Judge: Calif. teen can be taken off life support

msn ^

[Wolfie]

Where are the people screaming for tort reform?

[peteyd]

It is much more than you know and much more than what you read.
The hospital is not permitted by the family or the lawyers to discuss this case.This hospital gives in many case free care and subsists on next to nothing.
And it is highly likely that this child is on Medical so the state of Calif may be footing the bill.
Remember,routine surgery is never routine,and Doctors and nurses all feel the devastation of such and outcome.

[SouthParkRepublican]

Anesthesia is always a major concern with obese patients but quite a bit of the focus is on post-op recovery as body fat tends to reduce the dissipation of anesthetics. It does not sound like this was the cause of the problem.

For a procedure like this, the patient would be intubated and ventilated and while this can cause inflammation of the surrounding tissues, it is also unlikely.

I'm guessing that the surgeon inadvertently nicked or failed to properly ligate either an artery or arterial branch in the tonsillar bed and that the patient bled out.

This is not meant to slam the medical personnel associated with this case (although I have to wonder about the post op follow up). I've known some talented, caring surgeons who have had minor procedural issues that went awry and not for lack of intent or skill. It's a numbers game. You do your best but sooner or later, with a large enough case load, something goes wrong.

Any way you slice it, sad outcome.

[SouthParkRepublican]

T&A is a fairly routine procedure and is often performed to help mitigate sleep apnea. That said, I would have recommended the patient see a nutritionist and work on weight reduction. There are numerous apnea monitoring systems out there that are pretty reliable and would have gone that route with surgery as the last resort.

Then again, we don't know the whole story yet. This might have already been done and proven unsuccessful.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thanks for the detailed information.

In my surgeries I have always been, thank God, in the hands of a skilled, caring, competent team. I have the highest opinion of the docs and my "bias" is usually pro-doctor.

I know that some few are incompetent, careless, even ignorant (we've got a doc in my town who's in huge trouble for drug and alcohol abuse) but for the most part, I think you've got to accept the fact that sometimes in surgery the patient dies, and it's hugely sorrowful to everybody, but, honestly, nobody's fault.

[Blood of Tyrants]

From the little I have read, I am not sure there was negligence. But that won’t stop the parents from suing.