Bad deal. Inexcusable.

My condolences.

Based on what you have said about the situation, it does seem that it would be common sense to have closely monitored her breathing while in the re-hab unit.
My condolences.

My condolences.

My advice is to pay for an independent autopsy. The hospital will likely just have a doctor sign off on a death certificate without an autopsy being performed.

IANAL but will give this advice as a father to a son that was damaged during surgery and we ended up in a lawsuit... as previously stated make notes of everything you remember being said, by whom and list anyone that witnessed that conversation.

From my understanding of the medical world of it is not written down it didn't happen. Therefore, request all of her medical records from the hospital and any outside/out of network/3rd party provider. Once you have all these records compare them. Sometimes, records are "corrected" (read CYA attempt). That "correction" is what happened in my son's case amd the ability to prove that is what won the case. Contact me offline (Rotndad@Gmail) if you want more specifics than that.

Prayers for all involved.

Sympathies and prayers sent. I know this and future holiday seasons will be difficult times.

My condolences on your families loss. I would strongly suggest seeking out the best malpractice attorney you can find.

My own experience with a "Rehab" facility was not good. They do not do very well in terms of monitoring patients. My experience was similar but I did not know I had sleep apnea. My wife had difficulty waking me up one morning and the nurse told her I was ok. After ten minutes trying to wake me she called our doctor and got me sent back to the hospital. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and put on CPAP. I refused rehab and went home.

I'm very sorry for your family's loss.

Time after to deal with any potential legal issues.

Now just deal with the family.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
I am sorry.

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

My condolences for your loss.

As for the possible legal considerations, I’ll echo what jhe888 said.

Do contact a medical malpractice attorney. Most med mal attorneys ONLY do med mal. The rest of us mostly refer med mal cases to those that do. There’s a reason for that.

Contact a med mal attorney now and let them advise you as to how any investigation should proceed and give you their initial impressions based on your state law and their professional experience.

It may seem straightforward from where you’re sitting, but meeting the legal threshold required to prevail in a med mal action can be extremely difficult.

Good luck and best wishes as your family goes through this.

-Rob

I ‘m a physician and have seen my share of cases of true malpractice, this might well be one.
You will not be able to get records, arrange for autopsy, or negotiate with the hospital on your own. So I’d recommend following jhe88’s advice (in this case). The family needs advice from a malpractice attorney.

No question, this is tragic story. My heart goes out to the family.

My first thoughts would not be legal, but under the circumstances perhaps warranted, at least a compitent consultation... However, should they choose not to go that route, its perfectly understandable. Again, thoughts and prayers...

This is such a sticky situation. My DIL and son are dealing with all the things one needs to deal with after such a event. Going after the hospital is not even on their radar and I don't think it's my place to tell them what they need to do at least not right now.

I asked my son last night when we were at his house if there would be a autopsy. He said no and I asked him to think about doing one. Before we could talk any further the pastor and my DIL came into the room and we broke off the conversation.

My daughter has two friends who are respitory therapists one in the hospital where she died and the one in a different hospital. They both told my daughter nearly identical statements. They said it's procedure that when a patients oxygen level drops anytime below 89 they provide oxygen and monitor that patient.

From what we know the sons MIL oxygen level dropped below 60 at one point during a sleep apnea episode while she was being monitored.

My wife is telling me hands off as long as the kids are trying to put this behind them so should we. I'm hoping I can find some time to talk to my son in confidence the next day or so. The funeral is Friday after which time she will be cremated.

I'm kind of hoping the insurance company attorneys will step in but I fear by the time this hits their radar she will be cremated.

And thanks to everyone for all the condolences and well wishes and advice.

Sorry for the loss to your family. Best wishes for your daughter in-law and son for their healing. I think I can add a bit that may be helpful.

It would not surprise me if the hospital had no record of the apnea -- or at least, no record of it in the rehab unit.

The EMR (Electronic Medical Record) is the "memory" of the patient and care plan which would be shared across the dozen or more people mentioned earlier in this thread. Hospitals with fewer resources often have older, fragmented systems. Older systems often lacked modules pertaining to certain areas of care. Something recorded on the "problem list" in the ICU may not be in the system in the rehab because they might use a differed point-solution system from another vendor. Heck, they may even be on paper! In any case, when this happens, it's almost as if they are discharged from one facility to another even when they are in the same building.

And data flow between EMR systems is notoriously poor, though getting better finally. Vendors were very hesitant to cooperate with this objective for decades really. "If you want good data flow and lack of siloed data, just buy it all from us" was the gist.

It could be a contributing factor worth investigating.

How heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers to your family. Did this happen in MN? I’d be curious as to which hospital, if you feel comfortable sharing - or if you could send to my email (I’m in MN, too, and thinking about having a heart procedure done in the near future, so it’s not just random curiosity).
I remember a guy I work with telling me how embarrassed he was when his gmil ended up in the hospital, and his wife’s family was constant and specific in their questions to the nursing and dr staff (they all had medical backgrounds). I’d told him he should be grateful to have married into such a family, because if anything happened to him, they’d be damned if anything got past them. And it shouldn’t have to be. I’m so sorry.

I do investigations for the (ME)medical examiner's office. This would actually be an ME case since a fall was involved, and would possibly require an autopsy!

My first question as an investigator, how or what made a 56 year old fall to where they are paralyzed?

had similar happen ,

my FIL passed while in rehab,

he had cancer in the lung, local (and found out later crappy) hospital in a small town removed the lower lobe, and all was well,
then it wasn't , not sure what happened, but he went from surgery, to ICU , one overnight and back to surgery for something,

couple weeks in the hospital, and he went to rehab to get his strength back,

while there, they took him off the ventilator, but left the vent in,
he coughed up some phlegm and choked,
didn't kill him, but he was basically dead,

wife, sister and mom had to make that dreaded decision and have the plug pulled,



that was 25+ yrs ago, no one wanted to push the issue, since what was done, was done,

My father died due to hospital error.
My mother died after cancer treatments were delayed due to misdiagnosis.

I work in an industry where we have "process controls" and "procedures"....and quality engineers roaming around to make sure everything is copacetic. Every time I go to a hospital, I am appalled that it just seems like no one is really coordinating anything....even the initial check-in process.
I once had to go in for a non-critical injury, so just as a test I went and stood right in front of the check-in window without saying anything, and no one even asked if they could help me or if I had a question or anything for a full 20 minutes.

I have noticed this phenomenon in other "educated" professions, because I didn't go back to school until well into adulthood. In normal businesses, where you have to deal with the public and/or create a product, there will be great emphasis on employee training and quality. But in the educated professions, they arrogantly and naively assume that "professionals" will act professionally....but they simply don't even know what that really means. They just got out of school and were thrown into the deep end. So there is just chaos and incompetence allowed to run amok.

@ lyman:
"that was 25+ yrs ago, no one wanted to push the issue, since what was done, was done"

Exactly the same with my father. We would have had a very easy malpractice suit. But my Father was dead, and that grief blotted out any other considerations for a long time.

quote:

Originally posted by Crom:
My father died due to hospital error.
My mother died after cancer treatments were delayed due to misdiagnosis.

I work in an industry where we have "process controls" and "procedures"....and quality engineers roaming around to make sure everything is copacetic. Every time I go to a hospital, I am appalled that it just seems like no one is really coordinating anything....even the initial check-in process.
I once had to go in for a non-critical injury, so just as a test I went and stood right in front of the check-in window without saying anything, and no one even asked if they could help me or if I had a question or anything for a full 20 minutes.

I have noticed this phenomenon in other "educated" professions, because I didn't go back to school until well into adulthood. In normal businesses, where you have to deal with the public and/or create a product, there will be great emphasis on employee training and quality. But in the educated professions, they arrogantly and naively assume that "professionals" will act professionally....but they simply don't even know what that really means. They just got out of school and were thrown into the deep end. So there is just chaos and incompetence allowed to run amok.

not to drift too far off , but the bolded part is correct,

seen it during many visits to the hospitals, (will admit that hospitals may have a different set of procedures and management than I am used too)
and law offices as well,

So sorry for your loss. I can offer no suggestions, only prayers.

flashguy