Readers digest version as best I can. Sons mother in law fell in her home Sunday night after Thanksgiving. The fall partially paralyzed her and she couldn't get to or manipulate her phone enough to call her daughter until Tuesday morning around 6am. Took her to our local small town hospital with limited resources. All they could do was dispense her pain killers until she was moved to a a hospital that was a half hour away with more resources.
She lived alone as her husband passed 6 years ago.

She was admitted there Thursday where they quickly diagnosed a compressed spine and performed surgery on the spine Saturday. Surgery went great and she was recovering remarkably. She was able to walk but still had limited use of her hands.

Here's where things get sticky. She has had rather severe case of sleep apnea for years but she never went in to have it diagnosed and treated. The Friday before surgery the doctor came into her room and commented to her daughter and her that her oxygen level got extremely low over night. Daughter told the doc that yes she has a bad case of sleep apnea and never had it treated. Doctor says oh that explains it so we will take care of that as well.

So they gave her oxygen that night knowing she was on pain meds and would be sedated. So surgery comes and goes on Saturday and as I said recovery was going excellent. She was vibrant and joking with everyone walking around and was in all around good spirits.

So Thursday they moved her to the rehab floor to start rehab with her hands and try to get more movement back. They informed everyone not to come to the hospital to visit until after 4 in the afternoon as she would be in and out of rehab all day. So the idea was she would be released in a day or two and come back and forth for rehab as needed.

So... once she was moved to the rehab floor they by procedure as I understand do not monitor any vitals or anything for that matter. You are basically in a hotel room at that point. So they were not giving her oxygen or a cpap mask either. However she was still on pain meds up to and including a fetanyl patch.

So her daughter shows up at the hospital Thursday at 4:30 and noticed her mother looked strange. She tried to wake her but couldn't. Right then a nurse comes in and notices things aren't right checks her heart and breathing and instantly calls a code blue.
Rushed her to icu and get the heart going. Doc explains it was a cardiac arrest. They got the heart going and she shows signs of breathing on her own and she may be fine but they need to do a brain scan and MRI. So at this point he blames it on a combination of the sleep apnea and pain meds. She had a sleep apnea episode and the heart was trying to pump more blood and oxygen to the brain to compensate and just gave out. The pain meds would not allow her to wake up and start breathing. Turns out she never had a cardiac event and it was simply lack of oxygen to the brain from not breathing during a sleep apnea episode.

So the end result is they took her off the ventilator last night and she passed at 56 years old. So here we are. My daughter in law and son are devastated. My DIL demands to know why she was not monitored or administered oxygen or cpap for the sleep apnea. The answer she has gotten so far is well she was never actually diagnosed for the sleep apnea.

Well diagnosed or not they treated her for it while there previously and were well aware of it by their own admission. Even blamed the sleep apnea when they thought it was a cardiac arrest. The information just never followed her to the rehab floor. Now they are just shrugging their shoulders and saying well she was never actually diagnosed for the condition. Don't know if the DIL wants to pursue anything and I'm not going to advise her either way. I'm guessing the insurance company will do their own digging and resolve it that way.

Just a very sad situation and is going to make for a grim Holidays and always will for my son and his wife.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: lastmanstanding,

I'm sorry for this. Condolences to you, your son , and his wife.

I am very sorry for this loss. Prayers sent.

Time for an attorney. That negligence is unacceptable.

Too young to have passed.....get an attorney to get names of all responsible. Money is not the object now.......seek justice as you deem fit.

This seems a shame..... I'm always a little skeptical of getting attorneys involved so quickly ( they do have a vested interest).....Does anyone know if it's possible to contract with an independent doctor ( no ties at all to this hospital) to review this situation ?? Would the person's insurance company ever furnish a reviewer ??

Obstructive sleep apnea certainly seems likely (complicated by pain meds.....was she overweight or a smoker ? ) but the other issue that comes to mind is a blood clot that goes either to the head, heart or lungs. Folks who have any kind of surgery involving bones are at a very high risk of blood clots....

So tragic....mike

No advice here, just feeling pain for the family. A terrible situation.

Prayers sent for your son and his family.

Awful.

Not enough medical knowledge to do more than offer my sincere condolences. 56 is way too early to pass from anything less than an untreatable terminal illness.

No obesity she was probably under weight. She was a smoker but doc said lungs kidneys, liver and all other organs checked out fine. No blood clots or concussions all that was ruled out early on. No strokes were involved in this scenario. As a matter of fact she had a complete physical the week before Thanksgiving and everything was excellent. They even took her off her blood pressure meds.

So the hospital is pretty much boxed in on this one. Whether or not they are going to be made to admit their negligence and change things remains to be seen. Don't think my son and his wife at this moment have the strength and emotion to fight this. They may in a couple weeks.

I still think the insurance company attorneys will be getting involved. When a otherwise healthy 56 year old dies in the hospital someone will ask questions.

Were it me I'd be climbing up their ass right now. I wouldn't want their money but I'd take it but I would want them to change the way they do things so no one else has to suffer through this same thing.

sad news

my condolences to everyone

Wow, it certainly appears that someone dropped the ball with tragic results..... I, too, would be looking at a lawsuit.
IMO , your DIL should take the time to grieve and when she feels strong enough....speak with a malpractice lawyer.... Don't wait too long as most states have a statute of limitations for malpractice suits.....
The only thing that makes a hospital really change policies is when it costs them money....Big money ! Otherwise , they just view it as the "cost of doing business"....

So sorry to hear this - she was much too young.

If you are considering a malpractice suit, please stop and take notes and document everything you remember that was said by her doctors and anyone involved in her treatment. It will come in handy later. Lawsuits such as these take years and you will not remember who said what.

Sorry to hear, especially if it could have been prevented.

Sleep apnea is nothing to ignore. I’ve been on the hose for 13 years, since I was 42. One of the most severe cases my sleep doc ever saw. Pretty sure I’d be dead by now if I hadn’t got it under control.

Tragic. Really sorry

I am sorry.

Contact a lawyer, but don't jump to any conclusions about fault. Those things can be incredibly complicated.

And I don't know how much "tort reform" your state has passed in the last ten or twenty years, but a lot of states have made these cases incredibly hard to prosecute because the insurance companies sold the public a bill of goods about how lawsuits and greedy plaintiffs were ruining health care. And then those reforms make it hard to impossible for some deserving claimants to prosecute their claims.

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
No obesity she was probably under weight. She was a smoker but doc said lungs kidneys, liver and all other organs checked out fine. No blood clots or concussions all that was ruled out early on. No strokes were involved in this scenario. As a matter of fact she had a complete physical the week before Thanksgiving and everything was excellent. They even took her off her blood pressure meds.

So the hospital is pretty much boxed in on this one. Whether or not they are going to be made to admit their negligence and change things remains to be seen. Don't think my son and his wife at this moment have the strength and emotion to fight this. They may in a couple weeks.

I still think the insurance company attorneys will be getting involved. When a otherwise healthy 56 year old dies in the hospital someone will ask questions.

Were it me I'd be climbing up their ass right now. I wouldn't want their money but I'd take it but I would want them to change the way they do things so no one else has to suffer through this same thing.

A routine physical is not all that comprehensive. You would be shocked at how many patients I have treated in the ER with masive heart attacks and strokes with comeplelely benign routine physical exams and lab tests. I hope your family has elected to do an autopsy. Without one you will never be sure of exactly what was the cause of death. It will make any legal case stronger. If she had been a long time smoker I can 100% guarantee you that her lungs were not fine. She likely had some degree of COPD which coupled with medications that depress respiratory drive and sleep apnea make for a dangerous situation. From the motor function issues you described it sounds like she had some degree of central cord syndrome which occurs when portions of the cervical spinal cord are compressed or impinged by either bony material or a disk. Usually these patients will have gross motor control in their upper extremities but will lose fine motor control (the ability to do small precise tasks like pick up a coin etc...) The level of spinal cord injury is important in this case because respirations/diaphragmatic excursion aka movement of the diaphragm to assist in breathing is controlled by C4 area of the spinal cord. Most central cord syndromes are due to damage to C5-C6. If there is any degree of cord compression at C4 either from the original accident or postoperatively from swelling it might have played a major role in her death. These types findings would be seen in autopsy.

I hope this helps and my condolences to your family.

if you can believe Dr. Oz


250 people a week die in the u.s. because of hospital related treatment(s),.

you are not being treated by a person or three , there might be a dozen people involved in your leaving happy and healthy , or, not so much

I’m sorry for this unfortunate loss.

My sympathies to your family on the loss. Even if it goes no further, an autopsy could provide the family some closure. It may well be something else that just could not be known or prevented.