Nicole DeHuff, an actress who played Teri Polo's sister in Meet the Parents, has died of causes related to pneumonia. She was 30.Posted on 03/11/2005 12:23:10 PM PST by crushelits
Nicole DeHuff, an actress who played Teri Polo's sister in Meet the Parents, has died of causes related to pneumonia. She was 30.
The actress died Feb. 16 in Hollywood, four days after she reportedly checked into a Los Angeles hospital, was misdiagnosed and sent home with orders to take Tylenol.
When her condition worsened, she returned to the hospital and was prescribed antibiotics for bronchitis and again sent home. Two days later, paramedics were called to her home after she collapsed, gasping for breath. By the time she reached the hospital, she was unconscious and passed away soon after.
Meet the Parents marked DeHuff's feature-film debut. She played Deborah Byrnes, the sister whose wedding prompts Gaylord "Greg" Focker's (Ben Stiller) visit to girlfriend Pam Byrne's (Polo) childhood home to attend the ceremony and, as suggested by the title, meet the parents. Hilarity ensues.
In one of the movie's most memorable scenes, a Speedo-clad Stiller spikes a volleyball into DeHuff's face, breaking the bride-to-be's nose and cementing his own unpopularity.
DeHuff also appeared in 2004's Suspect Zero with Ben Kingsley and in an independent film called Killing Cinderella.
She also starred in the as yet unreleased independent film Unbeatable Harold, directed by her husband, Ari Palitz, and costarring Dylan McDermott and Gordon Michaels.
On the small screen, DeHuff had roles in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Court, The Practice, Dragnet, Without a Trace and Monk. She also appeared in the TV movie See Arnold Run.
A native of Oklahoma, DeHuff graduated from the Carnegie Mellon University acting program.
She is survived by Palitz, her husband of four years, as well as her sister, her mother and her father.
Okay, so blaming it on doctors is a provacative approach to highlight a real problem in medicine today. Anyone with with half a brain can see that our current approach to "health" care in this country is broken. For most degenerative diseases, doctors don't have a clue about restoring health. They just prescribe pills and then more pills to deal with side effects. They deal in band-aid approaches rather than get to the root of the problem. Don't get me wrong, our doctors and hospitals have the capabilities to do great work for traumas and critical care. But in this girl's case, they even screwed that up, and it cost her her life. Even in her case, had someone taken the time to understand the real problem, rather than just guess and give some pills, she probably would have lived.
Do you know for a fact it was Cedars?
Glad that you are familiar with all the details. That she indeed never had a Chest x-ray or blood tests -- that during the first visit she was told not to see her own doctor the next day. That she returned to the same hospital and not some other place. That she filled the prescription that was given her -- and then she took the medicine. That she didn't have a virus first or that the pneumonia was viral and thus, would not be responsive to antibiotics.
Amazing that you know all the details from the news. You are more than good. You are clairvoyant. Those doctors really screwed up!
No x-ray; doctors should have done that. They didn't. Doctor's fault.
No blood tests; doctors should have done that. They didn't. Doctor's fault. Again. Two strikes.
Doctor prescribed antibiotics for a viral infection. That probably weakened her immune system further by destroying her healthy flora. Doctor's fault. Three strikes.
So I am glad you agree with me. The doctors killed her. Just like they kill hundreds of others every day due to a dangerous combination of arrogance and ignorance.
My many points were: You don't know what happened. You don't know that she didn't have a CXR, CBC, flu test, follow-up instructions, etc. You don't know the pathogen that caused the pneumonia, results of the autopsy, her vital signs, her history, etc.
For you to make your judgments so cavalierly, you operate from a shoot-from-the-hip, blind position. You judge the doctors to be arrogant. You never even examined the patient and yet you deign to make judgments about the people that did examine and evaluate the patient. Now who is being arrogant? Hmmm. 3 guesses.
I've seen this personally. I went to my own doctor get his opinion on what I thought was a stress fracture. After about a 45 second exam, he thought that since I walked in on it, it wasn't even worth an x-ray. I ended up going to my chiropractor, who took a film and confirmed a nondisplaced tuberosity avulsion fracture of my fifth metatarsal. The point it a careless practitioner can do more harm than good.
Anecdotal medicine. I have oodles of chiropractor stories. The worst is a 40 yr old neighbor lady who had her neck adjusted by the chiropractor. Afterwards, she couldn't get up and she couldn't talk. She had sustained a hemorrhage in the posterior, inferior aspect of her brain. She is "locked in" for the rest of her life -- knows what is going on around her but cannot respond. So, should I judge all chiropractors by that experience??
Your issues are personal and not logical. By all means, travel anywhere in the world and get better care.
I don't disagree that there are plenty of good doctor and hospitals around. But I get a sense you have a "circle the wagons" approach to any valid criticism of the medical establishment.
we live vastly longer than a mere 100 yrs ago....many people live very active lifestyles into their 80's......
there is no question that people must be their own strong advocates, but problems with medical care due to mistakes or even negligence are few and far between....that's why they are news worthy....
believe me, the medical/health establishment can tell you more stories about the non-compliant, deceitful and disingenuous patients they MUST take care that would trump anything told about doctors or hospitals....
Yes.
Naturally, there are bad apples in every field -- BUT, BUT! -- usually, those are not the ones that get sued. They are obsequious and give their patients whatever they want -- even I.V. hydrogen peroxide, among thousands of other random, unproven chemicals. Those doctors need to be dealt with more. Those doctors would never be hired by an emergency room. I am confident that there is much more than meets the eye to this actress' death.
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