What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Virginia
Mom passed away in January. I had brought her up here from Florida in June of 2003, where she was doing terribly, exhibiting signs of dementia, needing 24 hour care, doing all sorts of strange things. Very soon after I brought here here and put her in a wonderful assisted living place geared towards dementia, she seemingly miraculously recovered to about 90% of her former self. We went out often, she soon got rid of first her wheelchair, then her walker, we went hiking in Shenendoah, etc. Long story short - all of a sudden, she had to go to the emergency room where they found her blood sugar was off the charts...over 500. They poked her with lots of needles because they couldn't draw blood easily. We had 3 separate trips to the ER before she was admitted. She soon got an overwhelming infection (sepsis) and died, although I tried for the miracle recovery in the ICU for a month which didn't happen. She was 87 years old.
I have never sued anyone, but when I got the death certificate, her doctor had put down sepsis as the immediate cause of death, and diabetes as the long term cause. Here's the problem: she was NOT treating my mom for diabetes, despite the fact that I had asked her more than once to watch her blood sugar very carefully, because she was on a low dosage of a steroid which, itself, can (and had in the past) caused secondary diabetes to appear, which then had required insulin. THis doctor didn't pay me much attention, saying "oh, the last test I took looked ok." I didn't even meet her doctor until she was in the hospital.....she was in a "group" of maybe 50 doctors, so each time mom saw a different doctor in the hospita. I used to think "Florida medicine" was an oxymoron, but they sure kept my mom going fine.
Might I have a case here?
Mom passed away in January. I had brought her up here from Florida in June of 2003, where she was doing terribly, exhibiting signs of dementia, needing 24 hour care, doing all sorts of strange things. Very soon after I brought here here and put her in a wonderful assisted living place geared towards dementia, she seemingly miraculously recovered to about 90% of her former self. We went out often, she soon got rid of first her wheelchair, then her walker, we went hiking in Shenendoah, etc. Long story short - all of a sudden, she had to go to the emergency room where they found her blood sugar was off the charts...over 500. They poked her with lots of needles because they couldn't draw blood easily. We had 3 separate trips to the ER before she was admitted. She soon got an overwhelming infection (sepsis) and died, although I tried for the miracle recovery in the ICU for a month which didn't happen. She was 87 years old.
I have never sued anyone, but when I got the death certificate, her doctor had put down sepsis as the immediate cause of death, and diabetes as the long term cause. Here's the problem: she was NOT treating my mom for diabetes, despite the fact that I had asked her more than once to watch her blood sugar very carefully, because she was on a low dosage of a steroid which, itself, can (and had in the past) caused secondary diabetes to appear, which then had required insulin. THis doctor didn't pay me much attention, saying "oh, the last test I took looked ok." I didn't even meet her doctor until she was in the hospital.....she was in a "group" of maybe 50 doctors, so each time mom saw a different doctor in the hospita. I used to think "Florida medicine" was an oxymoron, but they sure kept my mom going fine.
Might I have a case here?