Woman Goes Into Hospital To Give Birth, Comes Out Quadruple Amputee

[matcom]

<snip>

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Sanford mother says she will never be able to hold her newborn because an Orlando hospital performed a life-altering surgery and, she claims, the hospital refuses to explain why they left her as a multiple amputee.

The woman filed a complaint against Orlando Regional Healthcare Systems, she said, because they won't tell her exactly what happened. The hospital maintains the woman wants to know information that would violate other patients' rights.

Claudia Mejia gave birth eight and a half months ago at Orlando Regional South Seminole. She was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando where her arms and legs were amputated. She was told she had streptococcus, a flesh eating bacteria, and toxic shock syndrome, but no further explanation was given.

The hospital, in a letter, wrote that if she wanted to find out exactly what happened, she would have to sue them.

"I want to know what happened. I went to deliver my baby and I came out like this," Mejia said.

Mejia said after she gave birth to Mathew last spring, she was kept in the hospital with complications. Twelve days after giving birth at Orlando Regional South Seminole hospital, she was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center where she became a quadruple amputee. Now she can not care for or hold her baby.

http://www.wftv.com/news/6253589/detail.html

[mainegreen]

1. Sounds like the hospital knows they're bound to loose a few million! Oh, and FLORIDA!

I'd sue.

[Little Wing]

2. what a fucking nightmare!

:scared:

[Midlodemocrat]

3. I was hospitalized there when I was pregnant with BoyMidlo

It seemed fairly decent as far as hospitals go, but this poor woman. What a nightmare!

:scared:

[Reverend_Smitty]

4. Infections are always a big concern when in the hospital

those places are just teeming with bacteria...it's such a tragic story

[Frank Cannon]

23. Getting worse all the time. The bacteria are getting nastier...

and more resistant to antibiotics.

This is a major reason why they hussle your hiney out of the hospital as soon as possible these days, even after major surgery.

[Critters2]

30. A cousin of mine lost both feet and several fingers to streptococcus A

(I think it was "A"). Some internal damage, too.

But the hospital told him why they amputated!! There are legitimate reasons to amputate with this disease, so why won't the hospital talk about it? I smell malpractice.

[johnnie]

5. Is her name Patty?

Ok, that wasn't funny...I'm sorry.

Seriously, this is messed up, but if they were correct, they saved her life. Right?

[Jimbo S]

6. Wouldn't they need her permission to amputee?

[Midlodemocrat]

8. I bet she was so close to death from sepsis, that her husband

gave permission.

Tragic, tragic story. The pic of her is so sad.

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. Even if that were the case

and the story doesn't indicate it is, it remains that she contracted the virus while in the hospital.

The award in the suit won't make up for what they did to her.

Bastards. :grr:

[Midlodemocrat]

16. I was just sort of musing about my own situation when my dad

had his leg amputated. He was suffering from sepsis and couldn't sign. I had to. That was something I'll never forget. Horrible. Horrible to sign so a surgeon can saw off your dad's leg.

[Frank Cannon]

20. This is what living wills and durable power of attorneys are for

Works all that "who has permission to approve what" stuff out ahead of time. If you don't have 'em, get 'em.

[Midlodemocrat]

21. I don't know that many young healthy people would think to get

either one of those. This was just a terrible tragedy.

[Frank Cannon]

22. Oh, it is absolutely a terrible tragedy

And it's impossible to tell from the story who made the decision, who gave informed consent, or even if there was any informed consent.

But the durable power of attorney would sure help a lot in this situation. (There may have been one. Who knows from this weird article?)

Oh, and even young people should have them, if they're not dependents. Anyone can get meningitis or be hit by a bus or a drunk driver.

[Midlodemocrat]

24. Yup. We had one drafted and it did come in handy

during my husband's heart bypass. He was so doped up, I had to sign for everything.

I just don't know if I would have thought that far ahead as a young person. She's what 26? 28? And, it wasn't cheap to get that stuff drawn up. It was well over $400. A lot of young couples don't have that kind of extra money.

I can't imagine going in for a baby and coming out a quadruple amputee.

[Left Is Write]

33. That was my thought. Did they not have to obtain permission?

Why weren't the diagnosis and treatment described at that time? Why is the hospital saying she has to sue them to "find out" what happened to her?

[Pierre.Suave]

7. WTF

again...

[AngryAmish]

9. I will give you a 100% guarantee that she won't get all her records

Or the records will be altered.

Hospitals are the worst place to get sick. In Europe they do a pretty good job of controlling these infections. They test the medical staff and if anyone has one of these infections they cannot work around patients. Well here in America they generally do not test the staff because then they could not work around patients - and hospitals and the staff would both lose money.

Guess what - she may not be able to prove a malpractice case. That is because the standard of care on these things are so low it may be impossible to prove anyone was negligent in treating her.

[bearfan454]

11. Florida has a cap on the amount of damages she can get also

The repukes have a stranglehold on Fla.

[eyepaddle]

10. What a nightmare

There are just no words to describe how sad this is.

[WI_DEM]

13. that's very sad, but I take these threads with a grain of salt because

essentially we get one side of the story and don't know all.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

14. You think it might be a half-truth?

maybe only lost two limbs? Any piece of the story sounds like a horror show.

Sue? You bet she'll sue. I wouldn't blame her for spending some of the settlement money on a little help from the boys of Blackwater.

"Breastfeeding in public" is probably way down her list of puzzles to work out.

[WI_DEM]

15. of course it's a nightmare, but we don't know all the facts and won't know

all the facts until they are released. One story in the paper doesn't tell all. Is she the victim? probably, but of what? why did the hospital do it? who are the other patients they are protecting? and why? that is what I want to know.

[petronius]

26. The bit about other patients' privacy is the weirdest part, to me

You're right that this is one side of a story that is almost certainly presented in the best possible light for one party, but if it is true that there are other patients involved, that makes me suspect that something really bizarre went on in this hospital...

[alarimer]

31. Is it possible they operated on the wrong person?

Because they should have operated on someone else and it's that other person's privacy in question? I am just speculating but similar things have happened.

[petronius]

34. That sounds like a possibility, certainly

I imagine we'll learn more, at least when it gets to court

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. It's a simple lack of data - we have no idea what happened.

Is it awful what happened to her? Maybe. Or maybe it was necessary to save her life. We don't know. We don't have the whole story.

I'm real curious to find out why giving her the information would violate other patients' rights: I can only imagine something really nasty happened involving one or more other patients. I'm also curious if anyone else in the hospital at that time ended up with emergency amputations, or just her.

But we clearly do not have enough information to know if the hospital was negligent, heroic, or somewhere in between.

And what does the husband have to say? Seems like he must have been part of the process. What does he know? What papers for surgery might he have signed? Or maybe that guy isn't her husband, and her family had to sign - or maybe she has no family here, and so no one was able to sign anything and the hospital had to do the best it could. :shrug:

[bleedingheart]

17. okay...why her arms and legs? That is what has me wondering

if she had delivered vaginally or surgically (c-section) then if anything her body cavity would have been exposed to the flesh eating bacteria and she would be dead.

Now both arms and her legs...did she get a scratch on her arms? Did they insert infected needles or did a nurse pass the infection from another patient??? And if so...that is even stranger yet because maternity wards normally have health women with babies...so was the nurse from another ward of the hospital?

This woman has every right to know how this happened to her.

It sounds like gross negligence and ignorance of Universal Precautions.

[YDogg]

19. This was in Jan 2006. Pretty scary stuff.

[rug]

25. Florida.

[Midlodemocrat]

27. I am NOT defending the hospital, not at all, but I just wanted to say

that sepsis is horrific and death from sepsis is even more so.

She probably contracted MRSA and there weren't any other options, but as my husband the pharma dude says, they should burn the building to the ground because they will never eradicate the strain of whatever germ did this to her.

My dad had sepsis prior to having his leg amputated at 80 from a diabetic ulcer. Upon discussing it with the docs, and the surgeons and the nurses, we decided to go ahead and do it, knowing full well that it would impact his quality of life, because a septic death is so horrific. There isn't enough oxycontin (Hear that Rush) on the planet to prevent the suffering that accompanies a septic death.

Rant over, you may return to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Shine]

28. WTF?!!! That's insane. Where the hell was her husband in all of this??

you'd think he'd have been informed, somewhere along the way, of what was happening....:shrug:


that is truly a bizarre story.

Poor family. :( So sad.

[stellanoir]

29. that is atrotious

limbs don't have a whole lot to do with uterine function in birthing instances except for positioning.

so glad I had my kid at home.

[LSK]

32. WTF!!!!

How do you keep finding these?

:rofl:

[Nicole]

35. She gave the consent herself as she had no spouse at that time.

They did marry in the hospital, before the amputation, though.

I got that info from another forum I post on, they had links to a couple of other papers with more on this story. That forum is down right now but I can add the links later, or you can google for them.

It's horrible what happened to her. I wonder what the outcome of her suit was? This article is over a year old. The other ones I read are also old, mid 2006 IIRC.

[Danger Mouse]

36. Man, I hate when that happens.

Metallica might want to write a song about her. They can call it 'One II'
Won't be the first time...

[ikojo]

37. Not the kind of article one wants to read the night

before going in to have a sebaceous cyst removed!!!

I hope I am minus the cyst and not any other part of my anatomy or head. I hope they don't do a frontal lobotomy!