My wife is ill

[Edge]

... in response to My wife is ill, posted by lswote on Jun 21, 2003

Good luck to you and your wife.  My wife and I are pulling for you both.  I have a feeling you will turn a bad situation around to something positive for both of you.  Maybe this will bring you closer together since all she has in this country is her husband to take care of her.

Take care.

[Brazilophile]

... in response to My wife is ill, posted by lswote on Jun 21, 2003

I am happy for you that your wife eventually received the treatment she needed and is on the road to full recovery.  I wish you and your wife the best of good fortune with regards to your pregnancy.

Incidentally, I scuba dive and once met a doctor who also dived.  He said that it is very common for women swimming in the ocean or in lakes to develop infections especially if they hang around afterwards in their wet bathing suits.  There are bacteria and one-celled protozoa that make their way into body orifices or small skin openings such as those that might result from shaving or hair plucking.  He always recommends that women change into dry clothing immediately after getting out of the water.  What amazed after speaking with this doctor is that I noticed that EVERY female dive master at the diving outfits I went to, were doing EXACTLY that!

[david hagar]

... in response to My wife is ill, posted by lswote on Jun 21, 2003

You can probably negotiate for 50 to 60 cents on the dollar.

Beattledog

[surfscum]

... in response to My wife is ill, posted by lswote on Jun 21, 2003

n/t

[burbuja2]

... in response to My wife is ill, posted by lswote on Jun 21, 2003

Iswote, I hope everything is all right.  See if you can negotiate down further the bill from the hospital.  If you pay immediately, ask the billing department if you can have a PPO rate. That may cut the original bill by 60%. As to actually paying for this, can you get a home equity line of credit or borrow against a self-funded retirement plan?

[burbuja2]

... in response to Financial Options, posted by burbuja2 on Jun 22, 2003

I understands how you feel about legal action but at least get your money back from the urgent care center and tell them you'll call it even.

[eddiemd]

... in response to My wife is ill, posted by lswote on Jun 21, 2003

[This message has been edited by eddiemd]

Iswote,

I hope that your wife is doing better.
From what you wrote about the chain of events I would guess that your wife had an aggressive infection known as necrotizing fasciitis. This is considered a medical emergency and requires antibiotics and surgical debridement immediately. The infection is caused by different types of bacteria...staph, strep, gram-negatives. The treatment of choice is penicillin usually combined with a second broad spectrum antibiotic.
I will advise you to seek an attorney. It appears to me that the urgent care clinic was negligent in not recognizing and/or not appropriately treating the infection. Without knowing all the details it appears to me that they deferred treatment because she was pregnant. There is no excuse for this and in fact, this should have made them more aggressive in treating or sending her emergently to an emergency room for further evaluation and treatment.
It appears to me that this is a case of negligence.
If you need any further information leave a message on this board and I will respond.

[lswote]

... in response to Re: My wife is ill, posted by eddiemd on Jun 21, 2003

[This message has been edited by lswote]

Yep, those are exactly the words the doctor used today.  I didn't know women were so vulnerable to something so quickly.  Guess this is what my mother used to refer to as "female trouble".

I thought about trying to pursue some kind of action against the clinic, but number one, I don't like that kind of thing, I stress out big time (I almost felt I wasn't going to survive all the stress of getting the necessary documents for marriage and spousal visa a few months ago, it aggravated my physical problem by 3 or 4 times).  The other thing is that the doctor today said that the treatment my wife received today would have been the same thing last night.  So the cost would have been the same.  He said the only treatment for this condition is to cut it out, that it can't be treated with just antibiotics so she would have ended up with the same surgery either way. Until the necrosis presented itself today it was unclear to the urgent care clinic what was going on.  Perhaps they could have identified it sooner, but any kind of treatment put the fetus at risk, so they wanted to defer aggressive treatment until they were sure what was going on.  Today she was so bad they just said they had to go ahead and take the risk.  But they said there is a 35 percent chance she will miscarry now.

[Wasp]

... in response to Re: Re: My wife is ill, posted by lswote on Jun 22, 2003

There's no stress Iswote.
Just get the info to a lawyer, and a settlement will be negotiated out, it'll never see court.

[Michael B]

... in response to Re: Re: My wife is ill, posted by lswote on Jun 22, 2003

Say, Bruce, I made my post below before you made this one. I did not realize that the baby is still in danger......you have my prayers too, if you think they are worth anything.

[eddiemd]

... in response to Re: Re: My wife is ill, posted by lswote on Jun 22, 2003

[This message has been edited by eddiemd]

Iswote,

The urgent clinic delayed in treating an infection that could have killed your wife overnight. Have you ever heard of flesh eating bacteria? People become septic and die quickly, overnight, from this type of infection. The absolute WRONG treatment was a steroid shot. A cortisone shot suppresses the immune system thereby allowing the infection to spread more quickly. Unles she received IV antibiotics when you took her to the urgent care clinic and/or was prescribed antibiotics they were NEGLIGENT. And they are still negligent until proven otherwise. I would get the medical record from the urgent care clinic ASAP and/or have the attorney subpeona the records.
This has nothing to do with whether the cost or treatment would have been the same the night before or not. This is a matter of the fact that your wife could have been dead due to failure to diagnos and treat.
You need to get a medical malpractice attorney to review the case. That is my advice. This is a case of missed diagnosis, delay in treatment, and wrong treatment. It sounds like a slam-dunk case to me. You won't have to worry about the cost of anything.

[lswote]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: My wife is ill, posted by eddiemd on Jun 22, 2003

Well you got that exactly correct as well.  The doctor at the hospital also said that cortisone was a mistake as it surpressed the immune system.  I hadn't thought about the fact she could have died was because of the cortisone shot.  I think I will contact an attorney.  Thanks.

[lswote]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Re: My wife is ill, posted by lswote on Jun 22, 2003

I talked to one legal firm today.  Not many offices open on Sunday even here in Florida where there are more than the usual amount of lawyers.  I will try to contact others during the week.  The firm that I talked to dealt strictly with medical malpractice.  The paralegal who does the pre-screening told me that the kind of claim I want to file is medical negligence, not medical malpractice and he gave me the number of a firm that specializes in negligence.  If that firm isn't able to help me I will talk to others.

eddiemd, I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge and the clarity you expressed it with.

[lswote]

... in response to Talked to first attorney today, posted by lswote on Jun 22, 2003

This guy said ER doctors are held to a lower level of accountability than regular doctors and I would have to be able to get another ER doctor to state that the doctor acted with reckless disregard with his diagnosis and treatment.  What do you think the chances of that are?

Basically I am hearing that if my wife fully recovers then my only damages were the additional medical costs and and that isn't a lawsuit worth pursuing.

[Aaron]

... in response to Talked to third attorney, posted by lswote on Jun 23, 2003

but also remember the health of your wife and unborn baby are the primary issues. I'm sure you realize that.

So, also spend significant time for finding healthcare coverage because you never know if she or the baby may need it after birth.

One other detail is that I know being a private consultant has it's advantages, but there are also some draw backs with regards to healthcare benefits. Many companies don't want to pay these benefits unless the person is a full-time employee.

Maybe working a full-time position for a company that provides good healthcare benefits for you and your spouse would be the best thing now. You can do your consulting on the side to supplement your income if you want.  

Being a consultant is great, especially when a person is single, but there are allot of other issues that come along with it. I'm sure you're aware of them.

.02 cents.

Aaron