Posted on 08/10/2005 12:35:31 PM PDT by msjhall
BOISE --- Back in 2002, Corissa Mueller took her then five-week-old daughter Taige to St. Luke's hospital.
Corissa believed the little girl had a cold, but the doctor thought it was more.
He requested a spinal tap and antibiotics for what the hospital says was a five to ten percent chance the little girl had meningitis. Corissa refused treatment.
Police were called and her little girl was taken away.
Today, three years later, the Muellers were in federal court with a claim against Saint Luke’s, Child Protective Services, the doctor and three police officers.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktvb.com ...
Seems like they have a pretty decent chance of winning their case.
Five to ten percent is not slim odds.
ping for later.
5 to 10% is not a very focused number either though.
If I had to take my best guess, I think an impatient doctor bullied them and then had their daughter forcibly removed from her parents care rather than sharing some compassion and understanding with them. However, I could be wrong.
All the more reason to pick a pediatrician and get to know him/her. We have seen the same one now for 13 years and even if we go to the ER they will call him and he will come up or advise via the phone on what is best for our child. Weel kid visits are teh nest way to build this relationship. If you only go when they are sick you are missing an opportunity to glean a relationship where you have a say.
I don't know the chances of problems from a spinal tap,but I do know the risk is pretty high and needs to be weighed against the risk of not doing it. I suspect the parents and their attorney will bring that into the courtroom, too.
I guess I could understand it if the doc was completely convinced that she had meningitis. However, he obviously did not know, which is why he was ordering the test. It was just a guess.
This article doesn't say how she was ultimately diagnosed. I bet it was a cold...
The article doesn't say if the test results were positive or not. If the results were positive, and the young girl's live was saved as a result of the intervention, I'd toss mom out of court on her ear.
A five week old may not develop the signs of a stiff neck, headache, light sensitivity that older patients may demonstrated or be able to tell you about. Often they are only sick looking, irritable, and have a fever. The spinal tap was probably indicated in this infant and carries very little risk. It's odd that the family didn't consent. I don't think that the circumstances justified the subsequent actions however.
That depends on how serious the consequences of the disease could be.
Yeah, they should have permitted it, but the doctor should not have called the police unless there was a higher likelihood of a problem. He just misjudged.
Bump for the parents.
And had the doctor not done the tests and the girl had meningitis, the doctor would have been sued for not doing enough.
Do you have children?
Glad you feel like its ok for outsiders to decide what is an acceptable risk.
That's what pediatricians and CPS thugs believe. It's all about money.
My wife went to the emergency room for a migraine 3 weeks ago. Her doctor admitted her and started pumping her full of drugs. The migraine would not go away. MRI's, CAT Scans, etc. Nothing showed up. Everything was normal. Unfortunately I was not able to be there during the day so I always missed out on the neurologist's visits.
Then they decided to use a steriod nerve block (Medrol) injections at the base of her skull. They did this. Next thing her heart rate shot up, she was dilerious, mumbling, talking like she was smashed. She passed out in front of the nurses at one point. So they moved her to the cardio surgical unit. Ran some more heart tests. Find out she has mitral valve prolapse (ok? 75% of the people in the world have that including my dad, my brother and most likely me (I've never been tested)). Cardiologist comes to see her, says that same thing I just did. There is nothing wrong with her, the MVP is normal in most people, nothing to be concerned about.
Finally, I asked her to call me when the neurologist shows up next time. She calls, puts him on, I start getting into a rant. I tell him that 95% of the time her migraines start because of tension in her neck muscles, and she stated that this was one of those times, why didn't he order a muscle relaxer and some massage therapy. He says "Well, we can't do any therapy now because the injection sites are so swollen and sore nobody can touch them." IDIOT!!!
So, here it is 1 week into the hospitalization for a headache and they are getting ready to release her when she complains of pain in her arm. MRI = blood clot found. They put her on coumadin (WTF?! For a simple vein blood clot that is only block one of numerous veins in her arm?). They denied that it had anything to do with the 12 puncture sites on her right arm when they were trying to find a vein for the IV's and blood draws for tests. So because of the coumadin, she had to stay in the hospital and extra 4 days.
The pain in her arm is now gone, we assume that meanst he clot is gone. She has to stay on the Coumadin for at least 6 months.
To me, this doctor was thinking too much, he was trying to treat the effect of the cause instead of treating the cause.
All that, for a headache.
I've only been to the hospital once and that was only because my wife twisted my arm after my car accident 3 months ago.
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