Storytelling, a follow-up

[Eugene Volokh]

     I apologize in advance, because this is not really on-topic;
but it struck me as a good follow-up to our discussion two weeks
ago on anecdotal evidence.

     When I was debating about race-based affirmative action, I'd
often hear the story of Alan Bakke and Patrick Chavis, who
supposedly took Bakke's place at Davis.  Bakke, it was said, ended
up a part-time anesthesiologist in a rich suburb.  Chavis dedicated
his life to serving poor people in the inner city.

     This always struck me as a remarkably nonsensical argument;
one such example means absolutely nothing, and I do mean really,
nothing, about the merits of race-based affirmative action.  Zero,
nada, zip -- no relevance at all.  Still, the argument was popular;
I give you two in-print samples, the latter one cowritten by Connie
Rice, who I believe runs NAACP litigation here in Southern
California, and Tom Hayden, the well-known ex-radical politician.

     "The ultimate wisdom of affirmative action is the
     fascinating footnote that real life has bestowed on the
     Bakke decision.  Allan Bakke, admitted to medical school
     as a result of the lawsuit, is an anesthesiologist in
     Rochester, Minn.  Patrick Chavis -- the black son of a
     welfare mother who had been admitted with lower scores
     than Mr. Bakke -- is a gynecologist serving poor Medicaid
     mothers in southern California.  The social advantages of
     diversity continue to reverberate after graduation."
     Editorial, "Affirming Affirmative Action," St. Louis
     Dispatch, Apr. 12, 1996, at 16C.

     "A case in point is Dr. Allan Bakke himself.  Bakke, the
     white male graduate of U.C. Davis Medical School who sued
     to eliminate that institution's sixteen seats for
     minorities, ended up with a part-time anesthesiology
     practice in Rochester, Minnesota.  Dr. Patrick Chavis,
     the African-American who allegedly `took Bakke's place'
     in medical school, has a huge OB/GYN practice providing
     primary care to poor women in predominantly minority
     Compton.  Bakke's scores were higher, but who made the
     most of his medical school education?  From whom did
     California taxpayers benefit more?"  Connie Rice & Tom
     Hayden, "California Cracks its Mortaboards," The Nation,
     Sept. 18, 1995, at 264.

     Now, recent news from the June 20, 1997 L.A. Times, "Doctor's
License is Suspended," at B1:

     "An administrative law judge ordered the emergency
     suspension of a Lynwood obstetrician's medical license
     Thursday, finding that he was grossly negligent and
     unprofessional in his care of three liposuction patients,
     one of whom bled to death last June hours after an
     operation.  Dr. Patrick Chavis' conduct `demonstrates an
     inability to perform some of the most basic duties
     required of a physician,' Judge Samuel D. Reyes wrote in
     an 11-page decision released two days after a hearing on
     the matter.  `His failure in this regard, although
     occurring only with lipectomy patients, is so fundamental
     that it evidences the inability to safely practice in
     other areas of medicine.' . . .

     "Jimmy Cotton, husband of the patient who bled to death,
     said the judge's decision was just the first step in a
     `long walk' to justice. . . .  Cotton, who accompanied
     his healthy, 43-year-old wife, Tammaria, to Chavis'
     office on the day of her surgery, said he became frantic
     as her condition worsened, and was stunned by her death.
     Chavis is accused of abandoning Tammaria Cotton, groggy
     and bleeding in his office, to check on another gravely
     injured liposuction patient suffering alone at his
     Compton home.  Cotton was later pronounced dead at a
     local hospital.  A third patient allegedly lost 70% of
     her blood after May 1996 liposuction surgery."

     To my knowledge, this is the same Patrick Chavis; he has been
reported as the same one in the media, and Lynwood is indeed in
South Central Los Angeles.  It seems to me unlikely that there
would be two different Patrick Chavises practicing as obstetricians
in South Central L.A.  (I also recognize that the medical license
review process is fallible, but I'm willing to presume that the ALJ
was correct.)

     What does Chavis's misconduct teach us?  Of course, absolutely
nothing -- exactly as tales of Chavis's public-spiritedness taught
us absolutely nothing.  Absolutely nothing except what we should have
known all along, which is the folly of drawing general conclusions
from individual incidents.

    Perhaps, then, this is a useful story to tell would-be
storytellers; purely as a cautionary tale, of course, and not laying
any claims to generalizability.

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