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Death and negligence

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jackryan

Junior Member
When our son was born he seemed ok. The day we were to be discharged my wifes mother told the nurse our son was breathing fast and heavy. When I arrived that evening I noticed the same thing and had to tell the nurse twice before she looked at him. She said sometimes babies do that. We also had a hard time getting a pediatrician to see him the second day after he was born. The pediatrician only looked at him for a minuite. The evening we were discharged we rushed him to another hospital 3 hours later. He nearly died suffering, lung, kidney, liver, and brain damage because of a coarctation of the aorta. He died a month later after having open heart surgery. Can the hospital be considered negligent for failing to diagnose or even attempt to diagnose our son. His symptoms were classic and obvious.

We hired an attorney to look at the case but he said it will be at least 6 mo before he can tell us anything.

Joe in Michigan
 
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seniorjudge

Senior Member
jackryan said:
When our son was born he seemed ok. The day we were to be discharged my wifes mother told the nurse our son was breathing fast and heavy. When I arrived that evening I noticed the same thing and had to tell the nurse twice before she looked at him. She said sometimes babies do that. We also had a hard time getting a pediatrician to see him the second day after he was born. The pediatrician only looked at him for a minuite. The evening we were discharged we rushed him to another hospital 3 hours later. He nearly died suffering, lung, kidney, liver, and brain damage because of a coarctation of the aorta. He died a month later after having open heart surgery. Can the hospital be considered negligent for failing to diagnose or even attempt to diagnose our son. His symptoms were classic and obvious.

We hired an attorney to look at the case but he said it will be at least 6 mo before he can tell us anything.

Joe in Michigan

None of us can answer that question without a complete review of all the facts you have shown your lawyer.

If you are not satisfied with that lawyer, then hire another one.
 

jackryan

Junior Member
I guess my question is if it was brought to the attention of the nursing staff about my sons breathing difficulty 3 times and they did not do anything about it aren't they liable for him going into cardiogenic shock and suffering hypoxia only 3 hours later. A simple medication would have prevented this from happening.
 

seniorjudge

Senior Member
jackryan said:
I guess my question is if it was brought to the attention of the nursing staff about my sons breathing difficulty 3 times and they did not do anything about it aren't they liable for him going into cardiogenic shock and suffering hypoxia only 3 hours later. A simple medication would have prevented this from happening.
I have absolutely no medical training.
 

barry1817

Senior Member
child's death

jackryan said:
I guess my question is if it was brought to the attention of the nursing staff about my sons breathing difficulty 3 times and they did not do anything about it aren't they liable for him going into cardiogenic shock and suffering hypoxia only 3 hours later. A simple medication would have prevented this from happening.
You have a lawyer handling the case. Make sure that you are informed of the Statute of Limitations, and that you make sure that your lawyer doesn't miss the time limits. If you have a case, you don't want it rejected because a lawyer filed the case a day late.

[email protected]
 

Just Blue

Senior Member
jackryan said:
When our son was born he seemed ok. The day we were to be discharged my wifes mother told the nurse our son was breathing fast and heavy. When I arrived that evening I noticed the same thing and had to tell the nurse twice before she looked at him. She said sometimes babies do that. We also had a hard time getting a pediatrician to see him the second day after he was born. The pediatrician only looked at him for a minuite. The evening we were discharged we rushed him to another hospital 3 hours later. He nearly died suffering, lung, kidney, liver, and brain damage because of a coarctation of the aorta. He died a month later after having open heart surgery. Can the hospital be considered negligent for failing to diagnose or even attempt to diagnose our son. His symptoms were classic and obvious.

We hired an attorney to look at the case but he said it will be at least 6 mo before he can tell us anything.

Joe in Michigan

Rmet is a doctor...I will p.m. her this thread ..
 

jackryan

Junior Member
This just happened in november 05. My attorney said six months to review everything because medical records can take along time to get and because there are so many. He was in 3 hospitals with a total cost of $500,000.00
 

ellencee

Senior Member
jackryan said:
I guess my question is if it was brought to the attention of the nursing staff about my sons breathing difficulty 3 times and they did not do anything about it aren't they liable for him going into cardiogenic shock and suffering hypoxia only 3 hours later. A simple medication would have prevented this from happening.
A simple medication would have prevented what from happening? There is no medication that corrects coarctation of the aorta with severity of coarctation that your son had.

You son's condition typically presents in the first few days of life only when the coarctation is severe. The coarction becomes a problem when the fetal circulation, the ductus arteriosus, closes. Prior to the closing of the ductus arteriosus, symptoms are rarely detected. Your son's deterioration on the day of his discharge from the hospital fits the expected timeframe for the appearance of serious symptoms.

To prove negligence, you are going to have to prove your son's physical exams and vital signs contained information that should have been recognized as indicating a problem.

While in the hospital, your son obviously nursed (breast or bottle) and did so without any respiratory distress. Obviously, your son had an adequate number of soiled diapers, adequate daily weight, moved all of his extremeties, and had vital signs within normal limits. The nurse was correct in saying babies breathe hard at times. Babies aren't used to breathing and babies breathe hard, fast, shallow, or slow, but not with an abnormal rate/character for lengthy periods.

A medical malpractice lawsuit must contain significant damages that would not have occurred without an act of negligence as the direct/proximal cause.

I sincerely doubt you will be able to prove the required signficant damages as a result of negligence.

Your son was born with an aorta that could not support circulation to his body. He got here with significant surgery on his agenda for day three or day four; no medical professional contributed to his need for surgery. I believe the attorney's response will be that there is no viable claim of medical malpractice.

I am sorry for your loss. I encourage you to consult with a physician about genetic testing for potential birth defects before you attempt to have another baby.

EC
 

jackryan

Junior Member
I understand what you mean but for the sake of being breif maybe I wasn't clear. Our son was breathing hard and having difficulty all day on the third day. We brought this to the attention to two different nurses three times who did not check him out. We asked for a pediatrician and they told us they didn't have one available to look at him. If it was apparent that he was sick to us at the hospital then they should have at least concidered our concerns. The administration of prostaglandins would have prevented cardio shock by keeping his PDA open. He would have had a better chance at open heart surgery. His coarc was very extreme and should have been caught that third day. We did have genetic counseling as well and have a healthy 5 year old.

We are not out to get anyone. It was no ones fault that he had a defect. All of the doctors and surgeons were great however the hospital he was born at did not listen to our concerns when it was obvious to a few different people he was sick. After all we had to take him to a different hospital to get treatment.

thank you
 

ellencee

Senior Member
jackryan said:
I understand what you mean but for the sake of being breif maybe I wasn't clear. Our son was breathing hard and having difficulty all day on the third day. We brought this to the attention to two different nurses three times who did not check him out. We asked for a pediatrician and they told us they didn't have one available to look at him. If it was apparent that he was sick to us at the hospital then they should have at least concidered our concerns. The administration of prostaglandins would have prevented cardio shock by keeping his PDA open. He would have had a better chance at open heart surgery. His coarc was very extreme and should have been caught that third day. We did have genetic counseling as well and have a healthy 5 year old.

We are not out to get anyone. It was no ones fault that he had a defect. All of the doctors and surgeons were great however the hospital he was born at did not listen to our concerns when it was obvious to a few different people he was sick. After all we had to take him to a different hospital to get treatment.

thank you
I stand by my initial response.
You are applying a dangerously little amount of knowledge about the benefit of prostaglandins and arriving at a conclusion that suits your needs; a medical expert reviewing the records will not reach the same conclusion as you did.

You most certainly are out to get someone. You have already named nurses and a pediatrician as possible defendants and you have hired a lawyer. You most certainly are out to harm others.

EC
 

ellencee

Senior Member
baystategirl said:
Rmet is a doctor...I will p.m. her this thread ..
rmet is not a physician nor has she ever stated she is. She stated she holds a doctorate degree. She has no specialization in Pediatrics; I do.
EC
 

rmet4nzkx

Senior Member
ellencee said:
rmet is not a physician nor has she ever stated she is. She stated she holds a doctorate degree. She has no specialization in Pediatrics; I do.
EC
Thank You, people get confused over the doctorate thing, even so I agree with you that there may have been little that could have been done to alter the outcome.

To OP,
That is why the attorney will need considerable time to collect the medical records and have them reviewed, in part because all the hospitals will be reviewing them first, then the attorney will review and possible sent out for review by an out of the area expert. Just because a case in not a viable case doesn't mean there are not some options. You mentioned a $500K hospital bill, is there insurance?
 

jackryan

Junior Member
What can I say. I really do value other professional opinions but to me the facts are clear. It is no different that someone going to a hospital requesting treatment only to be told nothing is wrong with you without getting an examination, only to suffer a serious life threatning illness shortly after. If it was clear to us that something was wrong it should have been somewhat obvious to the staff of the hospital. We were told time and again that if treatment were administered earlier that his outcome may have been different. I do have little knowledge but the fact remains that the administration of prostaglandins is what ultimately prevented his death that evening. Had they been administered earlier when he had symptoms he would not have suffered such a large insult to the organs. Again i am not out to get anyone but when the nurse is more interested in smoking than treating her patients it would anger any partent. I only want to prevent another parent from having to endure what we and our son endured. Until you take your child off life support and hold them in your arms while they die, until you spend every waking moment at the hospital with them hoping for improvement then maybe you would understand how I feel that the two nurses ignored our concerns when he was origonally having difficulty breathing.
 

weenor

Senior Member
Legally this all comes down to whether the caregivers breached the standard of care in that situation. Only an expert in the field can determine from the medical records if that standard of care was breached. Very often what looks like negligence to the average layman is not a breach of the standard of care. Thus no liability can be assessed to the caregivers...Only your lawyer will be able to advise you on whether you have a case after all of the medical records have been gathered and reviewed.
 

mb94

Member
jackryan said:
What can I say. I really do value other professional opinions but to me the facts are clear. It is no different that someone going to a hospital requesting treatment only to be told nothing is wrong with you without getting an examination, only to suffer a serious life threatning illness shortly after.
But that example you just used might NOT be malpractice. Just because something isn't diagnosed doesn't mean that thee is negligence on the part of the hospital. The question is what an average medical person with the same training would have done in that circumstance. Not what a theoretical super doctor would have done. Not what hindsight shows they should have done. From the information you provided about the heavy breathing it doesn't sound like anything was done wrong. If someone goes to the doctor with a headache and they are treated for migraines instead of a brain tumor that doesn't mean it is malpractice. However there may be things in the medical files that may change that opinion which is why your lawyer is going to need time to go through the records.
 

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