hospital mistake

[tika773]

What is the name of your state? pa
my daughter is now 6 years old. when she was born she was born w/ an enlarged heart and also low boold sugar. they had to give her calcium and glocose so they put and iv in her to do this. when she was in the hospital the nurses neglected to move her iv's enough and she got what was called calcium burns she had to be seen by a plastic surgeon while still in the hospital. she still has the scars one on her foot and one on her arm. is that something i can sue for since she must forever live w/ the scars she wasn't born with?

 

[ellencee]

Let's see, without the nurses and the physicians, your daughter would be dead; however, since she got calcium burns from 'not moving the IVs' you want to sue for scars.
Not a chance of any help from me; not one single chance.
EC

 

[Son of Slam]

It's almost blasphemous that you are not praising God that she has an arm and a foot.

 

[ellencee]

Son of Slam
Thank you!

EC

 

[tika773]

Let's see, without the nurses and the physicians, your daughter would be dead; however, since she got calcium burns from 'not moving the IVs' you want to sue for scars.
Not a chance of any help from me; not one single chance.
EC

well she slmost didn't have an arm or leg she had 2 big holes in her arm and her foot from them digging the needles in her arm and foot. she was ok and able to go home in a week of her medication from her heart but she had to stay in the hospital for an extra month because she had a calcium hole in her arm and in her foot, now i thank them for helping her but there was some sort of negligience if she had to stay in the hospital for a month before her holes closed up so before u make judgements get the facts straight. besides people sue mcdonalds for making them fat and u trying to insult me cause im concerned that my daughter has a hole in her arm and foot? okkkkkkk.... all i asked for was advice not insults.

 

[tika773]

It's almost blasphemous that you are not praising God that she has an arm and a foot.

oh my bad i should have guessed u are a nurse yourself so u must be offended. what ever. and blasphemy? let he who is w/o sin cast the firs stone. and no sin is greater than any other. i dont know what god u serve hon but u need to read your bible som more and pray for gods forgiveness for you judgeing other people w/ such big crude words. so how i wont even go there w/ you cause the god i serve is obviously not the one u serve cause i would never use such words to refer to anyone . oh but thats just me. whew glad i can hold my head up.

 

[jh112]

tika773, I first have to say that I agree with the replies you received. But I will ask you to consider the possibility that b/c the child was a newborn, perhaps it would have been difficult to find another vein to change the IV. You might say that the analogy I am going to write has nothing to do with the situation, and you may be right. But it’s a heck of a lot better than using McDonalds as an example to sue. Analogy: Your neighbor’s child has fingers stuck in YOUR closed car door. But it's not totally closed now, AND you locked it. Key won't work b/c door not shut. Handle won't work for same reason. So you have to push door shut to quickly open, freeing the child. When you did what you felt you had to do, were you an abusive person? Should you have just YANKED the child free? Should you have waited for rescue people, allowing the child to writhe in pain and possibly severing the fingers? Should bystanders call authorities? Should the parents sue you? Or do you hope they feel that you made the best judgment call. You may think this is a stupid example but consider this, you could have crippled and maimed that child's fingers, or amputated them. And, I probably do serve the same God as you do, and I believe that He would want me to be grateful to have a child with a few scars than to not have a child at all. There is a time to sue and a time to realize that “it’s gotta be this way”, and be thankful. Since you brought God in so heavily, have you ever read ‘The Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten boom? (spelling, sorry) The part about the lice and the part in the end, years later, about the soldier in line after one of her lectures are food for thought. You have your child, many don’t. You are blessed ….

 

[tika773]

i just asked a question and thanks for your considerate response. i didn't bring god in it and they called me a blasphemer or what ever what i thought was pretty harsh all i did was ask a 2 question a question a question and asked for an answer not any personal opinions i can get those from my friends not from soe stranger on a board that gives legal advice. lawyers are neutral no personal opinions just advice all i asked was do i have a case possibly or not? thats a yes or a no and thats all i need is a yes or no answer keep yall personal aopinions to yourself cause i have a lot of personal opinions i can give but thats not the question.

 

[JackSchroder]

The answers you have received illustrate a problem you will have if you do sue the hospital. Juries, like those who have answered your question, will decide that you should be happy your child lived and so the jury will give you nothing.
You have every right to sue that hospital on behalf of your child. She was mistreated, and that mistreatment added a month to her hospital stay. Damages from that long stay for a newborn may not be measurable for years to come. Think of her care during that month. The scars are obvious, of course, but other damage can be expected: Long term feeding by strangers, excessive sugars in formula, lack of bonding...all kinds of injuries can be possible.
You may decide, as many lawyers will, that the case will not be worth bringing to trial if it is only going to lose. You can, and should, write a letter of complaint to your attending physician, the Board of Medical Examiners, and to the administrator of that hospital, the Chief of the Obstetrics section, and to the Department of Licensing and Certification of Hospitals in your State Health Department. Poor and careless (negligent) treatment of any kind must be recorded. Your complaint may result in no action. But several complaints will bring a response. You can be certain that others have had similar problems in that hospital. So, complain.

 

[ellencee]

tika773
I researched your previous posts after I answered your initial posts because I could not believe the audacity of your claim. Your other posts indicate that you are having serious financial difficulties that have not resolved in the past year. To attempt to sue for damages to your daughter in the presence of severe financial problems is to me like asking if you can sell your daughter to pay your bills.

Your infant was born with serious medical problems and tiny, tiny little veins. I have several years experience with critical care of neonates; in fact, that was my specialty in my nursing education and the field of nursing that I first entered. I'd bet money that if I, or any other medical professional, reviewed your daughter's records, every attempt to maintain a proper IV was made. The protocol for changing IV sites is not written in stone. Sometimes, a physical reason prevents moving the site according to schedule and there is nothing wrong with it.

Your daughters body was tiny and with a malformed circulatory system. It wasn't just her heart that was affected by its being enlarged. Her entire body, including her circulatory system, was affected.

In a neonate, it doesn't take but a few minutes of an IV's infiltrating for damage to the tissues to occur.

For you to have waited six years to see if you can sue someone indicates to everyone with sense that no real malpractice or negligence occurred. People with real medmal issues don't wait six years. People with financial needs or unabated greed wait six years.

I am just as infuriated over your 'preaching' as I am over your claim. God and His word are not provided to us to be used as insults and judgments to be hurled at one another when we don't like what someone said. If you take some time to get to know God and His word, maybe you will find a reason and the time to thank Him for these awful nurses who saved your daughter's life.

I hope she has family members that see her as other than a ticket out of financial difficulties and do not see her scars at all but see the wonderful gift that she is.

EC

 

[tika773]

first off lady my one other post said nothing abour financial difficulty and second i bet i am a better mother than you.third i never said i was gonna sue i said was that a case of malpractice. u so caught up in having to be right. if i was to sue anyone in my childrens behalf their money would go to pay for their education not my bills. my other post doesn't say im broke and dont have no money it says is that legal to charge me rent when i wasn't there. cause if its not i aint gonna pay. i have no time to sit and look at all your posts and will never stoop dopwn to your level. if insulting people makes u feel better and good about yourself as a matter of fact if insulting people and putting down people in gods name makes u feel like a better christian or person well good i hope u do feel better. i dont know you and i did not ask for your help so if you have an issue w/ my question move on to help someone else but i am sure you cant do that you too busy doing the"lords" work huh?.what ever gets u through the day. oh and by the way i only see u the one giving out insults and calling out names and making assuptions about people. so dont get mad cause u obviously have issues. and u have no idea what goes on in my life or have gone on in my life but u just an anonomous person on the internet looking to a message board for people to think you somebody, i dont need that i just need my question answered so if u have persona; opinions keep them to yourself, but anyone that has a professional opinion please give that. do u know the difference? obviously not.

 

[jh112]

You wanted an attorney's advice, so I went searching for one.

And hopefully IAAL will visit this page and help you.

 

[ellencee]

hi, folks!
I have emailed her the statutes of limitations for medmal in her state. She has until the child's 20th birthday to file a medmal claim.

No plastic surgeon of merit is going to repair a scar until the child is fully grown. To do so before the child is grown is inappropriate. The body will fill in these scars during normal growth and development and the discoloration will fade. Only when the child is grown can plastic surgery provide the desired outcome.

There is a common misconception that unexpected, or poor results, or damages, are always caused by malpractice. That is a simply just not true. Have you ever made a mistake in your checkbook that resulted in an overdraft, maybe even one that you had to go and pick up from the provider to whom you wrote the check? If we apply the same 'law' that you apply to medmal, you should have been sentenced to prison for intentionally writing a 'bad' check. Would you just have said "OK; send me to prison for 10 years"?

There is another common misconception that medmal cases are easy to pursue and easy to win. The media is responsible for that. The media only reports the sensational cases; they don't tell you of the thousands that do not make it to court or in which the plaintiff loses. By the way, the courts did not allow the suit about 'getting fat at McDonald's'; and, the McDonald's coffee spill did not settle for those mega-millions and was not based on the woman getting burned by hot coffee, but was based on McDonald's being repeatedly cited for their coffee's being too hot and their failure to take corrective actions, which is intentional negligence.

Medmal claims are difficult to prove; difficult to win, and often drive the plaintiff to near insanity during the process.

I don't think medmal occurred in this situation. This infant probably had 1:1 nursing care, or very close to that. Neonatal intensive care is not just a name; it is the description of the amount of care that an infant receives.

I don't have the time or the space to describe to you the physical 'condition' of a newborn with conditions such as this woman's child had. Suffice it to say that what would not have damaged a healthy newborn would damage this infant because of the physical condition in which it was born.

For this infant to have peripheral IVs as opposed to an umbilical catheter indicates that it occurred several days, maybe weeks, after birth. This child was born with its tissues already compromised and because of its already physically challenged status, and because of the stress of the treatments needed to save its life, the tissues became even more compromized.

I'll share with you an instance from my own experience as an RN in Neonatal Intensive Care. I had two infants to care for on a particular shift. One of the infants had a peripheral IV, a scalp vein IV. The other infant coded. During the code, the infant with the scalp IV did what infants do; it wiggled around and its hand caught the IV tubing right at the scalp. Before any of us could get to the IV, it infiltrated. It looked awful and made the mother cry; it made me want to cry. If it had had calcium or another tissue damaging drug in the IV, it would have caused more than tissue infiltration; it would have caused a scar. Is that negligence? Is that malpractice? No. It was not an intentional or conscious act to deny this infant proper maintainance of an IV. It was just an unfortunate incident. Had I been watching the infant intently, it still would have happened, though the amount of fluid in the tissue would have been less.

There is no medical or nursing procedure that carries a 100% potential for no undesirable outcome. The only responsibility that a medical professional is expected to meet, or can possibly meet, is to minimize risks. No one can prevent each and every unfortunate outcome. It is not humanly possible. It is not possible in healthcare or in any aspect of life.

Those of you with no hands-on medical or health care experience can not understand what I am saying, but you have a duty to accept that the best of medical or health care does not always produce perfect results.

Why should an RN or a physican pay exhorbant malpractice insurance just in case they are sued? They are paying it because the media has made the American public believe that medmal suits settle or end in million dollar awards. That couldn't be further from the truth.

The trend of lawsuits is destroying the medical and healthcare profession. Insurance companies are refusing to issue malpractice insurance and professionals are leaving or restricting their practices in droves. These malpractice suits are taking income from the healthcare workers and their families. Maybe you think, well, the doctor makes enough and he or she can afford it. That, too, is a misconception. There will always be people who make more money than you do, or than I do, unless you are Bill Gates or J. K. Rowlings. You do not deserve part of their income just because they make more than you do.

I do hope IAAL comes here, or that any attorney comes here and jumps in. Lord knows, I wish I had not offended vrzirn to such a degree or that mrjb had not offended vrzirn to such a degree that he does not daily answer these posts.

It would be sheer disappointment to me if everyone agreed with me; I would have no opportunity to learn and no opportunity to grow and no opportunity to stamp my feet and make a fool out of myself. I would be lesser for the experience.

I agonize over returning to hands-on nursing. I have decided it is not worth it for me to commit my time, my knowledge, my experitise, my emotions, and my soul to such a suit-happy public. I value my family and I would not subject them to loss brought on by such accusations as I have seen here and through consulting. Do you people not realize that to defend oneself and be found innocent costs the caregiver nearly as much as if the caregiver is found negligent?

So thanks for calling in IAAL or any other attorney; they read this section every day; and I welcome someone to share my corner of hell with me.

EC

 

[tika773]

reply

thanks for your responce thats all i wanted u explained to me what could have happened and i can accept that. but no u had to insult and insult and insult instead of explaining and answering my question trying o make me look like a bad person which i am not. as a matter of fact i was a vry young mother at that time and didn't know what was going on because the doctors and nurses didn't tell me all they would say is she can't come home because of her arm and her foot. plus recently this hospital has been cited for numerous mistakes and health code violations to the point where they almost got closed down. so please get the facts and give the benefit of the doubt instead of insulting and putting down peoples situations.

 

[jh112]

ellencee

Good post. At least this time she accepted "opinions" and "experiences" along with your facts. I looked for IAAL early this a.m. simply out of frustration. Some times people think everything is "black and white" and it truly is not. You put a lot of yourself into your response and it was well done.