No replies to this topic

[Nurses]

A friend of mine who
has been a nurse > 30 years in Augusta, Georgia- United States has ended up paralyzed from groin/waist down- paraplegia. She has a history of hypertension and diabetes. More importantly she has been fighting a diabetic foot ulcer for over 1 year and has had the heel bone removed because of osteomyelitis. She has had 3 central lines for long term antibiotics which all 3 of them ended up getting infected and causing her to be septic so each was pulled and a new one inserted. She began to have low back and and pain- because of getting to the end point just before needing dialysis she had an andominal sonogram and a small renal- kidney cyst was seen. Darvocet did not work for the pain- they said renal cyst such as hers did not usually cause that much pain and refered her to her primary MD. They ordered percocet which helped if just lying still. Lots of pain with movement. Then on Jan 3 she could not feel her legs but could move them but not walk. Went to the ER and they did a lumbar MRI and said it was degenerative arthritis and a buldging disc at L3-4 or L4-5. Due to the osteomyelitis in the foot they would not operate. Iv steroids helped and during this 2 week stay she ended up getting an AV graft and new temporary central line for dialysis and received dialysis 3 times- last time was about 3 weeks ago. She then was sent to rehab and gotten up to try to walk with 2 person assist and bars, ect. After 1 1/2 weeks she lost bowel and bladder control and became paralyzed totally below the waist. This started on a Sunday and due to the weekend and Monday being a holiday was not sent back to the ER until Wed 27 Jan at 9AM- then finally at 630 pm they did a thoracic MRI and found a spinal abcess at T8-12 and had emergency surgery and now has permanent paralysis below the waist. WHAT LEGAL AVENUE would be best? I am a registered nurse and was terminated while trying to report gross mistakes in the ER with her care ( did have direct care for her as I was the only night IV team member and took care of her central lines and regular IV's. They claimed I violated HIPPA laws but I did not. All an effort to cover up- what I reported was nothing compared to her paralysis- it related to labs drawn on someone else and labeled with her name which caused a lit of unnecessary test AND another ER visit they failed to remove a grossly infected central line and discharged her- she almost died- had a fever 105, bps in 80 systolic, osteomyelitis in her foot, a unaccessed central line( did not even look at the site which was covered with gauze) AND grew yeast out from the blood cultures. I knew her discharge was wrong and found her almost dead- on the weekend certain things do not get done like removal of tunneled central lines- special procedures-radiology is on call but most often will NOT come in. I felt the ER emergency room would want to remedy the problems she encountered and my boss supported me. I had just gotten an excellent evaluation and have been a critical care nurse 23 years. I do have an attorney and am sueing based on the whistleblower laws. But I feel if they had done a full spinal MRI back on Jan 3 when she first lost the feeling but could move her legs and feel some sensations- just could not walk due to ataxia, that they could have operated then and relieved the spinal pressure and her outcome would have been better. She almost died after surgery due to acute pulmonary edema but I was visiting and alerted them and they finally corrected the problem but just barely before needing a ventilator. She is doing better except for paralysis and lack of bowel and bladder control. Getting a central line for long term antibiotics for the psuedomonas infection found from the culture of the thoracic abcess and for the continued osteomyelitis of the foot/heel. Does anyone have a similar story or know of a case of misdiagnosed thoracic spinal abcess? I understand via research of my own that patients present with abdominal pain and the thoracic abcesses get missed!!!!!