Medical Misadventures
"We are all accountable but in the medical profession there is an overwhelming desire to shift the blame. There is an overwhelming desire to blame others and to refuse to accept responsibility. We are all patients, and we all deserve to be respected and kept safe. Do no harm. Do not expose a patient to an unreasonable risk of harm. Take steps to keep a patient safe and to heal not hurt. When you fail in your job don't seek protection by limiting compensation to the injured or hiding behind confidential settlements so that your reputation is tarnished. Step up and accept responsibility otherwise find another less stressful and less important profession. Insurance companies have to stop blaming lawyers otherwise we are all going to be the subject of this type of a fractured life. Don't let this happen to you. Do the right thing and know your rights and protect your health and well-being." — Attorney Howard Mishkind
My Recent Adventures in Medical Errors
by G. P.
Hi, everyone. I wanted to share my family's recent experiences in medical errors just to highlight the point – as if we needed reminding – that none of us is immune and not much has changed.
A family member was scheduled to have knee surgery, and in conjunction with that had a pre-op workup including EKG that was normal. But he started complaining of epigastric pain while visiting me during Thanksgiving, so I sent him to the urgent care center nearby. He had every test they could do, all of which came back normal. He went back home and eventually to another doctor and eventually wound up in a very prominent NYC teaching hospital having a lap choley. While in there, they also discovered a perforated ulcer, so they did a gastric resection. He was discharged but soon after began complaining of rib pain, which was different that his incisional pain. He also stated that he couldn't really breathe when he was out in the cold air. He called his surgeon repeatedly, but was not told to come in and be seen, and no lab testing was ordered. Instead, he was told not to worry. Eventually, he had such air hunger that he went to the local ED and was admitted with multiple pulmonary emboli. (He had never received anticoagulants in the periop period despite multiple risk factors.) He spent a week in the ICU, narrowly escaping death, and is now on anticoagulants for an undetermined period of time, with the attendant side effects.
I wish that were the end of the story, but it isn't. This person suffers from depression, and his various medical misadventures and attendant disability made that problem much worse. So he was put on Lithium and told to follow up in FOUR MONTHS. This person is pretty well informed, so he went on line and discovered the many recommendations for frequent lithium level testing, especially at the beginning of treatment. He actually called the doctor's office (prominent NYC psychiatrist) to ask about this but was told not to worry and to just come back for follow up in 4 months. You can probably guess what happened. He wound up in a local ED again and was admitted to the hospital for 6 days for management of acute lithium toxicity. He was near death – AGAIN.
So basically, twice in 4 months my family member wound up in a hospital for a week-long stay for complications from medical errors. And who is paying for this? Why, his insurance carrier, of course. None of the providers involved in these errors have attempted to meet with him to discuss what happened. He is now in danger of losing his job because of so much time lost.
Even this is not the end of the story, but I won't bore you with the details of how my family member has been repeatedly thwarted in his efforts to find out what happened to him. He has tried to find out what happened and get copies of his medical records to no avail. The only meaningful option left to him at this point is to retain a lawyer to try to find out what happened, which he plans to do. It is certainly easier and more effective than trying to "partner" with his medical care providers.
So here are my takeaways:
- For all you providers out there who want tort reform because of so much frivolous litigation, I say get your house in order first. The response of the medical community to injured patients continues to be shamefully inadequate. I don't think you are entitled to any special protections.
- For anyone who thinks we have made great strides in disclosure, think again. Or better yet, go and find out the many roadblocks and barriers that your organization has erected to prevent patients from trying to find out what happened to them. And proactive engagement of patients and their families when errors have occurred? Don't make me laugh – or cry.
- My family member plans to report the doctors to the state medical licensing board. It should be interesting to see what their response is. IF there was ever a situation in which the public needs to be protected from charlatans, this is it. Yet I have little faith that anything will be done. All of the physicians involved are still merrily seeing patients and collecting fees, while my family member lay in the hospital near death on two occasions, and later at home and on disability, and now worried about losing his job – and his medical benefits.
- The physician providers and hospitals that were the perpetrators of the errors were highly regarded NYC providers with great reputations. They had all kinds of awards and were highly rated by Leapfrog. The two hospitals that saved his life, on the other hand, are considered less desirable, at least according to Leapfrog and even healthcare colleagues I have spoken to, and the providers who treated him there and saved his life both times are foreign-trained and unknown. None of them have any awards to post on billboards. So I am not too keen on all the awards and honors out there that are being so liberally granted. Those prizes and awards really don't mean much – it is just a marketing ploy, something to erect a billboard about. They have nothing to do with how patients get treated.
