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.
{Not a Joke}
No shiite!
didn't the doctors consult with the husband before this procedure? what the hell is going on here?
this would be hell. i can't even imagine.
Hannity was talking about a triple amputeee US soldier he saw at Walter Reed - and just about broke down on the radio.
My heart goes out to her and her family.
Of course, it's all Bush's fault.
Watch how this one gets spinned...
Well, there's not enough penalty this hospital could pay. And to refuse any information is simply magnifying the effect.
Didn't someone have to sign a consent form for the amputations?
[Something doesn't sound right in this story.]
I was wondering the same thing.
O. M. G.
If she was kept 12 days after giving birth before being transferred to another hospital, she can't play the "what happened" card.
I feel sorry for her, of course, but I'm not buying the "I went to have a baby and woke up with no limbs" story.
"didn't the doctors consult with the husband before this procedure? what the hell is going on here?"
Privacy Laws and ambulance chasing lawyers is my guess.
The lawyers will be lining up for miles... but in this case, it may be justified: I can't fathom the response she's getting from the hospital -- 'Patient's Rights law existing or not. This is unbelievable.
Claudia Mejiacutea, 24, of Stanford, checked into Orlando Regional South Seminole Hospital on April 28 to give birth to a baby boy, but after the delivery, she got a rash and had severe pains in her stomach, the Orlando Sentinel reported for Saturday editions.
Two days later, she was moved to intensive care, and then later transferred to the Orlando Regional Medical Center. She then went into shock, her kidneys began to shut down, and gangrene set in, according to her medical records.
....On Jan. 13 Mejiacutea sued Orlando Regional Healthcare System Inc., which operates the hospital, asking a judge to order the company to release records of any other adverse medical incidents related to flesh-eating bacteria before her discharge on Aug. 4. The company refused to divulge the information, citing patient privacy, the newspaper said.
ORHS lawyer Jennings L. Hurt III has said Mejiacutea could not obtain records involving other patients because despite a constitutional amendment requiring their disclosure, state lawmakers have yet to pass enabling legislation.
Her pic is on the linked TV website.
FYI
Horrible story, but according to the press here (in Florida) she had contracted one of those terrible bacterial infections and there was really no alternative. Her limbs essentially started to die, and she had developed gangrene in all of them.
"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."
I think I'd be in such total shock that I'd be so super medicated I could not give rational interviews. Picking up the baby would be the least of it. This story is hard to comprehend.
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