Tuesday, July 21, 2009

You Can't Sue the Government

Oops.

13 comments:

  1. I should really have not clicked and read that. My surgery is one week from today!

    ReplyDelete
  2. And because everything isn't about me, I will think good thoughts for that man and his family. What an awful thing to happen!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Err what? The aortic valve supplies blood to the heart? When did they change that? I didn't get the memo...and praytell how would he hit the aortic valve while doing a chole? Do these people have fact checkers?

    ReplyDelete
  4. yeah, anon.,
    i assume the surgeon nicked the descending aorta near the diaphragm. fact checkers? you mean, a doctor or something? why ask them?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm not sure if cutting the aorta is something that's a result of carelessness or negligence or within the reaml of possibility. To me the travesty was that they waited to get the man to a vascular surgeon.

    Was it a clipboard problem? Had to dot all the I's and cross the T's so it took over 5 hours. Or more like they couldn't get anyone to come in because he was Tricare?

    If they had transported him right away couldn't they have had a good chance of saving his legs?

    ReplyDelete
  6. "DOH!!!!!!!" Jeez I know the Military's hard up for Surgeons, but who let Homer Simpson in the OR??? Anyway, Uncle Sugar's covered, if you check the fine print on the Consent Form you'll see they don't guarantee you won't suffer loss of LIMBS or life... Poor Guy'll even have to pay for his uniforms to be altered....

    ReplyDelete
  7. This young man's grand parents are in my Sunday School class. Needless to say, the family has been devastated by this event.

    Clearly, the Air Force surgeon waited too long to transfer the young man to an appropriate treating facility.

    When first heard the story a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't help but wonder how much the red-tape associated with EMTALA (calling the accepting hospital, waiting to get through the transfer center, waiting for the accepting doc to "approve" the transfer, waiting for return phone calls, making copies of the records to accompany the patient, waiting on appropriate transport, etc) added to the delay.

    Anyone who has ever tried to transfer a patient knows of what delays I speak. I have personally had two patients bleed to death waiting for receiving hospitals to quit jerking me around.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the Air Force, I'm just wondering if EMTALA regulations added to the problem.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've taken care of pts who recieved care at David Grant. Have not been too impressed with the care they've provided. They had a recently minted vascular surgeon, not sure where he is now...might have been activated and sent to the mid-east.

    ReplyDelete
  9. So what happens when we have Obamacare? Will those patients just be transferred to the morgue as a matter of protocol because they can't be bothered to attempt to do something like, ohhh, save lives??

    ReplyDelete
  10. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/22/doctors-wage-war-obamas-health-care-overhaul/

    Awesome. Go docs go. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage rage...

    ReplyDelete
  11. I assumed they meant the aorta, obviously. However, the aorta does not supply the heart either (again, obviously). Strike two!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Duh, Anonymous, the first 2 branches of the Aorta, are the Coronary Arteries, which supply blood to the Heart. I learned this in 10th grade biology. OK, it was 11th grade, but it was Alabama.
    Don't five up your day job..

    ReplyDelete
  13. That should have read aortic valve...a valve does not literally supply the heart, the aorta does yes. It was a typo. Clearly the aorta in question supplied the patients legs and was therefore nowhere near the aortic valve.
    It is simple anatomy that could have been verified by someone prior to publication of the article.
    And I won't "five up" my day job...I quit primary care years ago.

    ReplyDelete

ALL SPAM AND GRATUITOUS LINK POSTINGS WILL BE IMMEDIATELY DELETED.