A friend of the family died about 10 years ago from pneumonia like symptoms. She had always been a little sickly and had gotten worse, but was in good spirits when taken to the hospital. She died 2 nights later. We found out 5 years later that she had AIDS and had been hiding it from friends...only a few people knew. So, you never know what underlying conditions exist. Does she have AIDS, does she have athsma, was she allergic to the drugs and did not know...ect?
I heard an interesting study a while back that concluded cases of misdiagnosis, and doctor error were no greater in countries that were far less litigious than they are in the US. Just food for thought.
This is true. My aunt is a cardiologist in Atlanta and she pays a lot of $ for malpractice insurance per year.
Exactly my point, we don't know anything specific about her case. In fact, we don't know if she was truly misdiagnosed on the first visit. Like I said, a viral upper respiratory infection (which Tylenol could be used to treat) can progress to very fatal conditions.
As someone who has seen blatent stupidity at work by members of the staff of a hospital before, on more than one occasion, I have no problem with making my post. If it turns out that she had some problem damned near impossible to diagnose, then I'll say I was wrong... in this case.
After HIV causes AIDS, most patients die from all types of infections. They also have a higher propensity for certain types of cancers, but you are right, the vast majority die from infections.
You're right about the X-Rays. They probably didn't even take Xrays on her first visit if she was just sent home with Tylenol. I've never had chest Xrays done while I've been to the doc for any respiratory related illnesses. Chest Xrays are really only good for a few things like lung cancer and tuberculosis. As for the second time she went in, if they didn't take blood and send it to the lab, that's definitely gross negligence. As far as being allergic to the medicine, we would know by now if she had died from this. There's not really any reason to believe this is true - certainly the doc wouldn't have prescribed some med the patient was allergic to. He also should have noted in the records if it were a med she hadn't taken before - and they would have investigated this as the cause of death. But people also need to be aware that because of the gross overuse of antibiotics in the past 50 years that there are many bacteria that are resistant to a lot of antibiotics. So even if she had the antibiotics, it may not have helped - but they would have figured that out with her bloodwork they should have sent to the lab. And yes, most HIV/AIDS patients' official cause of death is the sickness they happen to have and not the HIV/AIDS itself - it's a nice way of not broadcasting it to all the world that this individual had it. And if this is what happened and they're just not releasing that info leading to this whole discussion, well that's up to them.
x-rays, as i understand it, can pick up pneumonia. is it negligent if she came in that 2nd time and they didn't look with x-rays? who knows.
Chest xrays can help diagnose a lot more things than just cancer and TB. Pneumonia is definitely one, pneumothorax, plueral effusion, edema, beign masses, emphysema, foreign bodies and cardiomegaly are just a few. If she was 2 days away from dying from pneumonia, it's hard to imagine that it couldn't be seen on an xray. When an xray is read in the ER it's seen by the ER doc and then seen by a radiologist a few hours later to make sure the ER doc got the diagnosis right. A CXR is usually part of the respiratory protocol in ERs, especially if it's a repeat visit with worsening conditions. Absolutely. Her White blood cell count would probably be through the roof if it was a bad bacteria infection. The whole problem is that we don't know all the info and probably will never know, but that second hospital visit and the hospital's protocol will be looked at VERRRRY closely by a lawyer in the near future, no doubt.
x-rays can definitely pick up pneumonias sometimes. Early bacterial pneumonias are sometimes not apparent. Right inferior lobe pneumonias can sometimes not be seen. Left lower lobe pneumonias are sometimes blocked by the heart shadow. Viral lung infections sometimes cannot be seen at all. Treated pneumonias can have persistent x-ray changes for 2-3 months. In addition, bacterial consolidated lobes need to be distinguished from atelectasis (collapsed lung regions) as well as other types of inflammatory processes. These caveats only scratch the surface of the lack of specificity that a chest x-ray has.
I would say yes. When she came back the second time with notibly worse symptoms, the hospital should have done the works - the xrays, the bloodwork, and antibiotics.
I doubt she died from a bacterial pneumonia. I just can't see a pneumonia this severe being missed on physical exam and chest x-ray (if they were done). It makes me think that there is much more to this story than we know. Maybe sepsis or maybe her electrolytes were out of whack led to her death?
Agreed. I'm also thinking something else led to this. Her return visit would've been more thorough and they would've caught it if it was pneumonia. 30 years old, damn that's too young. It's amazing how far medicine has come still...hell in the early 1900's pnuemonia use to be a death sentence.
