Is hospital negligent?

Question

A elderly female develops severe chest pain and sees her PMD> PMD immediately admits her to hospital and leaves on vacation placed on oxygen and breathing tx>pt condition deteriorated within two days daughter begged nursing staff to have oncall MD assess herbrought to ICUand pnuemonia

Answer 1

"Family believes hospital did not promptly alert physician of pt worsening condition". Do they have proof of that?
What did the admitting doctor order for her? Did she have an x-ray on admission? What did it show?

I would never make a judgement regarding anyone's negligence without hearing all sides of the story and seeing the chart. Elderly COPD patients with severe chest pain are at high risk for complications. I'd have to know what the treatment plan was, lab results, etc..

The family can ask to speak with the Director of Nursing and with the ombudsman at the hospital and voice their concerns.

Answer 2

Well, with COPD, a patients condition can be bad for a while and then get better. Since there are so many patients for one nurse, it's hard to check on everyone all the time. Usually, the Dr. on call comes in to check on patients twice a day. I'm sure when the nurses realized how bad she was getting, they called him. There is a way that things are handled, and sometimes there is a wait even with radiology and getting tests done. There may have been nothing the nurses could do until all the red tape was gotten through. It's hard to know what to do in certain situations.

This being said, I do think that the nurses needed to be told that the patient was getting worse before it got to that point. It's possible the nurse didn't know how bad it got so fast. If they would have known, they would have done something faster. It could have been also that she was already being treated for an infection and they were waiting to see if the medication would work. I do think that it's not all the hospitals fault though. If she had family with her, they could have been her advocates to try and get things done sooner.

Answer 3

you can usually get a lawyers advice 1/2 hour visit for a meager fee, maybe 50 to 100 dollars, sometimes free. have your facts, state your case. the lawyer will evaluate it for potential malpractice or negligence.

generally, proving malpractice is harder than the public is led to believe. proving negligence is easier but for its rewards is generally outweighed by its cost.

these days most people think anything that goes wrong is suable. medicine is not an exact science. failures happen routinely. doctors or nurses or therapists frequently make mistakes. if the records prove error then you can win a case .

your doctor going on vacation has little bearing since he/she would have a alternate in the practice. also once in the hospital, the staff is responsible for appropriate monitoring and notification. if there is a place for filing a lawsuit then this is it. negligent monitoring may have contributed to her declline but the burden of proof is on you.

Answer 4

Sorry this happened, but I would like to hear the nurses side also. I know when family gets scared they may not fully understand what the medical staff is actually doing. I'm sure the MRSA came from being on the vent. Without knowing both sides it's impossible to know if there was negligence. How much oxygen was the patient on?

Answer 5

There is not way anyone on here can give you any sort of decent opinion on this. You have to contact the hospital's administrators and let them know what has happened. The hospital will investigate and take action. If you can find out what the hospital determines or if you just feel litigious; you can get a lawyer and see if the lawyer thinks you have a case but here is a word of advice: only get a lawyer who will take the case on contingency because I think you will not win.

Answer 6

Before give my opinion,first question is;what hospital;private hospital?community hospital? or VA hospital? In USA,UK,Canada or other place? and who is her in charge physician?It seems to me her pmd give her to the hospital.She seems (I ques)received appropriate treatment,if question about negligent;only can say is where she pick up mrsa infection.she may have this before she was admitted'Accoding to general rule she must have.. chest x-ray,ekg,blood gas,sputum culture and other blood test within 1st 24 hours.Her coditio get worse in two days could due to the nature of her illness or not received right treatment then need to review by expert.Since she is still living after 2 more weeks in icu,.for pneumonia one hour early to transfer to icu make no big different.Mrsa pneumonia is very difficulty to treat,very few antibiotic can be choice.Her treating physician is fully responsible to her treatment.

Answer 7

Sounds like Kaiser Hospital to me.

Answer 8

History alone doesn't warrant blood tests. It seems like they were trying to stabilize the breathing first.

Answer 9

Family needs a MALPRACTICE LAWYER. You will also need to be prepared to pay an expert witness to evaluate your case.

Go for it immediately preferably before she dies. Sue her primary care physician PMD as well.