Posted on 01/21/2006 4:15:11 PM PST by Popman
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Sanford mother says she will never be able to hold her newborn because an Orlando hospital performed a life-altering surgery and, she claims, the hospital refuses to explain why they left her as a multiple amputee.
The woman filed a complaint against Orlando Regional Healthcare Systems, she said, because they won't tell her exactly what happened. The hospital maintains the woman wants to know information that would violate other patients' rights.
Claudia Mejia gave birth eight and a half months ago at Orlando Regional South Seminole. She was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando where her arms and legs were amputated. She was told she had streptococcus, a flesh eating bacteria, and toxic shock syndrome, but no further explanation was given.
The hospital, in a letter, wrote that if she wanted to find out exactly what happened, she would have to sue them.
"I want to know what happened. I went to deliver my baby and I came out like this," Mejia said.
Mejia said after she gave birth to Mathew last spring, she was kept in the hospital with complications. Twelve days after giving birth at Orlando Regional South Seminole hospital, she was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center where she became a quadruple amputee. Now she can not care for or hold her baby.
"Yeah, I want to pick him up. He wants me to pick him up. I can't. I want to, but I can't," she said. "Woke up from surgery and I had no arms and no legs. No one told me anything. My arms and legs were just gone."
Her 7-year-old son, Jorge, asks his mother over and over what happened to her. Neither she nor her husband has the answer.
"I love her, so I'll always stick with her and take it a day at a time myself," said her husband, Tim Edwards.
The couple wants to know how she caught streptococcus, during labor or after. She doesn't know. She knows she didn't leave the hospital the same.
"And why, I want to know why this happened," she said.
Her attorney, Judy Hyman wrote ORHS a letter saying, according to the Florida statute, "The Patients Right To Know About Adverse Medical Incidents Act," the hospital must give her the records.
"When the statute is named 'Patients Right To Know,' I don't know how it could be clearer," Hyman said.
If she got the infection in the hospital due to negligence on the part of the hospital, then that changes everything.
Thank you for the clarification on that point.
It might behoove the lawyer to find out who got fired from the hospital in the month after all of this happened. My guess is that someone did not follow procedures properly which resulted in the infection. Once the hospital determined how she got infected, they in most likelyhood fired the responsible party and had them sign a non-disclosure form on the way out the door.
Here's the point...when she made that call ALL she was asksing for was payment of medical bills, but the guy was so mean to her, she immediately called a lawyer, laywer says.."I will handle this from now on" and now they're asking for pain and damages. How you're treated in the beginning of an accident dictates what the victim will do. I know the pain my friend is in...she will be a multi-millionaire when this is through...and it could have all been avoided if the Corporation had just taken responsibility and DONE THE RIGHT THING.
WTF???????????
Good point...ahem. Hopefully there are family members who are around and can validate/verify instead if that is the case. There must not be too many others (one or two at the most) because I think the media would have heard from others if more than that.
According to my wife the biggest offenders are the doctors. They don't use anything. They even go into isolation rooms with their paperwork and cases and then take them into other rooms.
She was in critical condition. I'll be she can not recall any conversation.
That's WAY different than the original article. She doesn't want to know 'why?', she wants to know, "Are there others like me?"
____
Yep, she wants names for testimony purposes. Sounds like a fishing trip. Since the hospital cannot on the basis of privacy issues, she and her lawyer are probably hoping the publicity will have former patients come forward.
Is this her picture?
I think they do. I recall reading in another article that her husband is American. Check me if I'm wrong.
-In florida? LOL! doesn't stop 'em from looking at Rush Limbaugh's records. hmmmmmm.-
Good point!
"I lost 1.5 times my blood volume. "
So you lost all your blood and then half again as much? Yeah, right.
They replace lost volume as a person is losing it...some folks in critical situations lose more than that. You don't think they'd let her lose even half without starting replacement, right? Use yer noggin...
Uh..him, not her....
Yes, agree. MRSA in the community is becoming almost as prevalent as in hospital MRSA.
This is not MRSA.. staph.....
This is strep it is not the same at all.
MRSA is nearly an epidemic in hospitals.
This strain of strep is not. IN 20 years in the hospital, I never once heard of a hospital acquired case.
She very likely brought it with her to the hospital.
Not a staph infection.
All this was caused by strep...
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