October 5, 2011
Patient’s Miscarriage Gets Hospital in Trouble
It’s a sad commentary when human beings have to be reminded how to act like human beings, especially when they’re in the helping profession. Loni Hildebrandt was a 29 year old certified nursing assistant who was pregnant with her first baby. Make that two babies because she was pregnant with twins. Hildebrandt considered her pregnancy miraculous because she had infertility and was a diabetic since the age of one. Together, she and her boyfriend saved their money and obtained fertility treatments. Her mother, Jo Novtny, a nurse of 30 years was ecstatic when she saw the ultrasound of her two grandbabies but her happiness was short-lived. One day after the procedure, Hildebrandt began to bleed so they went to Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Florida.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital has an excellent maternal fetal medicine (aka high-risk obstetrics) department but Hildebrandt never made it there. She got as far as the hospital’s emergency room where she was attended to by one of its physicians. Despite repeated requests to have her blood sugar checked, Hidebrandt had to wait six hours before it was done. An ultrasound at the hospital revealed a blood clot that was causing the contractions and the ER doctor told her that he could probably save one by “suctioning the clot so the labor would stop.” According to The Herald Tribune, the physician suctioned the clot and one of the twins as well. Hildebrandt allegedly began bleeding more, passing bright red blood clots. They called for help but no one came. According to the newspaper report, a nurse put the afterbirth in a bedpan and left it near Hildebrandt’s head where she was lying. Her mother moved it and placed it under her daughter’s bed. Novtny ultimately delivered the second twin because no one else was around. The ER doctor returned to the room saw the fetus in Novotny’s hand took it from her and put it in a bucket.
Novtny states her daughter did not receive proper treatment until her personal physician arrived and remained in a pool of blood for over 10 hours. Hildebrandt’s iron count was dangerously low because of the bleeding. Her mother’s request to speak with the hospital administrator was met with no response so she wrote a letter to the governor instead. An investigation was done, gross negligence was found, the ER doctor resigned and Hildenbrandt’s nurse was cited for “lack of critical thinking skills.” The hospital will now have unannounced federal inspections in order to keep their Medicare payments. The hospital administrator issued a public apology.
Perhaps one day hospitals will do the right thing, even when no one is watching. Hopefully, Hildebrandt will become pregnant again and have a better outcome.
March 22, 2010
Physicians Will Quit? Why Now?
The Basil and Spice article, Doctors Will Quit Under New Healthcare Proposals really touched a raw nerve. The author, Dr. Jeffrey English, an Atlanta neurologist proposed that physicians will “quit” because of government healthcare involvement. Dr. English, with all due respect, please speak for yourself.
The time for physicians to “quit” was when the insurance industry took over our profession. They introduced managed care, bribed our colleagues with “capitation” income and then entered the back door of our profession and like a thief in the night, took over. We, as physicians are to blame for this unholy mess. We never stood up to the insurers for fear of being “disenrolled” from their lousy plans. We never protested for fear of being deemed as “antitrust.” We never complained when they redefined us as “providers.” And sadly, many of us never fought for our patients’ rights or dignity for fear of making waves.
The nonsense of “government” takeover is a joke! The “government” wouldn’t have to intervene if we had stood our ground, but we didn’t. We now have to depend on the government to make the insurance companies pry their greedy hands off our profession and patients. I’m an Ivy League grad (Columbia U.) and a board certified ob-gyn physician. I’ve devoted my life to serving vulnerable, public health patients, the kind none of my colleagues want to manage. I live next door to a teacher, a bank manager and live within my means. My kids attend public school. I’ve been taking care of Medicaid patients all my life and I’m not starving, still breathing and living in a country that allows me to be free. Doctors will quit? Really? I think it’s much too late for that now. We, as physicians need to put our egos in our pockets, roll up our sleeves and find some solutions instead of whining like babies.
