Malpractice Law Could Mean Fewer Lawsuits

This happened at the University of Michigan. I received no apologies or explanations.

Several years ago I received a fibula-free-flap-transfer to rebuild my jaw. I was to remain in the hospital for a week. Several days after my operation my swelling went up instead of subsiding. Doctors made comments on my swelling, but not one doctor ever touched the area and investigated a cause. I was complaining of unbearable thirst, feeling out of it, and I told them my feeding tube was causing severe irritation to my throat. I was begging for water. No one listened to me. No one looked into why I was so thirsty and swollen.

A week after my surgery I was to be discharged. That morning a resident looked into my mouth, made a face, and pulled out a piece of necrotic tissue. She then told me I must not be keeping my mouth clean enough. I knew I was following all instructions given to me.

Later as I dressed to leave I could barely stand up. My daughter and my friend came to take me back to our hotel. When they saw the condition I was in they were very worried. My nurse told them I was alright to go. When I got up from the bed there was blood and pus all over my pillow and in my hair. My daughter and my friend checked the drainage tube on the back of my neck and it was filled with thick green/yellow bloody discharge. They immediately called my nurse. She came in, acted very nervous, and said it was ok and I should leave. I asked about the drainage coming out of my neck and requested that my doctor look at it. She told us that my doctor was in surgery and would be in the OR all day. It was about noon. I asked if there was someone else that could come and look at it. She told me there was not and I could leave.

My daughter called my sister, who is a nurse, and told her what was happening. My sister told my daughter to ask for a nursing supervisor. My daughter and my friend went out to ask if someone could look at the drainage coming from my neck. The supervisor told them there was no one and I could leave. When my daughter asked about my drainage the nursing supervisor sarcastically said, “What do you want me to do, go to the OR, “scrub-in” and get a doctor for your mom? Please know that we were always polite and never raised our voices.

Soon thereafter I started having trouble swallowing and felt that my throat was closing. Again we called my nurse for assistance. When I told her I felt my throat was closing she took the red robin suctioning device, handed it to my daughter and said, “suction your mother” and left the room.

She returned a few minutes later with a wheelchair and said I could leave. My friend told her we would wait for a doctor to check me. My nurse said there was no need for me to wait for a doctor and that I would have to wait a long time. She tossed the discharge papers on the bed where I was and said she was going to pull my IV. My sister, the nurse, was on the phone with my daughter and told her to tell her not to pull it as I may still need it. My nurse pulled it anyway and left the room.

At one point my friend asked my nurse how I could possibly leave the hospital with blood and pus dripping all over the place. My nurse left the room and came back with gauze and tape. She told my friend to tape the gauze on the end of my tube. My friend refused so my nurse angrily did it herself. My friend phoned her husband and told him I was dying and no one would help me.

My throat felt tight and then I started having severe chills. Again my daughter and my friend requested a nurse come look at me. An aide came in and took my temp and quickly left. My daughter took pictures of me with her cell phone and sent them to my sister. My sister saw the pictures and told my daughter to go back out and demand that the nursing supervisor get someone to look at me. The supervisor came into my room and said angrily, “if I get someone to come answer your questions will you leave then?”

My sister, the nurse, called her husband who is a doctor. He immediately called the hospital to have my doctor paged. His message said that my doctor should get his ass out of the OR and go check on me. By then it was after 3 pm. I was so sick and I told my daughter and my friend not to let me fall asleep because I was afraid I would never wake up. I also told them that maybe we should leave and go to the emergency room at another hospital.

Around 3:30 the physician assistant came into my room. She scolded me for “making trouble” and asked me why my brother-in-law sent that message to the OR. She said that my doctor should never be talked to like that. She asked me how I would have liked it if someone had made trouble when I had been in surgery. I told her something was wrong and I was scared. I was having a hard time breathing and swallowing. By that time the incision in the front of my neck was opening with pus coming out. When the PA pressed on my neck pus was coming out from the front and back. She told me to stay in my room. She then took the pillowcase with the pus and blood on it off my pillow and left the room.

Soon after that my doctor came into the room. More people came in also. He immediately made incisions into the front and back of my neck to drain the pus. That took over an hour. He put a new drain into the back of my neck and I started getting bleach rinses around the clock. I also had wound dehiscence in my mouth so the liquid inserted into my neck drain would pour out of the front of my neck and my mouth. My IV was restarted and I was put on two antibiotics. I had a severe infection. I had to stay in the hospital an additional ten days and received another surgery to repair the damage.

There is much, much more to this story, but what bothers me to this day is that not one of the nurses that refused to help me and were disrespectful to my daughter and friend ever apologized. In fact, no one apologized. A few years later I requested my medical record. My medical record was missing entries for that day and other documentation was either incorrect or minimized my infection. I asked for an investigation and they did nothing. Thank goodness I have the pictures to prove what happened.

If my brother-in-law was not a doctor, I do not think I would be alive today.

I agree that I think these are decent ideas. I think most patients just want good communication and for the doctor to care about them. Doctors practice in fear of litigation. Often times the communication lines completely shut down when there is an incident that could cause them to use their medical malpractice insurance. (see http://www.equotemd.com/blog ) Giving doctors the ability to communicate with the patient and express their sorrow would reduce the amount of medical malpractice claims. It might not reduce them by a large percentage but I still think it would reduce them by some amount.
Razia

Medical Malpractice is mainly due to the negligence of medical service provider.