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Submitted 3/5/08
In 2002, my husband went into a hospital in Shelby County Alabama with burning in his chest. Dr. Dale Elliott told us that he was having a heart attack and that he was going to do a "little procedure" and when he came out of the procedure, his burning pain would be gone.
When he came out, we asked my husband (Wayne) if the burning was gone and he said that it was not even any better. This really concerned us because my husband had hardly ever even been sick and he just was not a complainer. However, when we questioned the doctor about it, he just brushed us off and said it was tingling from where the heart was waking up. He told us that my husband was going to need bypass surgery and we needed to pick a hospital and they would rest his heart for four or five days in their hospital and then move him for the surgery. We were surprised to hear that they did not do surgery at this hospital because they had a billboard advertising that they had "State of the Heart" care.
The next day, my husband was worse and telling me that they were going to let him die. The doctor on call came in and was going to send him home. He got mad when we told him that Dr. Elliott had said that he was to stay and be moved by ambulance for bypass. When I told my husband to tell him about the burning, he told me to be quiet and told Wayne that he got yes or no questions. When Wayne told him that his burning was still the same, he told us that Wayne had pericarditis and started to walk out. I asked him about the pain and he just said "we'll see. He made this diagnosis without benefit of any test and did not even put a stethoscope to my husband's chest. We talked to the charge nurse and asked her to have them go ahead and transfer my husband to a hospital in Birmingham that had surgery available since he was clearly getting worse. She told me that we could not change hospitals or doctors and that the doctor would be calling us in the waiting room.
The doctor called me and told me that he was trying to spend the weekend with his 90 year old mother and that he could not be at that hospital 24 hours a day. He told me that if I was trying to change hospitals and doctors that I was cutting off my options to the five largest hospitals and most of the cardiologist because he belonged to the largest group of cardiologist in Birmingham. I told him he had to get one of them up there that knew what was going on because Wayne was worse and his pain was no better as I had told him before. My family could not believe that he had threatened me that way and would not help us with a transfer. My husband did not even see a doctor for 48 hours. His condition had deteriorated and he was confused and disoriented. A nurse came out to get my son and me to do something with him because he was out of the bed, pulling off his leads and was naked. He did not even know us at that point.
When I asked what was going on, she said it was nicotine withdrawal and we told her that was ridiculous. Dr. Elliott was to call my son and myself back a little later and he asked me who put the nicotine patch on my husband and I told him I did not know that. He then told me that if he wanted to continue to smoke I could just take him home right then and he could die because he was going to die anyway. I was trying to tell him that my husband was already working on that and that he did not want to die but he turned and walked away and would not talk to me. They tied my husband to the bed and did nothing for the rest of that day. It was so frightening and it was killing my family to see him suffering and nobody doing anything but being mean to all of us.
We were to find out when we finally got my husband's medical records (it took four months and a court order to get them) that Dr. Elliott was the one who had ordered the patch. The next morning a surgeon comes in and tells us that my husband had had another heart attack that morning but no muscle damage but he said that he had acute respiratory distress and that he could not move him for surgery until that cleared up and walked out before we could say a word. 30 minutes later, a nurse took my son and myself back to meet yet another strange doctor. He shouted at me that my husband had way deteriorated overnight and that he was dying . He said he was taking him to surgery and that if he could get the clot out that he might could live but he doubted it.
He came back 2 hours later and shouted at us that he had pushed and pushed and pushed but he could not get the clot out. He said he had put tpa on it and Elliott would be back in 2 hours and if he could do something with it, he might could live but he doubted it. He walked away and did not let us ask one question. Needless to say, we are exhausted and totally confused at this point.
Dr. Elliott came back and told us that he could not get the clot out and that my husband was dying because he now did not have enough muscle to live with. My oldest son asked him why he had not moved his dad to a hospital that could have done emergency surgery as we had been asking him to do for 4 days, and he said if he had moved him, we would have a different outcome but since he didn't he was dying and nothing could be done. I asked him to call the University of Alabama in Birmingham for a consultation since they could do heart transplant and other heart devices that other hospitals could not do. He told me that my husband could not live. He said he used to make those decisions as though he thought he was God but that he had prayed about it and he was making this decision as our doctor. He said he was going to put my husband in the same ICU room he had been in and that we could sit by his bed until he died.
My husband was only 53 years old. I got the name of a heart transplant doctor from UAB and had Dr. Elliott call him. He came back and told me that according to his assessment the doctor agreed that Wayne was dying. I asked him to call back and let me talk to the doctor. I told the doctor that I had to know I had done everything that I could for him and that he had 2 children and 2 grandchildren that he would like to see grow up and he told me that he would be right there. After he came down and assessed my husband, he told us that if he stayed there, he would 100% die and he had a 20 to 60% chance to live if we moved him. He still lives today and has not needed the heart transplant yet. They did however damage and scar 80% of his heart and he only has one artery that works. He also has some mild anoxic brain injury because the Shelby Hospital let him get without oxygen. This put him on disability and it has been financially and emotionally devastating. But I would do it again because my husband is so happy to be alive.
After we sued and got the medical records, we found out that they had never opened the artery and so he had an ongoing heart attack. The cardiologist from UAB met with me a year later and told me I needed to do something because they were denying people the right to get better treatment at UAB all the time. We know now that it was all about politics. They did not have a certificate of need to do heart cath procedures and in an emergency, they were suppose to transfer the patient to Brookwood Hospital immediately. Brookwood was fighting Baptist Shelby for their CON so therefore, they did not want to transfer him there and let them find out what they were doing. Come to find out, they were doing these procedures all the time trying to make the money to get equipment for their cath lab. Our medical board in Alabama just told me that it was a good thing that I got my husband to a hospital that could take care of him.
When I wrote back and asked them why it was the patient's families responsibility to get him the care he needed, they closed my file. You cannot sue in Republican Shelby County because there has never been a plaintiff's verdict and the lawyer's that I talked to said they usually hang up in your face when you call and say Shelby County. They told me they only talked to me because my story was so interesting. They said I had causation, they had experts and they knew 100% that they caused the injury but I had the judges and juries of Shelby County to deal with. They said that they usually like for the patients to die out there because the coroner will cover it up for them. I am still trying to get "Taylor's law" passed here in Alabama and have talked with her father.
I have talked with my U.S. senators and they tell me we do not have a bill of rights that is a law because it would help plaintiff attorneys. So doctors can hold you in a hospital against your wishes (for the money and politics) and take your life and you cannot get anything done to spare other people. I have and am still trying. The Alabama Department of Health was turning their heads while these people were doing these procedures they were not approved to do and they met with me but will not even return my phone calls even with the Governor and Senators writing to them also. Patients beware.
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