This thread is sort of venting, so hear me out... Especially those of you that have loved ones in nursing homes, or that may work in one. This deeply disturbs me and makes me feel the need to stress that, whenever anyone is finding a nursing home, make sure it is a good one. Anyways, I am a student at a hospital, as some of you guys have seen in the past. As a student, I do rotations in different areas of our radiology department. Well, this week I am back in the interventional radiology area. This is the area where angiograms, angioplastys, arthrograms, etc. are done. Anyways, I have a story to tell about what happened yesterday. I'm gonna try and be as vague as possible, as I don't want to encroach on HIPAA. But here goes nothing: An older patient came in yesterday for an emergency angioplasty. An angioplasty is a procedure that is done for someone who is getting poor circulation. It consists of a radiologist inserting a flexible line into an artery, then fishing that line down to the artery that is closed (or closing) off. Once there, he will insert some contrast to see where the circulation is poor, and how poor it is. This is the basic concept of an angiogram - an angioplasty is takes it one step further. If an angioplasty is to be performed, the radiologist then inserts a tiny balloon in this metal line, and fishes it to the narrowed portion of the artery. Then, the balloon is inflated inside the artery, usually removing the plaque or whatever had closed the artery down in the first place. Then, the balloon is removed and all is usually well. That's the simplified version of it. Anyways, an older patient came in for an emergency angioplasty. I've never seen an emergency angioplasty, and they usually involve the brain or something like that, so I was very curious. Well, they bring this patient in, and his leg, from the middle of his shin down IS BLACK. I mean, it was black. Basically, all dead tissue. It smelled horribly. So, we were questioning the guy, and asked him how long it had been hurting him for. Get this - 3 MONTHS! Now, I'm sorry, but any person working in that nursing home that had half a brain would have noticed someone's leg going cold and not getting circulation. Especially 3 months into it. So now, we're looking at this patient, with his leg that is basically necrotic, has no pulse, smells like it's dead flesh, is numb, and is probably getting no blood flow, almost knowing that the test won't be successful and he'll be on his way to the OR for an amputation. The radiologist called in a surgeon to even have a look because he knew where the patient was headed. Well, come to find out, the procedure didn't even get close to being completed. The leg's gonna have to be amputated. This poor guy, and his family, who entrusted the care of their 70-something year old loved one, are more than likely extremely upset - I know I was. Even the radiologist was. He came back and you could tell he was upset by the whole situation, as we all were. I mean, how can you, as a caregiver let something like that go for so long? How immoral is that? When these people find out that they cost this guy his leg, and many other emotional scars, will they even care? I mean, this whole situation is just unforgivable. This guy and his family should own that place in about a month. I don't know. The whole thing just upset me, and I think that I will spread this story to everyone I know so that they keep their loved ones out of this place. I know not every facility is perfect, but the second the guy's leg was discolored, he should have at least seen a nurse - and that was more than likely 2 and a half months ago. Unacceptable. Be careful with your older loved-ones, folks.
And his damages in court will be capped to the equivalent of a rounding error for that facility. HOORAY FOR TORT REFORM!!!! at least my health insurance premiums are down... OH WAIT, THEY'RE TOTALLY NOT!!! THEY'RE UP AGAIN!!!
Please explain. I know what a tort is, but I have no idea about the rounding error thing. I'm interested in how the legal side of something like this would play out...
they capped damages for these sorts of things. part of the civil litigation system is that the judgment awarded deters this facility and facilities like it from doing these sorts of things in the future. when you cap damages, you take away that punishing factor. damages were capped because we were told that medical malpractice cases are out of control and costing us all soooo much money...that they were a huge component of costs passed along to the consumer in the health care industry. they weren't. the insurance companies indicated that only about 1% of their total costs were as a product of medical malpractice cases. i don't practice in this area on either side. i typically represent businesses and have been pretty conservative politically. but the pendulum swung too far to the right. correction time.
So, what you're saying is that the best the family can hope for is to be payed some predetermined amount, and the case to be forgot about, as if it had never happened? Kind of like doctors do to avoid malpractice? That sucks.
pretty much. when they go to the negotiating table, there is no way the nursing home pays any more than what damages would be capped at during trial. the family will probably be willing to take a little less than that actually, to mitigate the risk of going to trial and not getting the top figure. let me add that i don't do this sort of work. someone with direct experience in this area of the law could tell you better, i'm sure.
That's a good enough answer for me, and it makes enough sense, so we can leave it at that. Thanks. Anywho, it's too bad the guy's not in great shape, because if it were me, there'd be a worker from a nursing home on his way to the ER with a prosthesis stuck up some bodily orifice.
I've been meaning to post this... Anyways, on Friday, I was in the clinic again. Lo and Behold, our friend there, the subject of this thread was brought back in. This time for a procedure to put in a semi-permanent IV for antibiotics. It was sad because we were all wondering what had happened. We checked under his sheets, and yep, they had amputated about 3 inches above the knee. So, the guy is now missing 2/3's of his leg because a nursing home, that prides themselves in taking "great" care of elderly people couldn't do their job. Sad. I suppose this type of thing happens all the time, and that I'll see plenty more like it in my career, but this is the first thing that I have seen that I will probably remember for the rest of my career.
negligence!! that is sad to hear, but my question is did any family member visit the patient in the past 3 months to see the patient??
Not to play down the nursing home's responsibility, but shouldn't have the 70 year old gentleman at least complained to someone about it? At 70 you are not totally out of it, as many people get when they hit their 80's. I just always believe that the only person who cares most for you is yourself.
There is a good chance he did and was ignored. These nursing homes are horrible. My wife just graduated nursing school and she did one of her rotations in a nursing home. After that she made me promise that I would never put her or anyone else in our family in a nursing home. (I'm Asian and that's never even a thought in my mind.) But she says they are understaffed and the staff they usually have are not exactly highly trained. You might have one RN on shift. Then you have all these ADNs, LVNs (lower level nurses), and orderlies who take care of the patients. The people there are miserable. She said one gentlemen there had tried to escape in his wheel chair over 10 times. With another gentlemen she interviewed as part of program, she asked him to write down one sentence to describe himself and he wrote down 'Please help me get out of here'. It is very heart wrenching.
I'm not sure. Although he had been complaining of a hurt foot for 3 months, they had just brought him to the hospital. As far as him complaining, I'm not sure if he was that with it. His blood pressure when they brought him in, for instance, was 80 over 40.
