Unregistered
05-20-2008, 09:00 PM
too have suffered greatly at the hands of Mayo AZ. In 1999 at the age of 23, I acquired a MRSA infection in my blood and went first to another hospital before going to MAYO clinic Scottsdale. I naively believed that there I would get the best care. I was admitted and sent home from Mayo's hospital 2 times in less than 2 weeks. I was told I was not "sick" enough to be there even though I had been septic for more than two months, they were also concerned that my insurance wouldn't pay the bill ( at the time I had Mayo Health Plan of Arizona Insurance (that in itself is irony)). They also accused me of having Munchasen's syndrome and told me that I was a drug addict so they d/c me on IV vancomycin (I was documented to be allergic to it with Redmann's syndrome occurring immediatly upon the first infusion which was stopped because of the reaction). They also sent me home with a script for Methadone to "control" the pain I was in that was to be taken in conjunction with lortab, valium, xanax, and darvocet PRN.
So how does it make sense that the course of treatment is to send "Someone home with IV access that they had accused of having Munchasen's home to continually reinfect themselves via IV? Furthermore how could they send someone home that they accused of being a drug addict (because I was in so much neverending pain) with a script for Methadone (I later found out that this is used to get heroine addicts off of heroine). I've never drank, smoked, or used or abused drugs and I would have thought it to be dangerous to let someone take so strong a drug for the first time at home alone? To make matters worse they opted to send me home to premedicate myself via IV with benadryl to prevent allergic reaction to Vancomycin with standby emergency epi kit. And why was that??????? because they were concerned that THEIR OWN INSURANCE may not pay bill!
Well my pcp that was unaffiliated with Mayo was livid and sent me back to MAYO'S ER and called them. In the ER report it is documented that I was to sick to be home and needed to be in the hospital and insisted that I needed an Infectious Disease consult which up to that date I had never had. The ER physician even went further to state that "Patient is quite tearful complaining that no one is taking her seriously." The result was I was sent home with an appointment for an ID consult to be set up the next day.
On 8-12 I saw their ID doctor at the clinic and was told yet again I was fine. So on the night of 8-14 I started infusing the vancomycin when I suddenly couldn't breathe and fell to the floor where my lungs proceeded to hemmorhage. With the few breaths that I stlll had left I was screaming "Please don't let me die!" pleading with my family to keep me alive. This was in a puddle of blood and vomit in front of my husband, 4 year old son, mom, sister and other family and friends before I started to go into ARDS or Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. The paramedics suctioned 2000cc's of blood from my lungs on the way to the closest hospital. There they had to do CPR and intubate me and prepare me for transport to a larger facility. Fortunately, I was Air-Vacced to a much better hospital than MAYO where I lay fighting for my life in a coma and on a ventilator for the next 3 1/2 weeks until they gave me a tracheostomy and eventually were successful in weaning my from the ventilator.
Prior to this my only health problem was a bleeding disorder called von Willebran's disease, I was very healthy and did not even have asthma. Since then I have had well over 50 hospitalizations largely due to pulmonary problems like pnuemonias, endocrine problems, pylonephritis and ARDS. I have also suffered from endocrine problems such as adrenal insufficiency, SIADH, cerebral anuerysms, hypothyroidism and have had to have my tonsils removed, had a thymectomy, lap nissen fundoplication, gallbladder removed, oopherectomy, and two brain surgeries.
I have to believe that all of this has stemmed from the lack of adequate care and lack of treatment that I have suffered at the hands of Mayo refusing to properly address the severity of my infection at the time and letting a resident treat me with very little supervision from an attending physician. The cruel irony is that they were so concerned about keeping me in the hospital so that they could save probably between $5,000-$10,000 and in the end it ended up costing them several hundreds of thousands of dollars. They even had the nerve to bill my for my deductibles because of their mistake.
I thought I was smart enough to get my medical records from their hospital before they caught wind of how horribly things had gone and could alter my records. They do have the aforementioned statements that I quoted from the ER visit as well as others, but I ran into nothing but brick walls when it came time to find a lawyer to file a malpractice suit against them. Everyone I talked to is either tied in with MAYO or afraid to go against them because they are too big to sue and will drag out and appeal judgements until everyone else is out of money. They also have a nasty reputation for countersuing the individuals as well. So I was one of many that are truly abused by the system with a 2 year statute of limitations but I guess that the only silver lining to that is I was never forced to sign some sort of confidentiality agreement forever preventing me from sharing my nightmare with others so that they may know what happened to me and think twice before they seek treatment for themselves.
So how does it make sense that the course of treatment is to send "Someone home with IV access that they had accused of having Munchasen's home to continually reinfect themselves via IV? Furthermore how could they send someone home that they accused of being a drug addict (because I was in so much neverending pain) with a script for Methadone (I later found out that this is used to get heroine addicts off of heroine). I've never drank, smoked, or used or abused drugs and I would have thought it to be dangerous to let someone take so strong a drug for the first time at home alone? To make matters worse they opted to send me home to premedicate myself via IV with benadryl to prevent allergic reaction to Vancomycin with standby emergency epi kit. And why was that??????? because they were concerned that THEIR OWN INSURANCE may not pay bill!
Well my pcp that was unaffiliated with Mayo was livid and sent me back to MAYO'S ER and called them. In the ER report it is documented that I was to sick to be home and needed to be in the hospital and insisted that I needed an Infectious Disease consult which up to that date I had never had. The ER physician even went further to state that "Patient is quite tearful complaining that no one is taking her seriously." The result was I was sent home with an appointment for an ID consult to be set up the next day.
On 8-12 I saw their ID doctor at the clinic and was told yet again I was fine. So on the night of 8-14 I started infusing the vancomycin when I suddenly couldn't breathe and fell to the floor where my lungs proceeded to hemmorhage. With the few breaths that I stlll had left I was screaming "Please don't let me die!" pleading with my family to keep me alive. This was in a puddle of blood and vomit in front of my husband, 4 year old son, mom, sister and other family and friends before I started to go into ARDS or Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. The paramedics suctioned 2000cc's of blood from my lungs on the way to the closest hospital. There they had to do CPR and intubate me and prepare me for transport to a larger facility. Fortunately, I was Air-Vacced to a much better hospital than MAYO where I lay fighting for my life in a coma and on a ventilator for the next 3 1/2 weeks until they gave me a tracheostomy and eventually were successful in weaning my from the ventilator.
Prior to this my only health problem was a bleeding disorder called von Willebran's disease, I was very healthy and did not even have asthma. Since then I have had well over 50 hospitalizations largely due to pulmonary problems like pnuemonias, endocrine problems, pylonephritis and ARDS. I have also suffered from endocrine problems such as adrenal insufficiency, SIADH, cerebral anuerysms, hypothyroidism and have had to have my tonsils removed, had a thymectomy, lap nissen fundoplication, gallbladder removed, oopherectomy, and two brain surgeries.
I have to believe that all of this has stemmed from the lack of adequate care and lack of treatment that I have suffered at the hands of Mayo refusing to properly address the severity of my infection at the time and letting a resident treat me with very little supervision from an attending physician. The cruel irony is that they were so concerned about keeping me in the hospital so that they could save probably between $5,000-$10,000 and in the end it ended up costing them several hundreds of thousands of dollars. They even had the nerve to bill my for my deductibles because of their mistake.
I thought I was smart enough to get my medical records from their hospital before they caught wind of how horribly things had gone and could alter my records. They do have the aforementioned statements that I quoted from the ER visit as well as others, but I ran into nothing but brick walls when it came time to find a lawyer to file a malpractice suit against them. Everyone I talked to is either tied in with MAYO or afraid to go against them because they are too big to sue and will drag out and appeal judgements until everyone else is out of money. They also have a nasty reputation for countersuing the individuals as well. So I was one of many that are truly abused by the system with a 2 year statute of limitations but I guess that the only silver lining to that is I was never forced to sign some sort of confidentiality agreement forever preventing me from sharing my nightmare with others so that they may know what happened to me and think twice before they seek treatment for themselves.