Maybe she didn't die in vain. Jésica Santillán, the 17 year old, who died last weekend at Duke Medical Center, may become a focal point of the debate over malpractice caps, according to the New York Times. It's a shame, of course, that it takes this type of tragedy to viscerally illustrate the the stakes in the debate over whether to limit damages.

Said one Republican lobbyist:

The entire effort hit a brick wall this weekend," the lobbyist said. "This was a very heavy lift under the absolute positive best of circumstances, and the circumstances just took a turn for the worse.

And, apparently even die-hard Repubs are starting to head for the hills:

But another senior Republican, Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, said any legislation to cap malpractice awards would have to have an exception for egregious cases.

"I question whether anything would pass that did not have some way of solving the hard cases," said Mr. Hatch, who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is working on a draft of a Senate bill.

What Sen. Hatch seems to miss is the fact that every medical malpractice case is "the hard case." I haven't seen one yet where the defense did not fight the case as if it were the last lawsuit on Earth.

And:

Mary Alexander, the association's president, said it would be extremely difficult for the Santilláns to sue under a $250,000 cap, because it costs nearly that much to bring a case.

"Her tragedy shows what this arbitrary, one-size-fits-all cap means," Ms. Alexander said.

Read the whole article to see that Big Insurance and the doctors still don't -- or won't -- get it. Example: Tom Delay, the House Majority Leader, said, "Obviously, the tragedy in North Carolina was just horrific and unfortunate....It doesn't change anything."

Tell that to Jessica's parents.

UPDATE: Here's a story from FoxNews on the subject.