Jackson, Mississippi. He realized a dream and partnered with his cousin. Their family tradition stretches back to their great-grandmother, Lizzie Taylor, a midwife who served the African American community in Madison County from the turn of the century into the Great Depression.
The legacy of this Mississippi family continues to grow. Dr. Galloway’s fiancé, Dr. Carol Harris – also a graduate of Calloway – has returned to Jackson to open a practice next month in pain management. “Carol has the opportunity to make $600,000 a year in other parts of the country. She would not be coming to Mississippi if we still had the lawsuit atmosphere we had before Haley Barbour took office. But now she is ordering supplies, about to open her practice,” Galloway says. Soon to be married, these physicians intend to make a difference in their community and Mississippi.
Without Governor Barbour’s tort reform work, Dr. Galloway would no longer be in Mississippi. Dr. Rice would have “left or retired early.” Dr. Harris would not have returned to Mississippi. And the family medical legacy of Lizzie Taylor would have faded into history.
“What Governor Barbour did for the medical community has had an enormous impact on me: professionally and personally,” says Galloway. And, it all began at an informal meeting in 2002.
Meeting Dr. Galloway
Haley Barbour and Kevin Galloway met at a social function and sat around shooting the breeze as Mississippians do: medicine, business, sports, politics. Dr. Galloway told Barbour that growing up he had always heard you work hard, get an education, and get out – find opportunities somewhere else. But he had returned home to make a difference, only to find that frivolous lawsuits and high insurance premiums were pushing him to the brink. He was thinking about seeking opportunities elsewhere.
“Haley said ‘stick around, things are going to change.’ He asked me to stay, contribute to Mississippi, and not be part of the brain drain as our best and brightest leave the state.”
Dr. Galloway thought about his options. Over the next two years, he would see then candidate Haley Barbour at various campaign and public events. “He would pull me aside, pick my brain, reassure me that when he was governor, things would be different.”
Now he has seen the difference Haley Barbour, as Governor, has made for Mississippi. “When I speak to medical or professional conferences around the country, people are often surprised to learn that I’m from Mississippi. We have a negative connotation to our state, that we’re uneducated or unsuccessful. So I’m glad I chose to stay; that I was able to stay in Mississippi and contribute to our future and change our image. Somewhere else, I’d just be another doctor. In Mississippi, I have a chance to be a vibrant part of my community and affect some change. Without tort reform, regardless of my desire, I would not have had that option.”
Dr. Kevin Galloway practices in Jackson at the Central Mississippi Medical Center and the Special Beginnings For Women clinic in Vicksburg.
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