Wife / Doctors / Hopsital / Malpractice?

[Brian the Automator]

As I sit here in the ER for the 25^th time (and that's a conservative estimate) with the doctor telling her that they're just going to take some vitals and make sure "nothing's wrong" so that we can "enjoy our day", I've become pretty much a raging ball of fury.

 

For most of her life, Nicole had been healthy as a horse. She was very active, athletic, and "normal".

 

In 2001, Nicole was having some big issues with sinus infections, so she went and saw an ear, nose and throat specialist. He advised her to get a sinus surgery, because her sinuses were formed in such a way that bacteria found it easy to hang out and cause trouble. Sinus surgery was flawless, and she got treated with antibiotics afterward, which I guess is pretty normal. The only problem was, she was getting worse. They threw Cipro and many other heavy-hitting drugs at her, and she got worse. Turns out that if you feed someone too much antibiotics, you kill off the "good" bacteria, and fungus has a field day. Fungal infections that attack the body are bad news, and this was pretty horrible. She was sick on and off for the better part of a year.

 

After that, her appendix got removed. It happens, whatever.

 

After that, she complained of horrible nausea. Her gallbladder function I guess wasn't too good, so away that went. Not having a gallbladder kinda sucks though, because there are minor and annoying complications when you don't have one anymore. It's not as useless as the appendix.

 

After that, it was foot surgery. She had a plantar fascial release done on her right foot. Crappy, but whatever, she got dealt a crappy hand.

 

Now here's where it REALLY starts to suck. She's had osteoarthritis for a while now… Started getting worse around 2003. Kind of young to start getting arthritis problems, but whatever, I suppose it happens to some people. So, off to see a pain clinic where they start shooting steroids into her back. It doesn't get better. Doctor repeatedly shoots her with steroids, and actually once has the audacity to laugh at her when she started crying because getting needles stuck in her spine was apparently a terrifying ordeal (go figure).

 

She had another medical issue, which I won't mention specifically by name, but she went and saw the best doctor in the city in that field, apparently. We felt lucky to be in such good care. He prescribed her steroids because her levels didn't look right. "Magically", she had about 3 months where she felt perfect… Wasn't sick, arthritis was completely gone… it was like she got a totally new lease on life.

 

Well, obviously since I'm writing this, that ended. It turns out that her adrenals stopped working. Unfortunately, the only way to test WHY that is, is to test her without using steroids. The problem is that every time she drops a steroid dose, she gets horribly sick (steroid withdrawal). This could be something she could just "suck up", but the problem is because she's immuno-comprimised (because of the steroids), she picks up every little bug, and she has to jack her steroids back up to compensate. So, she can never get off of them to find out what the problem is. She also tore an ACL this spring because steroids weakened her ligaments. Good times.

 

I'm absolutely fed up, and I feel that at several points since 2001, doctors haven't done their job (causing her to have a horrible systemic fungal infection, and shutting down her adrenals). This has been really stressful - physically, emotionally, and financially. She's been on boatloads of painkillers on and off for her injuries/ailments, and it just feels like no one's taking us seriously anymore.

 

Anyone have any history with malpractice claims? I'm about as non "sue-happy" as you can get, but I'm really feeling backed into a corner on this one.

 

 

 

 

[razzzorsharp]

I'm sorry I don't have much to add in terms of experience with lawsuits and what not, but I do wish nothing but the best for you and Nicole. I still remember the first year of softball where she set up a mean buffet line that was extremely yummy.

 

I am sure you have done this but when my dad had some issues he went and got a couple of different opinions from different hospitals and went from there.

[TooLiveBrew]

Get better as soon as you can, Nicole. I'm sorry I can't be of any help. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

[dadofandrew]

Avoid any and all lawsuits if you possibly can. I'd concentrate on finding a doctor who can help and go from there, maybe get some recs from others or those in the know.

 

She's probably got some immune issues. I might start from there. Best of luck.

[Brian the Automator]

I'd concentrate on finding a doctor who can help and go from there, maybe get some recs from others or those in the know.

We've got awesome doctors, except that they're impossible to get in to see.

[dadofandrew]

Is that because they are helping her so much, or because you like them? They seem to unable to figure out anything, or at least, expect any of the continued problems.

 

Has she been on any message boards? It seems to me she may have something that they are treating the symptoms but not the true cause.

[Brian the Automator]

Is that because they are helping her so much, or because you like them? They seem to unable to figure out anything, or at least, expect any of the continued problems.

 

Has she been on any message boards? It seems to me she may have something that they are treating the symptoms but not the true cause

As far as the doctors go, her endocrinologist is the absolute best in the area, and her other doctors were the best in the area as well (all at Froedtert and highly recommended).

 

She's done the message board thing, and a BOATLOAD of reading. We're covered there. The big problem here is that no diagnostic testing can be done until she gets off the steroids, but the steroids are what's keeping her from getting sick and dying. It's a horrible catch-22. She basically needs a huge streak of luck where she doesn't get sick and is able to taper off her steroids.

[lcbj68c]

I am seeking a lawsuit in the recent death of my Dad. Long Story Short...he went into the ER w/ arm pain and jaw pain. He was released 3 hours later with a diagnosis of a mouth infection. He begged and begged for them to do more testing or keep him overnight as he felt he was not getting any better. They refused, saying they were certain of his diagnosis and basically kicked him out. 8 hours later he was deceased. An autopsy showed a heart attack / blockage of the main artery. The autopsy also showed "no mouth infection whatsoever". The medical examiner is the one who after interviewing with us pre-autopsy, he post-autopsy recommended the lawsuit.

 

I for one am not doing it so much for the money. I, as argumentative as I am, am bringing the lawsuit as a means to get the hospital/doctors/nurses to admit wrongdoing. I feel as if my ability to have another 30+ years of memories with my Dad was taken away from me over what could have been avoided with a two minute blood enzyme test or a 5-minute EKG. It's almost as if they didn't try.

 

Brian, I have been in contact with both Habash & Habash and Aiken & Scoptur. I am very impressed with Aiken & Scoptur. Both firms only take on cases that they know they have a very good shot of winning, as they don't get paid if you don't get paid. Aiken & Scoptur have also been very successful in getting hospitals and the Wisconsin legislature to pass new laws in the way that hospitals and doctors perform. For example, they won a case in which a hospital sent home a 9-month old with a 104.7 degree fever. The child died 4 hours later at home. They were able to get new legislation as a result of winning the case in which hospitals no longer can send infants home with a temperature over 103.5 degrees. It is that kind of representation that I want. Perhaps this will require hospitals to change their practices in regards to simple testing for patients complaining of cardiac related ailments. That is another reason for wanting to bring the lawsuit, hoping to inflict change so that others may not suffer the same circumstances.

 

I don't have answers to you specifically about your lawsuit, but I do know that you owe it to your wife and yourself to fight with everything you have and do some simple counseltations with some firms, including the two I listed above. Maybe you don't have a case, but the counseltations are always free. Don't hesitate on not having a better chance at the next 30+, physically, emotionally, and financially.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Brian, while I can definately empathize with this issue, I'd stay away from a lawsuit unless it's your last possible hope. You certainly don't seem like the type of person (people, counting you and the wife) that would *want* to make money off of something like this, unless you felt that there was no other option.

One thing I can say is that even one lawsuit brought against a doctor or clinic can give you a reputation that might follow you around as being "sue happy" even if you were justified in doing so.

I also want to point out that in the last 10 years or so I've really come to learn that the plain truth is there's still a lot about the human body, the way it works, and it's mysteries that even the best doctors still don't know. I'm not saying that they're not just plain wrong sometimes, but there are times where they're as stumped as we are. I think in general people "trust" doctors to know everything about their field, and we want to feel like when we go to the hospital/doctor/clinic, that no matter what, we're going to be taken care of.

2 years ago, I had 3 days in a row of blinding, crippling headaches. I assumed of course, I was suffering migraines. I went to the ER, and they loaded me up on painkillers, gave me vicodin, and sent me home. After this happening 3 days, and then 3 days the following week (same 3 days), I went to a doctor. She said my BP was too high, causing the migraines. Put me on water pills and a low salt diet. Got my BP down to normal levels, and was still having the headaches. These headaches were so bad that I could not function for 2-3 days at a time, and if I had to take vicodin to control them, I couldn't work anyways.

We weren't getting anywhere, so she sent me to a head doctor (neurologist?) who basically said the same thing. We did CATscans, we did MRI's, and still didn't get anywhere. HE sent me to a doctor in Milwaukee who took a guess, looked at another MRI, and figured out what was causing the headaches, which turned out not to be migraines at all, but cluster headaches. I won't get into the specifics of what caused it in myself, but If anybody here knows what they are or has ever had them, they could attest that they're far worse than migraines.

Now, the bad part. This doctor says that as a whole, the medical field knows very little about the why's and what's of cluster headaches. They're in the "experimental" stages of treating it, and it basically amounts to taking medicine that's actually designed to control seizures in epileptics.

Long story short, I was advised by many (uninformed, and not knowledgeable about malpractice laws I'm sure) that I should go after the first 2 doctors for misdiagnosis, because the amount of time I missed work due to this medical issue did eventually cost me my job.

How can it be misdiagnosis when most doctors aren't even aware that the condition exists? It's a lonely, scary feeling to be in a doctors office and be told "This is what you have, we don't know much about it, the treatment we'll try is in the early experimental stages".

It was a wakeup call, an epiphany of sorts, if you will, that these people are human too, they have good days, they have bad days, and sometimes when they're on the job, they get situations that they can't handle because the knowledge that's available is limited or might not exist at all. Now I realize that every day, doctors hold people's lives in their hands, and they should (and almost always do) strive to do the very best that they can. I know that a doctor's "bad day" can cost someone a life, but I think by and large, most of them do the best they can with what they have on a day to day basis.

I'm not saying "don't sue", and I definately empathize with your situation, it's frustrating and scary to not know how to cope with a life altering medical condition. Just realize that most if not all of the doctors that are dealing with Nicole's health problems are most certainly trying their best based on the knowledge they have about the symptoms that are described to them.

[mothershipconnection]

Suing in these situations isn't necessarily about making money for pain and suffering, but about getting the hospital to pony up for money you've spent in copays and deductibles as well as gigantic bills you could incur in the future if you ever found yourself without insurance.

[Brian the Automator]

I'm not saying "don't sue", and I definately empathize with your situation, it's frustrating and scary to not know how to cope with a life altering medical condition. Just realize that most if not all of the doctors that are dealing with Nicole's health problems are most certainly trying their best based on the knowledge they have about the symptoms that are described to them.

 

I'm not upset that doctors are misdiagnosing her. That's fine, we're resigned to the fact that what she has going on is extremely atypical. What I'm upset about are doctors loading her up with steroids without doing any diagnosis, which basically have her in an endless cycle of feeling sick.

 

As far as the money goes, we've spent more money than I can count on medical bills. It's the ones that came after what I think was negligence (and other doctors thought so as well) that make me especially upset. As far as the pain and suffering go, this really had a HUGE impact on our lives. It's hard to say that's worth "cold, hard cash". While nothing will ever replace the time in the prime of her life that was stolen from her, it's not something that I feel should go with zero compensation.

 

If this ends up even being CLOSE to frivolous, that's something I want no part of.

[PlayerHader]

Do you think it was "stolen" from her by the doctors? Not being in your situation I can't imagine what this has been like. Prayers for your wife and good luck making the best decisions going forward.

[Brian the Automator]

Do you think it was "stolen" from her by the doctors? Not being in your situation I can't imagine what this has been like. Prayers for your wife and good luck making the best decisions going forward.

If by you're asking by "stolen" do I mean that doctors have annexed years of a 20-something woman onto her life and are enjoying it, of course not. However, it's because of their decisions (not testing to see what the problem was before administering steroids) that Nicole is basically living with what feels like a permanent case of mono.

[Brian the Automator]

Back at the ER again ... ugh

 

But holy crap, Froedtert's ER makes Waukesha Memorial Hospital look like a pile of puke. The people here are actually friendly and seem to listen.

[DHonks]

Brian, I've had three issues in recent years, so I hear ya. I'm not lucky enough to be married, though. My sis in law (one of my best friends) nearly died after complications from bleeding 8 weeks after giving birth to my niece. She kept telling them she had severe bleeding and they treated her like she was just another crazy person claiming the same old thing. My ex-girlfriend has been diagnosed with an extremely rare stomach condition yet her gal bladder shows very poor effectiveness. My friends that are doctors all recommended having the gal bladder out as it might be causing the stomach issue. Yet her doctors at Mayo (specialists in rare conditions) insist that while the gal bladder is working very poorly, it likely isn't the cause. And finally my mom--a former transplant patient--has gone to the ER complaining of things only to have the ER say that everything is fine. When her doctors later ordered certain tests, they confirmed her fears.

 

So my biggest issue right now is simply doctors not listening to patients and not being concerned with finding solutions. It's as if they're taking the approach of "rub some dirt on it, you're fine."

[logan82]

After reading this thread and what happened to my dad last summer(he's okay now), I get the feeling that ER doctors are not real good at diagnosing things. I am sure part of that is dealing with so many people coming off the street for aches and pains that when somebody has a real problem it is hard to tell the difference. I have to agree that doctors have a difficult job and studying the human body isn't an exact science.

[LouisEly]

After reading this thread and what happened to my dad last summer(he's okay now), I get the feeling that ER doctors are not real good at diagnosing things.

 

First, my condolences to those who have experienced medical issues that have had negative outcomes. I am going to pre-apologize because I'm probably going to say some things that you might not want to hear and may upset you.

 

ER doctors are generally trained to handle emergencies - myocardial infarctions/cardiac arrest, wounds, trauma, life support, etc. Their specialty is dealing with the obvious and the immediate, and not necessarily diagnosis of something you can't see or feel. Like someone said earlier, they get a lot of people coming off the street for stuff that they should be seeing a regular primary care doctor about. A big part of the issue too is the patient being able to verbalize and communicate accurately what they are feeling, which is the key to diagnosis of anything they can't see. If the patient says they "feel funny"... what's a doctor supposed to do then? If someone comes in with "arm pain and jaw pain", that might not be high on the list of symptoms of arterial blockage and may be higher on a list of symptoms of something else. My condolences to you and your family, but arterial blockage is something that occurs over time and is something that regular visits to a primary care doctor or cardiologist would be better at diagnosing than an ER doctor.

 

The key is a doctor's "specialty". What is it that they are trained specifically to do? Every "doctor" does not know everything about everything. Go to a specialist in the general field of what the issue is, not the ER.

 

If that doesn't yield the best result, do some research to find out what the top clinics/centers/doctors in the nation are in that field and go there. Brian, my best advice to you to help your wife's condition is to look outside of Milwaukee. Milwaukee is not a mecca for the cutting edge of medicine and research. The money it will cost you to fly somewhere and stay for a week/month/whatever to see the top specialist in that field would probably be a lot less than what you have spent so far based on what you have said.

 

A quick story about someone I know. This person had numbness in their leg and foot for some time, and no diagnosis after several tests. He, being in the medical field, went to the top specialist at Keck-USC and found out he had a tumor on his spinal column. Extremely difficult surgery with a high probability of paralysis or death. When he went back to schedule the surgery he found out the doctor was gone and they wouldn't tell him where he went. He spoke to the doctor's former nurse, and she called him privately to tell him the doctor moved to Miami to work at the best spinal surgery institute in the nation, training under the doctor who, IIRC, did Christopher Reeve's surgery. So he flew to Miami to have the surgery done, and not only did that doctor do the surgery but the head of the institute who did Reeve's surgery assisted with it. He stayed in Miami for nine months pre-and-post-op. After being told that paralysis would likely be the best outcome, almost a year later he is walking around and back to work part-time. Not 100% yet, but the outcome was so good that the doctors who did the surgery asked him if he would agree to become part of a case study for publishing in medical journals and conventions and would give him free follow-up care for life if he consented.

 

I have many stories like that, including an aunt who lives in Arizona who has an experimental cardiac procedure that needs to be done that can only be done at the Cleveland Clinic or at the Mayo Clinic. Brian, I implore you to do more research and find who and where in the country is known as the best for her condition and see them. When you say you are seeing "the best in the area" and you are still in Milwaukee... you need to expand your "area". One thing you are all correct in is that not all doctors are created equal; some have more expertise than others.

 

And for God's sake, don't get an HMO that restricts who and when you can be seen for what. And if you do it is worth the additional out-of-pocket expense to go out-of-network to see the best specialist and pay for it because HMOs do not give you the best care, they give you the cheapest care and hope that it works.

 

Hope that helps, and I hope you can find someone somewhere who can bring her back to normal.

[Brian the Automator]

My ex-girlfriend has been diagnosed with an extremely rare stomach condition yet her gal bladder shows very poor effectiveness. My friends that are doctors all recommended having the gal bladder out as it might be causing the stomach issue. Yet her doctors at Mayo (specialists in rare conditions) insist that while the gal bladder is working very poorly, it likely isn't the cause.

Would you feel comfortable sharing what the stomach condition is? Just sounds very familiar.

[Brian the Automator]

And for God's sake, don't get an HMO that restricts who and when you can be seen for what. And if you do it is worth the additional out-of-pocket expense to go out-of-network to see the best specialist and pay for it because HMOs do not give you the best care, they give you the cheapest care and hope that it works.

 

Hope that helps, and I hope you can find someone somewhere who can bring her back to normal.

We're lucky enough to have insurance where they pay 100% once we've met our deductible (and we meet our deductible pretty damn early).

 

As far as the ER doctors now, we've come to expect their limits, and respect them. With that said, an ER doctor at Waukesha Memorial Hospital took an X-ray yesterday, and didn't find anything. An ER doctor at Froedtert took the same X-Ray today and found something obvious. It wasn't a "magic bullet" by any means of the imagination, but was something that easily has a direct impact on the wife's short-term comfort level. Ridiculous.

 

I think our current tactic is just going to be to have ALL her specialists at Froedtert. In our experience, the difference is just night & day. If that doesn't provide results, it's off to Mayo or a similar facility. Unfortunately, right now, there are some committments that tether us to the area, and we can't just pack up and head off quite yet.

 

Thanks to everyone for the kind words and prayers. It really means a lot.

[mothershipconnection]

The advice of going only to recognized specialists is very good. While I'm not really in the medical field, I provide similarly-specialized behavioral services for a health care facility. There are behavioral issues which, in my humble opinion, my colleagues and I are better at dealing with than 99% of clinicians in our field. There are other issues that we really don't have a lot of expertise in. I've treated clients who were thought to be in need of extremely invasive interventions to improve and did it without those techniques and within a month, and I've had potential clients who I've turned away in the past because I'm simply not the person to treat them. With such complex issues, nobody is going to understand it all flawlessly, so you'll need a collection of people who each understand part of it flawlessly.

[DuWayne Steurer]

After reading this thread and what happened to my dad last summer(he's okay now), I get the feeling that ER doctors are not real good at diagnosing things. I am sure part of that is dealing with so many people coming off the street for aches and pains that when somebody has a real problem it is hard to tell the difference. I have to agree that doctors have a difficult job and studying the human body isn't an exact science.

To add onto what LouisEly said.....when you check out of an ER, they usually give you a "follow up" slip or something to that effect, and every time I've ever been to an ER, the slip will say something to the effect of " A visit to the ER if for immediate treatment and is not meant to replace the diagnostic abilities of your practicioner or specialist, please follow up with Dr. Whoever within 24 hours" or something of that nature.

 

Their job is to deal with the immediate effects of whatever is going on with you. Too many people (and I am not saying anyone here) use the ER as opposed to their regular doctor for the sake of convenience, and that's a part (small part) of what drives medical costs in this country.

 

Brian, going back to your reply to my post, again, I certainly don't know near enough about your situation, and I repeat that I'm not saying "don't sue", because if it's negligence or mishandling that has led to an increase or prolonging of your wife's discomfort, then you probably have grounds for it. I'm simply saying in a broader scope, that sometimes a lack of general knowledge in the medical field about a certain condition can be misconstrued as *negligence*, and when you're the party that's suffering for it, it can be extraordinarily frustrating. I repeat though, that I don't know your situation, and you very well may have (and it sounds like you do) doctors who have handled this poorly from the get go.

 

Speaking only in my case, it was frustrating to find I had a condition that there was very little known about it, and what they did know, was vague and had divided opinion in the medical field. People close to me wanted to find someone to blame, but in the end it's not anybodies fault so much as it's just something that the medical field hasn't worked out yet.

[DHonks]

My ex-girlfriend has been diagnosed with an extremely rare stomach condition yet her gal bladder shows very poor effectiveness. My friends that are doctors all recommended having the gal bladder out as it might be causing the stomach issue. Yet her doctors at Mayo (specialists in rare conditions) insist that while the gal bladder is working very poorly, it likely isn't the cause.

Would you feel comfortable sharing what the stomach condition is? Just sounds very familiar.

 

Brian, this is attempt #2 cause the first time I accidentally hit the back arrow on the keyboard.

Basically, her GI specialist has diagnosed her with gastroparesis. She kept being told , "well, this drug isn't working, so let's try something different and I'll see you in 6 weeks." In our first 4 months together she lost 55 pounds. When she ate, she got sick and threw up. So she often didn't eat. With gastroparesis there are two groups that are stricken. The vast majority are older diabetic women. The others are 25-35 year old women in their primes. The stomach basically stops working for no aparent reason. She also became unable to ingest dairy products.

2 of my college roomies are doctors (I'm 27 years old), and both felt that the gal bladder needed to come out since it was working roughly 33-40% less than it should have been. They figured that the pain from the gal bladder could have caused the nausea and kept her from eating, which would in turn have caused her body (with fewer nutrients) to slow stomach usage in order to reallocate its energies to more necessary processes.

What drove me crazy was the doctor refusing to look at the gal bladder despite the test (a different doctor ordered her to have the test), the doctor telling her to "try (insert med) and come back in 6-8 weeks," and also that she wasn't willing to see a different doctor--one that might listen to her. The result is that she's likely causing irreparable damage to her body by being malnurished for about 13 months now. It also played a role in us breaking up this past May/June.

 

Let me know if you want to hear more, as I am always available

[logan82]

My dad had searing pain in the left side of his head. I believe they took him to the hospital in an ambulance. He was discharged the same day and given blood thinners. By the time he got home(20 minute drive) his right foot had gone numb so my brother took him back. They checked him into the hospital and transferred him to a larger hospital because his doctor was out of that hospital. This all started on a Tuesday. Anyway, on Friday my father has an aortic dissection. (tear in the wall of the aorta, fatal within minutes) Luckily he was at a hospital that does heart surgery and the heart surgeon was right there. He had been in the hospital for 3 days and they didn't find anything. I am not positive that there was any way to detect it.

 

I am not trying to say that ER doctors or doctors in general are hacks or anything like that. They make mistakes and sometimes those mistakes can be fatal.

 

Sorry to hijack your thread Brian. I was just giving a personal example of how inexact diagnosing things with the human body can be.