It never occurred to the Clarke family to get the opinion of a second doctor? Doh!!
could be the insurance doesn't cover it - but,as you see, if you read it - they DID and she is now under the care of another Dr...
Amazes me how quick some are to jump to conclusions - especially when they aren't there to see what ALL is going on? "Doh"
Dr. Sinkspur's own diagnoses are the ones that need second opinions. Here is Dr. Sinkspur rattling off medical orders in the thread titled "Cease and Desist Order in Andrea Clark Case."
[1] >> Clarke has been at St. Luke's, an acute care facility, for four months. She needs long-term, palliative care. 12 posted on 04/30/2006 7:26:05 PM PDT by sinkspur
She was scheduled for surgery today to remove an infected gall bladder. This is not without risk, given her condition, but should lead to general improvement, Dr. Lenz believes.
Palliative care, as recommended by Dr. Sinkspur, would leave the problem untreated, kill the patient and bring on a quick malpractice suit.
[2] >> The fact that no other hospital or long-term care facility indicates they can do no more for her than St. Luke's has done. 16 posted on 04/30/2006 7:37:41 PM PDT by sinkspur.
Can anyone translate that into English?
[3] >> So, some palliative care facility needs to be found. The problem is, once they receive the prognosis from St. Luke's doctors, they're not going to take her. She's not going to get better. 18 posted on 04/30/2006 7:39:06 PM PDT by sinkspur
"My sister is getting well", Melanie Childers jubilantly said Monday. "Her white blood cell count has been down to normal for the fourth day in a row now and she has been able to get off of the blood pressure raising drugs that she has had to be on for months. She is doing great. Her new doctor, Dr. Matthew Lentz, has also halved the amount of pain medications that she is taking so that she can talk to her family. He says that her condition is 'serious' but that she does have the ability to get much better".
Andrea's life was not saved by a second opinion. She has an entirely different doctor, because the hospital was pressured into allowing that. They could have gotten a second opinion at any time, but that wouldn't nullify the hospital's decision to kill her. Your medical opinion was offered repeatedly, but you are not her doctor, and you are not employed by the hospital. Just getting this new doctor's opinion would not have stopped the first doctor from killing her. A medical opinion is only good to the extent that it informs the decision maker of the options available. Andrea and her family were already aware of the options, but the hospital would not let them excercise those options. The hospital has been pressured into allowing Andrea to receive the care she's entitled to. No second opinion had anything to do with that.