sad patient stories

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Personal friends of our family so maybe it makes this worse for us........ 38 yo F pregnant with 1st child miscarries at 22 weeks sad on it's own but then goes on to get pregnant again 6 months later. She says "she doesn't feel right" about this pregnancy so she goes for some additional testing and finds this baby has trisomy 13 (Patau's). Well she now has to go out of state if she wants to abort the baby because she is 16 weeks along and where she lives doesn't allow 2nd trimester abortions. So she drives for 150 miles to get the abortion. The doctor punctured her uterus during the procedure and she almost dies from blood loss and ends up with a hysterectomy. :(

This is just unreal...

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Also in reference to the above posters:

The only thing more horrific than miscarriage is the fact that most people would rather keep trying over and over again than even consider the thought of adopting a child.
As a guy whose wife did multiple rounds of IVF before any success, I think you underestimate the desire to have a kid with your genes.
 
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Just one?

-Teenage female...stage IV melanoma. Delivers her first baby, fourth degree laceration. Gets out of the hospital only to die of metastatic disease at home.
-Middle-aged woman, survives two separate MVCs in a row and prolonged ICU course. Transferred to rehab and dies of gruesome medical error.
-6th grader, comes in wheezing. Dies while family watches the code. Status asthmaticus.
-Wife dies in car accident, husband survives long ICU course. Kiddo taken into foster system while adult step-kids have stolen the wife's identity and cards and ruined the rest of the husband's life.
-Health-freaks, newly married couple out for a walk. Wife trips and hits her head. Persistent vegetative state. Husband meets his mother-in-law for the first time at his wife's ICU bed.
-Teenage girl, hunting. Trips and falls. C2 quad.
-Middle-aged, healthy guy goes out to work. Doesn't come home. "You're telling me there is nothing you can do?" That's what I'm telling you. Uncal herniation. Hearing teenage kids cry for their dad isn't fun.
-Middle-aged guy, undergoes high-risk surgery. Sick for days in the ICU and I tell the family: "Get everyone here you want to be here; prognosis isn't good." Makes miraculous recovery, transferred to the floor and we're ready to send to rehab. 2 hours after telling the family how great he's doing, he's dead. Massive PE.
-Walk in on a code to the husband screaming "You killed my wife!" Medical error. He was right.
-20-something year old guy, MVC. Grabs my hand, "Don't let me die." Three hours later, I'm holding his heart, trying to keep it beating. He dies.
 
Just one?

-Teenage female...stage IV melanoma. Delivers her first baby, fourth degree laceration. Gets out of the hospital only to die of metastatic disease at home.
-Middle-aged woman, survives two separate MVCs in a row and prolonged ICU course. Transferred to rehab and dies of gruesome medical error.
-6th grader, comes in wheezing. Dies while family watches the code. Status asthmaticus.
-Wife dies in car accident, husband survives long ICU course. Kiddo taken into foster system while adult step-kids have stolen the wife's identity and cards and ruined the rest of the husband's life.
-Health-freaks, newly married couple out for a walk. Wife trips and hits her head. Persistent vegetative state. Husband meets his mother-in-law for the first time at his wife's ICU bed.
-Teenage girl, hunting. Trips and falls. C2 quad.
-Middle-aged, healthy guy goes out to work. Doesn't come home. "You're telling me there is nothing you can do?" That's what I'm telling you. Uncal herniation. Hearing teenage kids cry for their dad isn't fun.
-Middle-aged guy, undergoes high-risk surgery. Sick for days in the ICU and I tell the family: "Get everyone here you want to be here; prognosis isn't good." Makes miraculous recovery, transferred to the floor and we're ready to send to rehab. 2 hours after telling the family how great he's doing, he's dead. Massive PE.
-Walk in on a code to the husband screaming "You killed my wife!" Medical error. He was right.
-20-something year old guy, MVC. Grabs my hand, "Don't let me die." Three hours later, I'm holding his heart, trying to keep it beating. He dies.
You're a second year resident and you've already watched two patients die of medical errors?
 
I've watched more than two patients die of medical errors....

(To be fair, though, the first one I mentioned died in an outside facility. I know about it, but didn't watch it happen. I have made medical errors that have contributed to poor outcomes, but I have not made the kind of medical error I was talking about above that directly and without a doubt alone killed a patient.)
 
50 something, "previously healthy" (doesn't see doctors) presents with headache with migraine features. Elevated ESR. HA resolves with reglan. He's about to be discharged on HD 2 when we have trouble managing his high blood pressure. Sent to ICU for cardene drip. HD 4 he's altered. CT brain negative. MRI brain negative. Intubated by the end of the day for airway protection and the intensivist was unable to get a LP. HD5: CTA brain, MRA brain negative. HIV reports positive. HD 6 minimal cranial reflexes on sedation vacation. MRI brain now shows multiple diffusion limitations on DWI. HD 7: Brain dead. HD8: Blood cultures report positive for crypto.

90 something admitted to long term dementia facility for less than a week manages to fall and gain a cervical extension injury with cord compression and edema. Family is distraught because they think he would have been better if they had just left him at home.
 
In contrast to many posters on here the worst i've delt with by far are the times when there aren't any loved ones left to morn someone's death.

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