A hospital's mistake paralyzes a designer. He got $20M, and an unusual promise

[BLADEMDA]

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/19/a-ho...signer-he-got-20m-and-an-unusual-promise.html

Please read the article and tell me if he deserved the $20 million.


A former top Microsoft designer, de los Reyes became a paraplegic after a visit to Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue, Washington. His repeated warnings that he might have suffered a back fracture weren't properly heeded by doctors and others at the institution, which left him confined to a wheelchair.

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[BLADEMDA]

From the comment section at the bottom of the article:

Priaptor (that was the name):

"As a physician, I can tell you as a result of Government regulations many preceding Obamacare, the dumbing down of medicine, the "mandate" of paraprofessionals, etc, physicians have become box checkers for the next test and secretarial drones to fill out useless paperwork lest they get "penalized". We also have no clout and these technicians, etc act with total immunity from any and all mistakes they make. When you report them it is the doctor that comes under scrutiny not the offending paraprofessional. I can guarantee you that part of that 20 million came out of many doctors that had nothing to do with the patient's care. So the guy with a history of Ankylosing Spondylitis comes in, likely gets seen by a PA or Nurse Practitioner, who order a CT of the Abdomen when he should have had a CT of the Lumbar Spine followed by an MRI and the radiologists of course can diagnose it because the scan doesn't assess the abnormal body part but I can guarantee you the radiologist got his rear end sued off. Worse yet, the ER doctor comes into the cubicle AFTER the least qualified people "helped" work up the patient to be handed information that they got wrong and leads him/her down the wrong path. Welcome to Modern Medicine that so many asked for."

 

[Urzuz]

Hell yes he deserved $20 million. If I were him I would want that much too. By the information we're given, the hospital staff handled the patient who had an unstable spine in such a way that left him paralyzed.

From the comment section at the bottom of the article:

Priaptor (that was the name):

"As a physician, I can tell you as a result of Government regulations many preceding Obamacare, the dumbing down of medicine, the "mandate" of paraprofessionals, etc, physicians have become box checkers for the next test and secretarial drones to fill out useless paperwork lest they get "penalized". We also have no clout and these technicians, etc act with total immunity from any and all mistakes they make. When you report them it is the doctor that comes under scrutiny not the offending paraprofessional. I can guarantee you that part of that 20 million came out of many doctors that had nothing to do with the patient's care. So the guy with a history of Ankylosing Spondylitis comes in, likely gets seen by a PA or Nurse Practitioner, who order a CT of the Abdomen when he should have had a CT of the Lumbar Spine followed by an MRI and the radiologists of course can diagnose it because the scan doesn't assess the abnormal body part but I can guarantee you the radiologist got his rear end sued off. Worse yet, the ER doctor comes into the cubicle AFTER the least qualified people "helped" work up the patient to be handed information that they got wrong and leads him/her down the wrong path. Welcome to Modern Medicine that so many asked for."

In regards to this quote, this is truly a "Thanks Obama" comment. As much as I may despise Obamacare based on what it will do to our profession, it has literally ZERO to do with this man's case. The exact same thing would have happened 10 years ago as well. Obviously midlevels biting off more than they can chew will lead to a slew of complications and lawsuits in the future, but this definitely isn't one of them.

 

[Robotic Wis-Hipple]

This is tough. Patient comes in telling the doctor/PA/NP that he's concerned he broke his back. CT abdomen while technically the wrong test does show a hairline fracture. Radiologists are held liable for everything on the image, which is why indication/chief complaint for the study is important info to provide them with. So this is miss #1 and once a bad outcome occurred they were already losing the suit.

But the return to care with subjective lower extremity neurological symptoms that they apparently didn't take seriously and then proceeded to man handle the guy while moving him to the CT/MRI scanner doomed them.

The annoying part is touched on by that posted comment. It's entirely possible a physician never saw the guy and certainly wasn't there rolling him to the scanner table.

 

[Planktonmd]

So... the solution to the non existent patient/physician relationship caused by medicine becoming a money making business will be asking experts on non medical systems to design a new health care system?
Isn't that where the whole problem started? When people started borrowing systems from companies like Toyota and applying them to medicine?