Do I have a medical malpractice case?

[buckmm]

I have contacted 4 lawyers, 3 have not called me back and the one that did strongly suggested I contact a lawyer before the 4 years is up. Please I need advice if I should continue to hunt down a lawyer to represent us......

On Tuesday August 12th my husband had his 4 wisdom teeth surgically removed, he was fine that day. On Wednesday he was not feeling well, in more pain and was having problems swallowing, by 10 PM at night he barely could swallow, took the meds he could and went to bed. At 3:00 AM I awoke to my husband screaming in pain, unable to swallow without a 10 out of 10 pain. Got the kids ready, took him to ER at 3:30 AM, he was dehydrated and they said he had an infection related to the surgery. He had never been on narcotics before and was asking for pain meds every 1/2 hour for the pain. They gave him 3 Liters of saline and he never voided. I left at 7:30 AM (4 hours after he was admitted), when I returned at 8:00 he said that he could go home. He had not voided the 3 Liters, his face was twice as swollen then when we got there. His skin turned red so I took his temp 98.5, couple minutes later he began to shiver. The nurse walked in, looked at him, said oh it's cold in here and said we could leave. I told her to take his temperature and she did, 100.6, he had spiked a fever. She said she would tell the doctor about the fever but we could still leave. I demanded she give him torodol for the fever, she said that she had to check the orders because he didn't have any, he had received it earlier a couple times, I told her he has it ordered. She came back, pushed the torodol, unattached the IV tubing, removed his IV and gave him his discharge papers. I had to get a wheelchair because he was unable to walk from all the pain meds.
I took him straight to the oral surgeon, I'm an LPN student and there were way too many red flags. The oral surgeon said that he had an infection that required surgery, IV antibiotics, IV fluids because he was still dehydrated, and IV pain meds. We were admitted to the same hospital that discharged him. As the morning went on my husband began having more breathing problems, he is severly asthmatic and unable to take his meds because of the inability to swallow. At 2:30 PM I asked the nurse to listen to him sleep and watch him breathe. He would wake himself up to try and catch his breath, his color was terrible, when we put him on the Pulse Ox he was 83% on room air. They administered O2, his sats went back up. At 3:15 he went into respiratory distress, they called a rapid response when I had stepped out of the building for a minute. I returned to my husband in rapid response, at 3:50 PM they took him to surgery to do an emergency tracheotomy while awake in order to breathe. They opened his neck to clean out the infection, he was breathing through a trach and after surgery he was taken to the ICU. In meeting with the surgeon, he was drowning in pus and suffocating on the edema caused by the infection. I explained what happened in the ER that he was discharged, the doctor said he should not have been discharged from the ER, if I had taken him he would have suffocated and died at home. I contacted the Patient Advocate at the hospital and the only action that was taken was the ER calling me. As my husband, 27, laying in a ICU bed, he had the balls to say it was my husband's fault, as well as there are problems in Emergency medicine and that the ER was getting busy. When getting the medical reports the last time a doctor evaluated my husband was 0618, he was discharged at 0830.
We're not looking for a lawyer to make money off this, we deserve at least not a $51,000 hospital bill, but we're doing this to make it as a known problem. Nothing was done to the doctor, administration was not contacted, the nurse was not reprimanded, nothing happened. My husband is a pharmacy student, I am a nursing student, if I didn't know what I know my husband would be dead. We want this problem to come to a head and someone to take responsibilty for scars that will not go away and remind us. We don't want this to happen to someone that doesn't know anything about signs and symptoms of a serious impending deadly emergency. Please what am I to do!

[seniorjudge]

What serious and permanent physical injuries did your husband suffer?

[barry1817]

Originally Posted by buckmm

I have contacted 4 lawyers, 3 have not called me back and the one that did strongly suggested I contact a lawyer before the 4 years is up. Please I need advice if I should continue to hunt down a lawyer to represent us......

On Tuesday August 12th my husband had his 4 wisdom teeth surgically removed, he was fine that day. On Wednesday he was not feeling well, in more pain and was having problems swallowing, by 10 PM at night he barely could swallow, took the meds he could and went to bed. At 3:00 AM I awoke to my husband screaming in pain, unable to swallow without a 10 out of 10 pain. Got the kids ready, took him to ER at 3:30 AM, he was dehydrated and they said he had an infection related to the surgery. He had never been on narcotics before and was asking for pain meds every 1/2 hour for the pain. They gave him 3 Liters of saline and he never voided. I left at 7:30 AM (4 hours after he was admitted), when I returned at 8:00 he said that he could go home. He had not voided the 3 Liters, his face was twice as swollen then when we got there. His skin turned red so I took his temp 98.5, couple minutes later he began to shiver. The nurse walked in, looked at him, said oh it's cold in here and said we could leave. I told her to take his temperature and she did, 100.6, he had spiked a fever. She said she would tell the doctor about the fever but we could still leave. I demanded she give him torodol for the fever, she said that she had to check the orders because he didn't have any, he had received it earlier a couple times, I told her he has it ordered. She came back, pushed the torodol, unattached the IV tubing, removed his IV and gave him his discharge papers. I had to get a wheelchair because he was unable to walk from all the pain meds.
I took him straight to the oral surgeon, I'm an LPN student and there were way too many red flags. The oral surgeon said that he had an infection that required surgery, IV antibiotics, IV fluids because he was still dehydrated, and IV pain meds. We were admitted to the same hospital that discharged him. As the morning went on my husband began having more breathing problems, he is severly asthmatic and unable to take his meds because of the inability to swallow. At 2:30 PM I asked the nurse to listen to him sleep and watch him breathe. He would wake himself up to try and catch his breath, his color was terrible, when we put him on the Pulse Ox he was 83% on room air. They administered O2, his sats went back up. At 3:15 he went into respiratory distress, they called a rapid response when I had stepped out of the building for a minute. I returned to my husband in rapid response, at 3:50 PM they took him to surgery to do an emergency tracheotomy while awake in order to breathe. They opened his neck to clean out the infection, he was breathing through a trach and after surgery he was taken to the ICU. In meeting with the surgeon, he was drowning in pus and suffocating on the edema caused by the infection. I explained what happened in the ER that he was discharged, the doctor said he should not have been discharged from the ER, if I had taken him he would have suffocated and died at home. I contacted the Patient Advocate at the hospital and the only action that was taken was the ER calling me. As my husband, 27, laying in a ICU bed, he had the balls to say it was my husband's fault, as well as there are problems in Emergency medicine and that the ER was getting busy. When getting the medical reports the last time a doctor evaluated my husband was 0618, he was discharged at 0830.
We're not looking for a lawyer to make money off this, we deserve at least not a $51,000 hospital bill, but we're doing this to make it as a known problem. Nothing was done to the doctor, administration was not contacted, the nurse was not reprimanded, nothing happened. My husband is a pharmacy student, I am a nursing student, if I didn't know what I know my husband would be dead. We want this problem to come to a head and someone to take responsibilty for scars that will not go away and remind us. We don't want this to happen to someone that doesn't know anything about signs and symptoms of a serious impending deadly emergency. Please what am I to do!

When lawyers don't call back, I would have to believe that they don't think that there is a case. Lawyers like money.

If this case came to my attention I would an initial review of the dental, to get an overview of the treatment, I would be paying attention to your state's infection control standards for the dental offices and would be concerned if there were standards and whether they were met or not. I would be concerned with medications prescribed, medications used, and the events following the dental surgery. I would be interested if this treatment was by a general dentist or an oral surgeon. There is a need for general dentists to treat to the level of the speciality if they treat. After review, I would then be asking for all the records from the hospital.

I do hope your hubby is finally back to healthy.

[buckmm]

He has a stress test for his heart on Thursday. They think the infection went to his heart, he was tachy in ICU and until he left the hospital. ECG, EKG and Echocardiogram didn't show any damage to the heart but they still put him on a low dose beta blocker because of tachycardia. Other then the heart problem, trach site and his throat cut open, those are scars but that is luckily all we have. He was out of work until the trach site closed and 8 doctors had to agree to let him start school along with discharge him.
We have shown negligence but not long term disability, which I'm sure that is why no lawyer will take on the case. Do you suggest someone that will take it probono?

[buckmm]

The infectious disease doctors believe the infection came from his tonsilsl acute and chronic tonsilitis. Which the ER doc was not able to look at because he was not able to open his mouth very wide and attributed any swelling in the neck from the wisdom teeth. It was an oral surgeon that took out the teeth not just a general dentist. No antibiotic was given and when the pain increased he called the surgeon office and he was only instructed to take more pain medication.

[ecmst12]

No permanent damages, no case. There is no "pro bono" work in medical malpractice because it costs tens of thousands of dollars to litigate these cases, so it will not be worth the expense if there are not significant damages to be recovered.

In addition, I don't think the couple of hours that passed between being discharged from the ER and re-admitted by the oral surgeon made a significant difference in the amount of treatment he ultimately needed.

[lya]

I think the Toradol contributed to the fluid balance problem, the breathing problems, and put the patient at risk for toxic accumulation of NSAIDs.

Perhaps the patient's wife should not have insisted on the patient's receiving Toradol.

If I were evaluating for the defense, I'd evaluate the NSAID status (amounts taken or administered) and whether or not the patient had complaints of not feeling well prior to the surgery.

For the plaintiff, I'd evaluate as barry advised and for the presence of signs and symptoms of tonsillitis prior to the removal of the wisdom teeth.

Based on the posted series of events, I don't think a viable claim of medmal exists.

[buckmm]

I'm the wife and I disagree on the asking for the Toradol. Obviously I can make the suggestion but an RN and a MD should say have the final word. Not to mention that if you are giving any kind of NSAID via IV, narcotic, anything you should be re-evaluating your patient longer then pushing the medication and 2 minutes later kicking them out the door. They were cited by JCAHO for non re-evaluation after giving pain meds. And I'm not kidding on the 2 minutes after the push of Toradol and we were kicked out of the door. And if my husband were properly re-evaluated by an RN or MD 2 hours after the report the MD made, his status had severly changed. I have negligence proven beyond a reasonable doubt, according to a doctor and about 10 nurses that know of the situation. Because of no long term injuries to my husband is a bunch of crap! That's what is wrong with the health care system, no accountability.

[lealea1005]

Originally Posted by buckmm

I demanded she give him torodol for the fever, she said that she had to check the orders because he didn't have any, he had received it earlier a couple times, I told her he has it ordered.

Originally Posted by buckmm

I'm the wife and I disagree on the asking for the Toradol. Obviously I can make the suggestion but an RN and a MD should say have the final word. Not to mention that if you are giving any kind of NSAID via IV, narcotic, anything you should be re-evaluating your patient longer then pushing the medication and 2 minutes later kicking them out the door. They were cited by JCAHO for non re-evaluation after giving pain meds. And I'm not kidding on the 2 minutes after the push of Toradol and we were kicked out of the door. And if my husband were properly re-evaluated by an RN or MD 2 hours after the report the MD made, his status had severly changed. I have negligence proven beyond a reasonable doubt, according to a doctor and about 10 nurses that know of the situation. Because of no long term injuries to my husband is a bunch of crap! That's what is wrong with the health care system, no accountability.

You didn't suggest. You demanded your husband get the Toradol for his fever. It's not exactly the best choice for a fever reducer when a patient is already dehydrated. Talk about accountability!

[ecmst12]

If the nurse was cited for failure to re-evaluate, how can you say there was no accountability?