Thanks for the second opinion Kozak, but you really hit a sore spot with me and while you may be an excellent and compassionate physician, I’m sure glad you weren’t my niece’s doctor, prescribing a D/C (abortion) and that she had the common sense to follow up with her OBY immediately the next morning.
BTW - you should never have to “drag” any specialist into a serious, potentially life threatening situation – and if that is really the case, just what does that say about the state of your profession?
Thankfully my niece’s OBY prescribed complete bed rest for a week and that saved the pregnancy – otherwise I would not be expecting to be in the delivery room with her and her husband next month, be a great aunt for the 5th time and I really think the world would be a lesser place without our soon-to-be-born little Melanie Elizabeth.
Kozak, would you like to hear another ER near horror story among just a few I’ve personally experienced or been a first hand witness to?
A few years ago a good friend and recovering alcoholic went through a very painful divorce and some other personal tragedies, relapsed and sunk into a major debilitating depression.
After a bout of binge drinking, she experienced heart palpitations and trouble breathing and went to her ER.
She was very frank and honest about her recent drinking and severe depression to both the ER triage nurse and the attending ER doctor, asking for and really hoping to get some help and expressing her fear that what she was experiencing was withdrawal – a very serious and potentially fatal condition.
After an EKG ruled out a heart attack and a sedative reduced her elevated blood pressure and heart rate, she was released and sent home with a prescription for a powerful dose of Librium and only advised to follow up with her primary physician.
There was no psychiatric consult; no questions ever asked about her state of mind or whether she had intentions of harming herself and no referral for treatment of her alcoholism.
Two days later, she had the prescription filled and swallowed the entire bottle in a, thankfully failed, suicide attempt. She doesn’t blame the ER doctor in any way BTW, but I think it was a case of gross negligence.
If I correctly understand your philosophy as an ER doc – “well she’s either going to kill herself (or miscarry) or she’s not and it’s not really my problem either way because I treated the immediate symptoms?”
Part of the problem with healthcare today as I see it, is the whole “herd them in and get them out as quickly and economically as possible” mentality; this with many thanks to HMO’s, Managed Care and the patient as “piece of meat” philosophy passed on during medical training - expediency and the bottom line trumps good medicine and the human factor is sorely lacking IMHO.
As a physician you might want to read this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1776193/posts
But returning to the original post, these cops were not medical professionals and in no position to judge this woman’s medical condition one way or another and while perhaps not the brightest bulb, she was not a wanton or dangerous criminal, but only had a few outstanding traffic violations. Even if she was deemed dangerous, her plea for help should have not been ignored as callously as it was.
After watching the video and reading all the reports, this is one of the very few cases where I think a lawsuit is really justified.
I don’t think anyone even you as a doctor, is qualified to say with absolute certainty that her pregnancy might not have been saved if she’d had the chance to get prompt proper medical treatment and that a wrongful death suit is not relevant here. Thank goodness this poor woman even lived, given that she might have easily bled to death.
Reread my posts.
I said she should have been seen.
My only problem was the immediate reach for a "wrongful death" lawsuit.
I stand by my statement that there is no treatment for a threatened first trimester spontaneous abortion. It either happens or it doesn't. Thats sad but true.