Negligent / non-standard care during cesarean

[eddiesava]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

First post here. I've never sued anybody nor have I ever needed the services of an attorney (except for when we bought our house), up until now. I'll try to be as concise and detailed as possible with our situation.

My wife is a homemaker. She had a c-section a couple of months ago (her second cesarean in 3 years). During the surgery, her bladder ruptured. Due to the extensive trauma caused to her bladder, a Urologist came in and performed surgery to repair the bladder. My wife spent a total of 9 days in the hospital because of these surgeries. She has had a catheter since she has had the surgery (over 8 weeks now). Actually, she had two catheters, one by the abdominal area (for the bladder), the other by the vaginal area. The second one was removed before she left the hospital (she had it for 8 days). The other catheter (I believe it's called a super-pubic) that she has had on for 8 weeks now and counting, has caused a lot of discomfort and pain to her.

She has had two CT scans (with and w/o contrast) over the past couple of weeks to see if the bladder has healed. It has not. The Urologist plans to perform another procedure to 'stitch-up' the area that hasn't healed yet. The Urologist has been a great professional all along.

However, the OB-GYN that performed the c-section, has not been helpful nor cooperative. This OB-GYN doctor never fully explained to us what actually happened during the c-section about how/why the bladder ruptured (the operative report doesn't state how/why the bladder ruptured either). It has almost been like this doctor has purposely avoided us. My wife has had 3 doctor visits (post-op and post-partum) since she was discharged, and this OB-GYN has avoided us on all three visits. Finally, we were able to see this doctor during the last visit. When we started asking the doctor questions, the doctor tried to kick us out of the office stating that they had other patients to attend to. This was when we mentioned that we were considering to file a legal complaint. The doctor wasn't happy to hear that.

Every medial professional we've spoken to (family doctors, RNs at the hospital, our current Urologist, other OB-GYNs) all state that they have never seen a patient go through this kind of bladder trauma after a c-section. Even the OB-GYN that performed the surgery stated they had never seen this kind of trauma to the bladder during a c-section. This isn't my wife's actual OB-GYN, it's a group of doctors and this doctor just happened to be the one 'on-call' the day of the surgery. We had never met/seen this doctor before the day of the c-section surgery.

My question is a two-part one:

1 - Is this considered medical malpractice? If so, is the doctor AND the hospital liable?

2 - Can we sue so that the state revokes the doctors license to practice medicine? (this is what we're really after because we don't want this to happen to another woman/family)

I understand that many doctors have malpractice and license insurance so I'm not sure if having the doctors license revoked is even possible if he/she is found negligent.


I apologize for the long post. I appreciate any advice/comments/suggestions regarding our situation.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

[ecmst12]

Lawsuits are about money. Complaints to the licensing board are about the license. You don't have enough information to know whether malpractice occurred. Start by taking her records to an experienced med mal attorney, and also consulting with another OBGYN. There is a difference between an undesired outcome and actual negligence - only an expert can tell you which occurred.

[momof3teens]

research more than one med mal attorney in your area. It is very important to talk to more than one before hiring one.

[lya]

I did a web search for bladder rupture with C-section. There are numerous articles on this risk. In one article, it is referenced as a "rare" risk. In all the other articles, it is listed in the risk category of organ injury and is not referenced as being a "rare" risk.

The surgeon has a duty to protect internal organs through the use of proper procedure. A known risk, such as organ injury, means that even with proper procedure, the risk of damage exists.

Each person's body is different on the inside just as on the outside. The bladder could have been displaced by the pregnancy into an area where proper procedure still allowed the damage to cocur.

The damge could have resulted from a knife blade or more commonly, by cautery (burning).

A medical expert of the same education and practice will have to review the records and opine as to whether any negligent act is responsible for the damage.

I think to want to revoke the physician's license is wrong, very wrong. At this point, noone knows if an act of negligence occurred. One act of negligence, except for criminal negligence, is not justification for losing one's ability to earn a living. If the OP accidentally causes an MVA and does by being negligent (talking, looking at kids on the back seat, daydreaming, etc.) I don't think the OP would voluntarily and permanently surrender his driver's license; yet, the OP is wanting to inflict much more harm than would result from his losing his driver's license.

Vengence is a terrible act and a worse motive for pursuing a medmal claim.

of note: it is supra-pubic catheter, not super-pubic; but, the logic is there as the catheter is superior to the urethra (where the 'other' catheter was inserted into the bladder).

My advice is to consult with a medmal attorney but be prepared to pay for an expert witness vs. the attorney's paying for it (contingency) and to be prepared to hear from an attorney that vengence is not a good reason to seek to file a medmal claim.

I encourage the OP to give some serious consideration to his intent to do harm to the surgeon and the surgeon's family.

[eddiesava]

Thanks to all for the replies.

We will definitely consult with more than one attorney and hopefully figure out what our options are, if any.

The fact of the matter is, something went very wrong during the surgery. As stated earlier, none of the medical professionals we spoke to said this was a normal risk or that they've seen a patient go through this kind of trauma, including the doctor who performed the cesarean. This doctor 'looks' very young, thus maybe inexperience played a role. It seems as there is information being withheld by this doctor and they are not being honest with us as far as what happened that day in the operating room.

Our Urologist (who's been practicing for 30+ years and is highly recommended) stated that the only patients he's had that had this type of trauma were MVA victims.

We will research to see if any complaints have been filed to the licensing board in the past against this doctor. If so, it will give us more reason to seek revocation of this doctor's license by the state.

By the way, 'super-pubic' is the term I picked up from the OB-GYN.

Thanks again for the advice.