Mom was vomiting, left hospital with brain damage (stupid lawsuit of the month alert)

The Florida Times Union ^ | July 24, 2007 | matthew coleman

[eartotheground]

A Jacksonville mother filed suit Monday against Orange Park Medical Center after she developed complications during pregnancy that left her permanently disabled. Natasha Meeks said her health problems started during the first trimester of her third pregnancy with frequent bouts of severe vomiting. She was hospitalized Jan. 12, 2006, after her condition showed no signs of improvement. Doctors at Orange Park Medical Center treated her for malnutrition, but it was later discovered she was suffering from far more than the aftereffects of vomiting.

She said she first knew something was out of the ordinary when she went to a bathroom at the hospital and couldn't make it back to her bed.

A few days into her hospitalization, she began to experience lethargy, spastic eye movement and the aforementioned problems with mobility, a triad of symptoms associated with Wernicke syndrome. Also known as Wernicke Encephalopathy, the disease is caused by a vitamin B-1 deficiency and is commonly associated with alcohol withdrawal and vomiting during pregnancy.

Meeks' lawyer, Steve Pajcic, said the disease is a "rare but known" risk of pregnancy that could potentially kill both mother and child. during her monthlong hospital visit.

Pajcic said doctors at Orange Park Medical Center exacerbated the situation by intravenously giving her glucose solutions to treat her malnutrition instead of immediately correcting her thiamine deficiency.

-snip-

Pajcic said his client is seeking compensation in the multimillion-dollar range to cover lost wages and provide attended care.

"This is a tragic case because the diagnosis is so easy to make and the treatment is so successful," Pajcic said.

[eartotheground]

Wernicke syndrome has NOTHING to do with pregnancy but EVERYTHING to do with chronic alcoholism

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Is Breck Girl going to participate in this case?

[tioga]

Wernicke's encephalopathy is a degenerative brain disorder caused by the lack of thiamine (vitamin B1). It may result from alcohol abuse, dietary deficiencies, prolonged vomiting, eating disorders, or the effects of chemotherapy.

Seems like it can be caused by things other than alcoholism.

Source.

[sportutegrl]

The article attributes it to alcohol withdrawal. Maybe she was trying to stop drinking because she was pregnant?

[Michael.SF.]

(stupid lawsuit of the month alert)

Must be a slow month for stupid lawsuits.

It seems like she has a legitimate gripe. She is misdiagnosed and now is wheelchair bound?

[MeanWestTexan]

Even if the root cause was alcoholism, isn’t past alcohol abuse a question a doctor should ask about?

As in, how much did you routinely drink before being pregnant? If she said “a lot,” then give her B1 shots?!

Part of what doctors are paid to do is treat people for stupid mistakes in the past.

Different story if she lied and said “never drank”, but I see no evidence of that.

[pitinkie]

My Husbands hospital..but thankfully its not the ER being sued!

[MeanWestTexan]

Sounds like her OBGYN is in a world of hurt, though.

(Again, assuming she didn’t lie on intake, which is a large assumption.)

[Marie]

Last January my daughter and myself were both diagnosed with thiamine deficiency. It has nothing to do with alcohol. We both had Celiac disease. Our guts are damaged and we have to give ourselves shots of B1.

The article implied that alcohol was the cause, but didn't actually say that this was the case.

[jrg]

Orange Park Medical Center is a Killing Ground. Anyone who allows themselves to be admitted there is absolutely insane.
We admitted our 21 month old son there for a 24 hour short stay to get his fluids up (combatting a roto-virus). He ended up in there for 1 week, during which time his IV got infected. The infection went to his left mitral valve of his heart and to his left hip. They discharged us on an Easter Sunday. Monday night we were at the emergency room at Baptist - my son had a stroke due to their negligence.
We spent the next 3 months in several hospitals in Jacksonville - hip surgery to clean out that infection, heart surgery to correct that - however the brain damage was not correctable, of course.
He is now 18 years old, learning disabled, constant, uncontrolled epilepsy, right side weakness, etc
Naturally, when we attempted to sue, there were no records of a bad IV and no fault could be proved

Moral: ALWAYS TAKE A CAMERA TO THE HOSPITAL AND PHOTOGRAPH ANYTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY

Had we had a photograph of his arm at the time the infection was noticed, maybe we'd have a nice trust fund for him. Now, all he has is an F'd up life all because of Orange Park Medical Center.

[ClaireSolt]

Sounds to me as if she went into withdrawal from alcohol in the hospital. Although that might not be the only cause of the syndrome, it is probably a known fact here. Look further and you may find this is an exammple of substandard Medicaid treatment we can all expect, if universal health care becomes reality. B1 would be standard in an alcohol treatment unit.

[traviskicks]

ping

[Old_Mil]

Naturally, when we attempted to sue, there were no records of a bad IV and no fault could be proved

I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your son, but it wasn't a bad "IV" - it was a bad bacterium. I suppose you could try and file a suit against S. Aureus, but I doubt you'd get very far.

[Old_Mil]

Maybe she was trying to stop drinking because she was pregnant?

It's alcoholism, not alcohol withdrawl, that causes Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. It's entirely possible that she was an alcoholic and it was the booze that caused it. All she'd have to do is lie during the history and deny alcohol use. There's a test, of course, gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), that will pick up alcohol use. But do you really want us to assume that all pregnant women are closet alcoholics and start running yet another $100 test to guard against lawsuits?

[MeanWestTexan]

Yeah, and bullets kill people without someone firing a round from a weapon.

Assuming the story is true, the cause was a nurse who didn’t wash her hands.

[jdub]

and people say we need tort reform to end the needless lawsuits...

Your case exemplifies just how hard it is for an injured person to get what is due to them. People need to stop the knee-jerk reactions and consider that if the hospitals and doctors (and especially their insurers, I believe most doctors and hospitals would be honest if the insurers didn't insist on fighting even legitimate claims) owned up to their mistakes and provided fair compensation for the harms caused to people like your son, that there would be no need for lawsuits. Instead, they view the harm they cause from a strictly economic perspective.

Cap the damages that can be awarded and watch just how fast standards drop.

[Osage Orange]

You probably should get your ear off the ground....

[Malacoda]

Bad bacterium that could have been killed had the nurse washed her hands and sterilized the field.
An infection that should have been noticed and treated while the lad was in the hospital.

[SENTINEL]

Doctors and Lawyers...

Two classes of people who God has no use for in the eternities.

[eartotheground]

yea I just got hit in the head by a hedgeapple that fell out of a tree