The Unfortunate Patient

The disasters that befell my mother in a local hospital were basically summarized  by one doctor referring to her as an "unfortunate" patient,as though the hospital had no responsibility for the hospital inflicted misfortunes, ending in her death, and perpetuated by the hospital by refusing to acknowledge responsibility (and stonewalling  discovery) in subsequent litigation. Not only did my mother pay with her life, and my family pay with our irreplaceable loss,but we all paid, including Medicare, and all tax payers, with over $200,000 incurred by the hospital  unnecessarily spent by Medicare for my mother's  preventable injury and death.

While I can't get my mother back, the hospital should have to pay both to the family and , perhaps equally important, it should have to pay back Medicare. Medicare  should certainly be getting that money back from the hospital that it really took unnecessarily  from the system, but the Medicare system and legal system makes that unnecessarily difficult, as it makes it hard to get the hospital and its liability carrier to take responsibility. This has got to change, to protect Medicare and other insurance carriers, as well as the patients and their families. The Inspector General just came out (November 2010) with a report that shows how many Medicare patients suffer from preventable errors. We all pay in dollars and more  for this and this must change.Because aside from the horrifying unnecessary pain that a person and family goes through where a  life is unnecessarily cut short, Medicare Obligations Matter to everyone, as does safe and effective, and transparent) .Otherwise we are all kept in the dark. Everyone must speak up.Because next time it could be your mother or father, husband or wife, or best friend or anyone else you love (or yourself)

To that effect, I will be posting a MUSTANG SALLY : CASE STUDY,  including her hospital record and the Court record, for the public, and the professionals  in the health care industry , and the government, and academia, and anyone else interested in what really happens once you are rolled into a hospital room, and if you are unfortunate to be rolled out again in a body bag, what happens in the Courtroom after that.
None of this is very pretty, but we need to look anyway, and see, really see, what happened. And how it could have been different. So, if you are interested at all, and I hope someone out there is, you are welcome to honor my mother by not letting her death be a total waste, because only if something like this is public can true healing begin,not just of the familiy, but the hospital and the health care system. Full transparency is really the only hope of achieving real accountable care.

What happened to my mother and me ,and my family should never happen again to anyone. (Even the attorney who so efficiently represents the hospital/insurance compnay) The slogan"Never Again" is not lightly appropriated but it is particularly suitable here. When a patient,particularly and older person, a Medicare patient  is marched (or rolled,or wheeled) into a hospital, they often lose all sense of identity  and are,unfortunately, often dependent on luck to get out alive (hence the dismissive label by the doctor of my mother as the merely  "unfortunate" patient). One report says that medical errors are the 6th cause of death. Another that the number of people lost as a result  of preventable errors is the equivelent to multiple jumbo jets routinely  crashing.

Much of the loss of life is not just a result of casual error, (that would almost be bearable) but of "systemic error"  by the hospitals, error than can be so readily avoided, sometimes with a simple check list, perhaps costing $.50 a patient!!The hospital  held my mother's life in its hand, as it and hundreds of other hospitals  do thousands of other patients each month. Hospital,in particular, must  be held accountable, for  lives wasted and the Medicare money wasted, and the real good that money could go to, in providing important necessarily and beneficial health care.. There is nothing I can do now but hope that someone out there is listening. The  hospital and the Court system, and maybe even the government right now,  apparently isn't.I invite you to follow my blog and other postings and look for an e-book in the not to distant future. A non-profit organization "Medicare Obligations Matter" is in the process of being formed. Thank you for reading this far.I will be posting a summary disclosure(under Rule 26 Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure) that was prepared for the on-going lawsuit in the next few days which gives so more background.