I often pop off before I read everyone else's replies.
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.
She is not asking for money.
No, she's not; she's too busy trying to make the hospital give her information to use against them in her lawsuit.
*groan* ..you bad.
That is NOT what they said.
Hey, if I were in her shoes, I'd do the same thing, probably. I'd want to know if others were affected, and if so, I'd sue the heck out of the hospital for compensation. Why? Someone is going to have to pay bills, take care of her and the children, and her hubby can't do both at the same time. Not to mention all the mental and physical problems. Now, if this happened due to HER negligence, it would be different. However, I'm willing to bet a healthcare provider spread the infection and there are others. If there were not others, the hospital would simply say there aren't.
You can bet they've already done a LOT Of stuff, which her attorneys aren't going to tell YOU about; this isn't about how much they've done for her; it's about $$$ now.
You can bet they've already made her a HUGE monetary offer.
Remember you're only hearing her side so far; like I said above, I'm sure they've already offered her big bucks.
You think they WANT this much publicity about it? No way.
And she's not entitled to other people's medical records; for all we know, the hospital has given her some information about numbers, etc, just not what THEY want to up the ante.
Res Ipsa Loquitor - legal term for something bad happened while under the care of another party - while evidence cannot be found (wagon circle) it is evident it was the hospital's fault and responsibility.
Res Ipsa means there is no dispute who is to blame.
Usually MSRA creeps up a limb and is localized. Here it became blood-borne and the bugs settled in the capillaries of the extremities.
The decision for amputation must have been a tough tough call - unimaginable.
As I said in a previous post, the publicity will bring others to her if they were affected similarly and in the same time period. How sure are you they've offered her big bucks? I'm not...but am willing to concede that is a possibility. I think she wants the publicity. I know the hospital doesn't. I'm sure the folks who work there care. But caring doesn't pay bills. So again, we are only hypothesizing here...and I'd be mad as hell, too, if I didn't go in with anything to cause this and came out minus 4 limbs and a womb.
(Since it obviously affected her uterus, also, I suspect someone who examined her was the carrier. A nurse, perhaps?)
You don't bump into many Hymans these days.
It's not for lack of trying.
I've done work like this for 25 years; there is ALWAYS an offer.
They why do you think she's asking for all this information?
More $$$.
According to the article it says this particular lawsuit isn't about the money....this is what I think...they made her a settlement based on the fact they said they had no knowledge about this bacteria being spread in the hospital. They're trying to find out who else died of this bacteria...showing that the hospital lied when they told her there was no knowledge of the bacteria when she caught it, thereby gaining her more money. In this case, I hope she gets alot. What a nightmare.
I do.
Guy I work with, his son went to the ER one night about six months ago complaining that his arm was sore. He woke up a week later. Not only was the arm gone but also part of his neck, his entire side, his shoulder, and almost everything except his lung on the "sore" side. He had gotten some kind of a scratch in the course of his work and it became infected with the flesh-eating bacteria. The disease progressed so fast that even after they had amputated his arm he had to have more tissue removed immediately. He's 32. Thank God he lives close to Baltimore's Shock-Trauma unit where he could get bariatric chamber treatment
This is a horrible new plague and it's becoming more common.
I often pop off before I read everyone else's replies.
Litigation lottery.
After seven years, I've finally learned to HOLD MY FIRE (sometimes)..........LOL.
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