The following is a response from one of my readers with their identity being ‘a physician’:
“I’m sorry that you had the traumatic experience that you had. It clearly had a major and lasting impact on your life. And that is also what happens to physicians when they are sued. Getting called “negligent” when you spend so many hours, and so many years, of your life trying to heal people is soul-destroying.
Sometimes bad things happen to patients, things you can’t predict. It sounds like that is what happened to you. From reading your descriptions on this site, it seems like what you experienced was horrific, but I can’t figure out exactly what the anesthesiologist did wrong – it sounds like you just had an unexpected reaction, but it was handled and you did fine. You then took your bad experience and took revenge by making life hell for the physicians and health care workers who took care of you. Were they actually negligent? You haven’t actually said what was negligent about their care. You had a bad experience, and you wanted others to suffer for it. And they did suffer, more than you probably know.”
I typically would not place a comment by a reader in a post, but this one really got under my skin. After this so-called physician read my story about what happened to me during the birth of my third child via cesarean section, he or she had the nerve to accuse me of being vengeful and wanting to make the physicians and health care workers lives hell by filing a medical malpractice lawsuit against those individuals. I received one sentence of empathy and the rest is a self-centered rant. I just do not get it. I do not understand why some clinicians cannot see that life destroying and sometimes life ending medical errors happen everyday and are a serious problem in this country particularly in the hospital setting.
I read an article How Hospitals Can Kill Us by Leana Wen MD this morning and it highlights this serious issue. I urge you to read it. She states, “In a stunning 2011 Health Affairs article, researchers found that medical errors occur in one-third of all hospital admissions, as much as ten times previous estimates. During a single hospitalization, many patients experience more than one error. Another study of Medicare patients found that one in seven hospitalized patients experience at least one unintended harm that prolonged the stay, caused permanent injury, required life-sustaining treatment, or resulted in death.” Wake up America!!!
What happened to me that morning was the result of a medication error. The wrong medication was injected into my spine, but they were not sure which medication it was that they picked up by mistake and loaded into my spinal fluid which then caused respiratory collapse. I will save the particulars for another post, but correct me if I am wrong but that is an error that is 100% negligent and it nearly caused the death of myself and newborn son. My injuries caused me to lose my career with a six figure income and due to this injury I am no longer eligible for health or life insurance. This list continues and it is long.
The CRNA admitted to this error after a lengthy deposition. I just do not get it! Why are we accepting these errors as ‘a physician’ states,”Sometimes bad things happen to patients, things you can’t predict” and also as an “unexpected reaction”? Bad things happen that destroy and end lives and the patient is the bad guy? We are frivolous? We just want to make others suffer? I will never apologize for suing! I will also never apologize if those clinicians suffered as a result of this lawsuit. Maybe just maybe the experience they went through just might make them think and look next time they pick up a medication before giving it or injecting it into a patient.
I am JUST a patient, but I am an educated and strong patient. I am JUST a patient that stood up and fought. I am JUST a patient that suffered not only a horrifying nightmare due to medical negligence, but I suffered through a lawsuit that added insult to injury. I am JUST a patient that listened along with a jury to the clinician admit negligence and the experts admit to his negligence. I am JUST a patient that listened to a devastating verdict finding for the CRNA and the physician. I am JUST a patient that was told the reason they didn’t find in my favor is because as a juror so eloquently said to me, “Stuff happens”.
So just remember the next time you go in for that procedure or surgery to give your loved ones a kiss, a hug and a heartfelt I love you. It may be your last chance to give those hugs and kisses, because “sometimes bad things happen to patients” and sometimes “stuff happens” and in the end you an either choose to accept it or fight back. Then again what do I know, I am JUST a patient.
