Here’s your $250,000…now take your crippled kid and get out of my sight

When George Bush’s world becomes a reality:

He cannot see, he walks with leg braces, and his IQ lags far behind that of most other 12-year-olds.

This is life for Steven Olsen, the once-healthy Chula Vista boy who is becoming a poster child for the battle against President Bush’s plan to cap the amount that juries can give to victims of medical malpractice.

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When Steven was 2, he fell on a twig that penetrated his sinus area. Doctors at Children’s Hospital rejected his parents’ plea for an $800 brain CAT scan. An abscess developed, leading to Steven’s permanent disabilities and cerebral palsy.

“It’s easy for them to say (the Bush plan) is fair and balanced, because they’re not hurt by malpractice,” said Scott Olsen, who is in Washington to kick off a nationwide bus tour by consumer advocates opposed to the Bush plan. “We challenge them to find any person injured by malpractice in California who will agree that this is fair and balanced.”