Fighting for corrections is so hard.

[ceward204]

I am coming up on the one year of my wife's passing. On this day last year, she was sitting in her hospital bed eating frozen fruit. She was at 99% Sat with 1l of O2, and the plan was to turn it off in the morning. LFT's bang on Normal. Indirect Billi is still high, direct normal. Albumin low Plat low, LDH elevated. White blood counts are returning to normal.

One hospital sent a letter in October saying that they made a mistake. She did not have cirrhosis, and it was a dictaphone error. That had NAFLD with Fibrosis changed to Cirrhosis.

The hospital where she died, a Critical Incident, was opened due to this discovery. And Management closed the investigation saying File is already closed and we stand by our diagnosis.

Three investigations were opened up into the Doctors who treated her, at that hospital. It was revealed the one doctor who caused the Fluid Overload in January. Had never worked in an Acute Care medical ward before. After his education, he did 2 years of family practice and 1 year of sports medicine. Before accepting the position at the hospital looking after 40 actue patients on a 2-week rotation. It was his first year doing so.

I was in shock.

Two days ago, I got a response from the hepatologist who looked after her. It turned out he has had no formal training; he is an internal medicine doctor. Who started to fill that role and just kept doing it? Reading how he came to believe Margaret had Cirrhosis and Decompensated cirrhosis, despite not even running an Ultrasound, was so heartbreaking. How did me make this determination? Well, she was third spacing, had an INR of 1.6, and had elevated Bilirubin. You know she was suffering from a Vancomycin-induced AKI? And she was recovering from a drug-induced hemolytic reaction? And was on heaprin?

My family has a long history of alcohol abuse. My wife's brothers had a long history of Drug abuse. It was due to this, that she and I did not drink or do drugs.

I watched my brother die from Cirrhosis, as I watched every single uncle on my mother's side die from it. And it took them a LOT of work to drink themselves into the grave. My father was diagnosed with Cirrhosis in 1972 and still drank 4-5 beers a day until he finally passed due to complications from Diabetes in 1992. My brother had decompensated Cirrhosis, and it took him drinking a bottle of wine every day for 4 years before he finally keeled over. I remember all his trips to the hospital. In the end, he decided to clean up, and he almost made it. He was within a month of sobriety to get his living donor transplant from me.

As I read the defense letter from this so-called Hepatologist, I feel like he is trying to Baffle me with BS. Uhh her AST/ALT/ALP/GGT 100% normal. AST/ALT ratio normal. There was this one female doctor who disagreed with him. They fought on the phone, and she said listen, I am going to give her a vitamin K in fusion if her INR drops from 1.6 to 1.1 in 4 days, we know her liver is functioning. And he said no, it won't work. She did, she said Charles 1.6 is in the range for heaprin. But we will do this anyhow. And sure enough, she dropped to .9 after 4 days.

In his defense, he said I used a handheld scanner and detected she had severe right-sided heart failure, which caused her to have decompensated cirrhosis. But we know in July, the hospital ran a Doppler of her Heart and did of her Portal Vein. And both came back normal.

The female Doctor who argued with him ran a Doppler, as well as a Mugga, and said nope, both are normal. She argued with her to do it again. She did, and the numbers came back better. Do it again she said no. Finally a Heart Speicalist was called in, he said nope her heart is fine. You have fluid overloaded her, and you need to get the fluids off. She is at risk of developing Pneumonia.

The female doctor said Charles, you don't just suddenly develop heart failure, which magically in a week causes Decompensated cirrhosis. More so when you are actually in the hospital under care. Your wife has no heart failure. However, the frailty of 8 weeks in a hospital bed and fluid overload is a risk for pneumonia. In two days, her left lung will collapse from a Mucus plug and develop pneumonia. She will fight it valiantly. The night before she passed, a student nurse set the speed on the IV for vancomycin incorrectly. And she will die in her sleep from Renal Failure.

And I cursed myself over and over and over why I had heard rumors about this hospital. Why did I not have the Ambulance take her to one of the others??? Why???

I wish I had found this site over a year ago. You guys have been so helpful. I am not sure if my soul is ever going to heal. We are now in a legal battle, suing the three doctors and the hospital. They want to settle out of court, so hopefully, this part of the nightmare will end soon.

Last night, I dreamt the hospital called. The Doctor just ordered the OT/PT assessment for Margaret. She wants you to bring her pink robe and pink slippers. She is going home today.

[Tommy62]

Godbless I hope you get justice for there negligence obviously they weren't qualified for there positions I would sue right to the top for corporate manslaughter obviously someone higher up placed these people in there positions no wonder they want to settle out of court to save the hierarchy good luck

[BritishLiverTrust8 Moderator British Liver Trust]

Dear ceward204

We're so sad to read this, and very sorry for your loss.

With best wishes from all at the British Liver Trust

[Lantana100]

Also so very sad to read all this. The best I can hope for you is that the hospital admits liability and that following this you manage to get some form of closure. Life will still be hard but with time you can hopefully move on a little and start putting the rest of your life back together.

[Roy1955]

100% sympathise but 100% know from experience that you will not get an admission of fault or even an official apology.You will get an out of court non fault offer that has a gagging order as part of the deal.

The amount will not be substantial but your solicitor will recommend you accept (I assume it's a no win no fee).

If you decline the solicitor will then require paying and $25,000 up front might cover the first month or two.

Several years and selling your house to cover the costs later you get a court date but if the award is less than any offer that's been made you have to pay your own and your opponents costs.

Professionals calculate that first offer knowing all the above.

In fact if your wife had survived but been disabled the award would have been much much higher.

Insurance companies prefer that Dr's bury their mistakes.

I can feel and relate to the bitterness in your words but this fight is stopping you grieving, it certainly did that to me and to the point where I withdrew from the fight.

Take care of yourself.

Roy