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 Lukes, Child Protective Services, the doctor and three police officers.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktvb.com ...
I don't think I'd agree... my daughter went into an emergency room with 105* temp at age 4 and after treating her for an hour, my wife called me in and said the doctor wanted to do the spinal to rule out meningitis! I took my wife out of the room and told her OVER MY DEAD BODY! This is called practicing defensive medicine on your fat insurance coverage... no tap, got her out of the hosp ASAP and monitored her vitals for two days, and she completely recovered. No thought on the dr.'s part of the trauma and discomfort of the procedure etc... YOU are in charge of your children's care and it's your responsibility to step up and keep unnecessary intrusive stuff away from your kids!
Good luck next time you step into a facility where you don't know the history, background or competance of politically correct med school grads...
Also, the point I was going to make about meningitis. Her neuro said she may have viral meningitis, which can be tested for via a spinal tap but that would make her migraine worse and only confirm she has it, they can't treat viral meningitis.
If it had been bacterial meningitis, she would've already been dead by that point.
That depends on how serious the consequences of the disease could be.
I have children and I am a physician. Why this has any bearing on your response is beyond me however.
Who takes their kid to the hospital for a cold? If the kid had the sniffles better off to stay home. If Mom thought it was something more serious and the doctor did, too, it's not surprising he would order tests. There must be more to this story.
So in your case, they did not call the cops. And they should not have in this case, either.
Of course, if your kid died of meningitis, there'd be no one to blame but yourself, and that is precisely what the doctor is trying to accomplish.
I can't see any reason to call the cops unless you already know the kid has meningitis, and the parents simply aren't allowing treatment. In that case, I can see it. There are some parents who are simply derelict.
The complaint can be found here.
http://www.cir-usa.org/legal_docs/mueller_v_idaho_amcplt.pdf
Mom has a degree in chemical engineering. The family had the flue before. She wanted to delay any spinal tap to see if it was the flue. The Nazis said no, and off went her kid to get tapped while she was physically restrained by the cops.
"Five to ten percent is not slim odds."
I agree, not with a life at stake.
This is a difficult subject. The doctor felt it was serious enough to call the police knowing that there would be a lot of upset people before it was all over, and like isn't surprised about the lawsuit.
He likely put the child's life before his own career. Was he right to do so? I don't know. Was it the proper thing for child protective services to step in and authorize the tests that the parent refused? That's another touchy subject.
I have a hard time blaming the doctor or the hospital, they did what they felt was best for the child. It sounds like the police merely did their jobs.
It also sounds like child protective services did what they are supposed to do, which is to look after the interests of the child.
At the same time it's a horrible intrusion by the government into the lives of this family and the rights of a parent.
I doubt that a jury will award the parents with much if anything because others took actions to protect a child.
Parents have the right to get a second opinion and take their child to another hospital/doctor. I am sure they weren't just going to take their daughter home and watch her suffer... they seemed proactive and would have taken her to a different facility for a second opinion... they were not given that opportunity in this case.
she only had the "flu", unless she was santa claus...
If you reread my post, you will see that I thought the lumbar puncture was indicated and justifiable. However, I also indicated that I don't think the circumstances justified the subsequent actions. I would have approached the mother by telling her that I thought the LP should be done and left her with the option. If I thought that there was a substantial risk of meningitis and the mother refused the exam, I would have had her sign the child out of the emergency room "against medical advice".
If it had been bacterial meningitis, she would've already been dead by that point.
That information is not only absolutely false but, if it were actually belived by anyone reading your post on the Internet, could end up killing a child some day.
The purpose of a spinal tap is PRECISELY to identify bacterial meningitis so that it can be treated in a timely manner.
Untrested bacterial meningitis has a mortality rate of between 75% and 100%.
Migraines are the worst pain imaginable.
A nurse recommended trying an ice pack on
the back of the neck for the muscle tension.
It really does help. And avoiding MSG, natural
flavors, and hydrolyzed soy protein - all
flavor enhancers that are added to many foods.
Wow, twisted arm can be painful.
A second opinion would have been an option in this case but if it was afterhours, they may have had to go to another emergency room. Boise is large enough that they could probably have found another ER to get that opinion. There are situations where that is not the case also. It sounds like it wasn't a good situation between the doc and the family. They might even have been able to get the second opinion right there at St. Luke's if they had wanted it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.