Medical Malpractice at It's Finest; And the Dangers of Coumadin

I lost my Aunt unexpectedly over this past weekend. It basically downright sucks! You can only imagine how her kids feel, how her grand kids feel, and mostly her husband of 58 years feel! It is so maddening as to what happened and malpractice is what seems to possibly been the cause of all of this.

Her and my Uncle just came home from the Covered Bridge Festival, a big craft and food vendor festival held every year in southern Indiana that they go to every year! She didn't even make it into the house. She tripped over a damn dog leash and fell hard on the concrete. She was in so much pain she didn't want to be touched. The ambulance was called and they rushed to the hospital.

At the hospital she complained of her shoulder hurting. It was slightly dislocated and they popped it back into place. But, not only was it dislocated, they found out it was also shattered. She also started complaining her pelvis was hurting her, yet it took them a long time to get an x-ray on her pelvis. They did take an x-ray on her shoulder, but not her pelvis for some reason. From what I was told, they would only x-ray everything if she were in a car accident. Now, keep in mind, she was in her mid 70s, on Coumadin, which is a blood thinner, and just had heart surgery not too long ago that she was still recovering from. So, her bones are fragile, she could bleed easily, and pelvic fractures are very common and dangerous because of all the veins and main arteries in that area.

Now, any nurse or medical person would know how dangerous a fall is for an elderly woman, especially on Coumadin. And why they didn't x-ray her hips right away is what we will never know. I am not sure what the protocol is, but it seems to me that some of the workers at the hospital weren't doing their jobs, and the health care workers in the family are furious!

So, about 12-15 hours or so later when she was complaining of stomach pain that was getting worse and worse, and the nurse told her maybe she just needed to go to the bathroom. My Aunt finally had a CAT scan done and the Dr. said she has a small hairline pelvic fracture, but nothing to be concerned about. He ordered a Vitamin K shot to reverse the Coumadin so her blood would thicken back up, but they never gave it to her. Her pain got worse and the desperation in my Aunt's eyes to her daughter (my cousin) was surreal. My cousin didn't know what to do, but she comforted her mom through it and tried to get the staff to listen, but my Aunt was in so much pain, her stomach started to swell up, her blood pressure was dropping, her blood levels were getting low, and she started bleeding internally. The Vitamin K shot never came, my Aunt went into shock from losing so much blood, and then she flat lined. They were able to get a heartbeat back, but flat lined again, and then she died. They just couldn't save her! Or could they have?

Why was the staff not giving her the attention she needed? Why was the Vitamin K shot not given right away? Why was her cardiologist and primary Dr. never called even after she died? Why did they not check her everywhere and do a full body scan when she first got to the ER especially complaining of stomach pain? Why did they not call her cardiologist or primary Dr.? Why did they not think a hairline fractured pelvis in an elderly woman on Coumadin was not life threatening? Why didn't they do everything they could to help her? Instead they just brushed her off!

I am not a MD or a nurse, but I do know there were red flags from the very beginning and what the ER had to do! They did send her to the ICU. They were going to do surgery on her shoulder, but they had to get her blood pressure under control. Yet, she had pain in her abdomen that was getting worse, was pale, sweating, basically begging for help, and swelling.

The family is going to talk to an attorney on Monday. They want answers. If the staff did everything they could of, and she still died, then there is nothing more to it. However, the staff did not do everything they could of and should of, and now my Aunt is dead. How many other people or family members will they push aside and not take things like this seriously? And now there is nothing that will bring her back.

Her grandson celebrated his 16th birthday the day after she died. She was so proud of him in many ways. She loved to brag about him and would say how he is the best grandson in the world. They were a very close family. My Aunt was a business woman, who owned a beauty shop in town for many years. Many people knew her, she was successful, she was caring, giving, she basically ran the whole family. And now they are lost without her. Heartbroken. Their world is forever changed. Friday night she was fine, and about 30 hours later after her fall, she was gone. All because somebody wasn't doing their job! I hope they sue the crap out of the hospital! They are not doing it for money. They are doing it because those assholes let her die and they don't want anybody else to go through that.