Re: Dangerous Hospital Stay

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Being the parent of a child who had to have surgery at 16
months, five years, and 7 yrs and needs it again, I can
understand how scary it is to have an ill child. I have to
say tho that it sounds more like you are just new parents. If
you knew your child had problems with formulas, why didn't
your wife breast-feed? Second, have you ever heard of
the "bratt" diet for babies that are vomiting and diarrhea?
That is bananas, rice, applesauce, tea's and toast as
tolerated per age. Things that you described happened had no
life threatening connotations. Why did you allow your child
to lay in a "messy" diaper? If you knew it had to be down to
ounces for weight, why did you not insist on a proper weigh?
If you knew your child was at a dangerously low weight, why
did you not take him sooner to the doctor? Every thing you
have discribed sounds like nothing more than scared
parenting. I have yet to read what life-threatening condition
your child had. Babies have vomiting and diarrhea all the
time. You deal with it. There is NO WAY I would put my infant
on Previcid OR Zantac! The risks are still unknown for adults
let alone infants! Go ahead and put him on Xanax. He won't be
a crying baby then either. I have yet to hear of a child
dieing from not being fed for 24 hours. As his parent, why
did you not insist on food for him or bring it to him
yourself?
These points are why lawyers are turning you down. As far as
cardiac monitoring, did he have a septal defect, or
tachycardia or bradycardia or some other cardiac reason to be
monitored? If not, its a mute point. I will be one of the
first to say if a Doctor makes a mistake make him pay, but
you just have no basis for a suit. What you have said is not
inadequate care. It is just they did not treat your child as
the king you thought he should have been treated. I bet I
would be safe in saying your child was PROBABLY the LEAST
sick child in the hospital. And for the record, you do know
that gas medicines will cause blockages in infants right?
Tell Doctor Mom to be a little less nervous, and if she knew
what to do, why the ER visit? If you had such medical
training, Cody should never have gotten to such a position.
Finally, there is NO WAY I would allow so many attempts at a
epidural.I have a voice and a mind and I can say stop or get
someone who knows what they are doing. And yes, I did almost
die in child birth. Actually I did, they just brought me
back. So quit whinning and be grateful you have such a
healthy child. And if you dont want the truth, dont ask for
it.

On 10/04/05, Joseph wrote:
> My son recently had an horrific stay at the local
> Children's Hospital. During Cody's stay - his needs were
> neglected by new and poorly trained staff. His life was
> also endangered for most of his stay by the lack of the
> staff and security to follow established procedures.
>
> We (his parents) got very fed up very quickly at Cody's
> inadequate care. How many times can you hear "I'm sorry -
> she's new," & "I'm sorry he's in training". Even after we
> spelled out the problems to the attending doctor (one of
> two Cody saw) and the nurse manager - nothing improved!
> Wondering if we have any legal recourse? Take a look at
> the problems Cody encountered....
>
> 1. He was sent to Children's Hospital by his pediatrician
> for a suspected formula intolerance. At Cody mother's
> suggestion, he was to be placed on Nutramigen (a
> predigested formula) and monitored to see if his vomiting
> and diarrhea improved. He was to be given weigh checks to
> ensure he was regaining lost weight. His doctor also
> wanted surgeons to check to see if there were any internal
> problems.
> In the emergency room, they didn't do a proper weight
> check. The weighed him with clothes and a full messy
> diaper. That was Friday night and despite the fact that we
> kept telling the nurses that the ER weight was incorrect -
> no one re-weighed him or weigh him at all even on Saturday.
> We kept pestering them until finally Sunday morning - he
> was weighed! Monday's weight was down very slightly from
> Sunday, but with nothing else to compare it to - they chose
> to keep Cody hospitalized longer. Keep in mind that they
> profit from their mistakes. Tuesday's weight was done
> improperly with a blanket under Cody and was another
> invalid weight - so we went into Wednesday. What's even
> crazier was the fact that the nurses couldn't properly
> convert the kilograms to pounds and ounces! One conversion
> showed Cody at 7lbs 4ozs when in fact he was 7lbs 14ozs -
> but wait -- that was the weight done with the blanket -- so
> again, IT DIDN'T COUNT! If only this were the only
> problem!!!
>
> 2. Saturday, Cody was to have a sonogram to check to see if
> he needed surgery - he didn't. They wouldn't let him eat in
> the emergency room and then they wouldn't let him eat
> before the sonogram - in case surgery was needed. Sounds
> reasonable until you find out that he couldn't have the
> sonogram until 3PM Saturday and withholding food was only
> necessary six hours before the surgery - if it had been
> needed which it wasn't. According to the attending doctor,
> the surgery wouldn't have been preformed until sometime the
> following day - if it had been needed -- which it wasn't -
> Cody would have gone 36 hours - 48 hours without food
> instead of the 24 hours he went without food! A infant,
> already losing weight and no one could get on the same page
> as to feeding him. The attending stated that the resident
> incorrectly thought that Cody would be rushed into surgery
> immediately and that's why he wasn't fed. The resident
> blamed the surgeons - in any case...THE INFANT WASN'T FED
> FOR NEARLY 24 HOURS! If only the problems ended here!!!
>
> 3. Cody was placed on Prevacid for reflux. He was to be
> given the first dose at 8pm on Saturday. The dose never
> came. Calls were made to the hospital pharmacy - but no one
> could give an answer until the following morning when
> everyone concluded that the pharmacy goes by STANDARD TIMES
> when dispensing medication. A once a day medication would
> be dispensed at 8AM unless the doctor insists. The resident
> planned on Cody being given the first dose right away and
> informed the parents of that fact - but the resident never
> insisted! So, Cody got the medication nearly 12 hours later
> than was intended and no one informed us (who were in his
> room) - we would have insisted on the earliest possible
> dose.
> Prevacid is a fairly new medication for reflux that takes
> 4 - 7 days to start working. Had we, the parents, been
> told this fact - we would have immediately requested a
> different medication - Zantac! Instead, the attending
> doctor touted the drug as an improvement on Zantac. You may
> have heard of Prevacid in the news - several arrests were
> made due to the marketing practices of the drug company!
> The drug is not currently made in a generic form, so if it
> is prescribed - all profits currently go to the only
> source - the drug manufacturer. So, how do they get doctors
> to prescribe Prevacid? They lavish CASH & SKI TRIPS & GOLF
> VACATIONS on the Doctors who prescribe it! It is a shame
> that this is how things are done. Drug companies lavish so
> much on doctors to write certain profitable prescriptions
> that it averages out to over $6,000 per year - based on all
> the doctors in the US. So, once the we knew that the
> medication took so long to work - we demanded that Cody be
> put on Zantac. Enter attending doctor #2. He was so ill-
> prepared to talk with us about the case that he stated the
> he was going to up Cody's calorie intake from 20 calories
> per ounce to 24 calories per ounce. I asked when that
> would start and was told by the attending doctor (with an
> attitude), "I'll make sure that it's done with the very
> next feeding!" I responded, "IT WAS ALREADY DONE A DAY AND
> A HALF AGO!" The doctor apparently hadn't even checked the
> chart before speaking with us! The same attending tried in
> vain to talk us out of the medication change, but he backed
> off after his stupidity showed through! He even tried once
> to take credit for the Nutramigen - to salvage his dignity -
> - and was told bluntly that Cody's mother had arranged for
> Cody to be placed on that formula before he even arrived at
> Children's.
>
> 4. We constantly told the attending that we weren't being
> informed and that no one was listening or updating us. We
> were feeding Cody his bottles and the first attending
> wanted us to estimate how much Cody was vomiting/spitting
> up. Then, he didn't like our estimates of nearly half
> Cody's feeding. When Cody took 3 ounces - 1-1/2 ounces came
> back up. So, they decided the nurses would keep track -
> Cody lost weight. We decided that Cody couldn't get better
> CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL'S WAY. We spoke to the second attending
> and told him that we wanted Cody back on cereal. He tried
> to say that it couldn't be done without Cody's doctor
> giving approval - there again -- HE SHOWED HIS IGNORANCE!
> Cody's doctor had put him on the cereal a week earlier. A
> resident at Children's Hospital had taken him off it. Cody
> went back on cereal and he started holding down his
> formula - thanks DOCTOR MOM! Victoria had convinced Cody's
> doctor originally to use the cereal method since DOCTOR MOM
> had already suspected reflux!
>
> 5. So, DOCTOR MOM was right about the reflux. She was
> right about the need for Nutramigen - the diarrhea stopped.
> She was right about the cereal - the vomiting stopped. The
> final thing Cody needed was gas drops for his discomfort -
> the resident ordered them and 4 doses arrived to the nurses
> station - for as needed usage! The first dose was given and
> it helped. When Cody needed a second dose the following
> day - it was discovered that someone had taken or discarded
> Cody's gas drops! Cody had to wait for 4 hours for his AS
> NEEDED medication. He cried himself to sleep. It also took
> quite awhile to get his Zantac started. Two nurses faxed
> the downstairs pharmacy a total of 3 times - they kept
> claiming that they didn't get the fax and couldn't sent it
> up without one. It doesn't matter if it was the pharmacy
> or the nurses or the fax machine - I DON'T CARE WHOSE
> FAULT -- again, Cody waited for medication! Care at
> Children's Hospital is SUB-STANDARD. It is neglect - plain
> and simple!
>
> 6. There is a monitor to which Cody was hooked up that
> watched his heart rate and respiration. One nurse said that
> it was state law that all infants be monitored, another
> said that it was hospital policy for young children. On
> Saturday, we had to go out and get something to eat. Cody
> had just returned from his sonogram and wasn't reattached.
> yet. His nurse said that she'd do it right away. We
> returned 40 minutes later to Cody still unattached.
> Victoria (Cody's mom) was extremely upset and she
> complained loudly to the nurse, the nurse manager and an
> attending. Anything could have happened to Cody! After we
> had left to eat, the person doing vitals offered to
> reattach Cody - the nurse took her up on the offer. The
> monitor wasn't reattached and the nurse never checked on
> it. But, there's more...
> Then, imagine the horror of discovering that the monitor
> was never attached to remote and wasn't even showing up at
> the nurse's station - UNTIL SUNDAY MORNING. Over 24 hours.
> We all know that seconds count in an emergency. That a few
> seconds here and there can mean the difference between a
> live baby and a dead baby or a severely brain damaged
> baby. "Neglect & Endangerment," I say. Can there be more?
> You bet....
>
> 7. There is a Halo system bracelet that goes on an infant
> when he is admitted to Children's Hospital that locks doors
> and elevators and sets off an alarm - if someone tries to
> take an infant. Poor Cody, they never put one on him until
> Monday - 3 days into his stay at Children's Hospital. But
> security is on the ball, right? Guess again!!! There is a
> sign when you enter Children's Hospital that states that
> you must check in at the security desk. Rarely does anyone
> do this! Security guards watch them come and go.
> Anyone!!! I left the hospital 3 -5 times per day for 5
> days and was stopped only once when returning. We had two
> suspicious people enter Cody's room during the 5 days -
> luckily we were there at the time. We reported both
> incidents. But they shouldn't have happened at all! A
> child is not safe in Children's Hospital - Cody wasn't! If
> it wasn't the horrible care or lack of care - it was the
> risks they take with the children!
> I'm planning on having this hospital investigated! We are
> also attorney shopping. They couldn't even give my wife a
> copy of the Patient's Bill Of Rights - she requested it of
> several people who either didn't know about it or couldn't
> find a copy. We have demanded the complete name of one
> doctor, so that we can file with the state and Children's
> hasn't provided it and seems to now be ignoring us.
>
> 8. There are people drawing blood at Children's Hospital
> that don't even know whether the sample needs to be taken
> from a vein or an artery. That happened to Cody also - but
> the test was never redone -- so how important was it in the
> first place?
>
> 9. The 7th floor was a nightmare, but Children's Hospital
> has many more problems. During the pregnancy, there were a
> few false alarms. During one, an arrogant female attending
> made the assumption for my wife that she wouldn't want me
> present during an examination and proceeded to pull the
> curtain shut on me - actually striking me! Then, when I
> pulled it back - she yelled at me! Sexual Discrimination -
> treating the male parent differently than the female
> parent. We were both there checking on our child!
>
> 10. Then, there was the resident who tried to do a
> sonogram, but didn't know how! He had a paperback
> instruction book in his pocket, that he had his student
> read from and they still couldn't figure it out! He was
> the same resident who told Victoria that she was 3
> centimeters dilated and when it was rechecked by attending -
> Victoria wasn't dilated at all. That's a heck of a
> difference!
>
> 11. Worse yet, was the botched epidural that a resident
> tried to give when Victoria was in labor. He ruined an
> epidural kit and yelled for a second one and he kept
> jabbing away at Victoria's spine. He nicked a vein and kept
> on going. A student doctor slipped from the room and got
> the attending who MADE HIM STOP - HE WANTED TO KEEP
> GOING! He was so flustered or nervous that when he
> collected the kits and walked across the room to throw them
> away - he dropped them and they splattered all over the
> floor and on our overnight bag. I wish now that I would
> have demanded that he be drug tested!
>
> 12. Back to Cody, when he was born at Children's Hospital -
> we tried to get the doctor who examined Cody to put him on
> soy formula, because there was a family history of formula
> problems. He wouldn't listen and "didn't want to
> overreact." He didn't even believe that the other children
> had even had milk-based allergies. He wouldn't listen at
> all. He was told that Cody slept through a feeding. He
> called him "mellow". The next day, Cody had slept through 3
> feedings and almost wasn't sent home. That first weekend
> home, Cody was in the ER at Mercy and his formula was
> changed to soy - Cody has a milk allergy (unfortunately he
> also couldn't tolerate soy either). That's why DOCTOR MOM
> the Nutramigen. She ran into this same doctor during
> Cody's 5 day stay - his response, "my bad".
>
> It's such a shame that doctors don't listen - they might
> learn! Email or post suggestions...
>
> codyscare@dbuffalo.com
>