one of my cousins when to the hospital the other day complaining of chest pain, and for whatever reason he could not pass urine, so they put a catheter on him, told him his chest pains were probably gas, and sent him home becasue he had no insurance. the next day he dropped dead at home from a ruptured aorta. he was 22 years of age.

7/27/2008 6:02:52 PM

wow

7/27/2008 6:04:32 PM

Wow, I'm sorry. Can you hold the hospital liable?

7/27/2008 6:04:38 PM

i didnt think the er could turn you away for not having insurance

7/27/2008 6:04:42 PM

i'm hoping the sue them out of business. literally.

^ thats what i thought, and i thought if you complained of chest pains that they have to hold you for an observational period. this was in virginia.

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:07 PM. Reason : zdfg]

7/27/2008 6:05:05 PM

Quote :

"i didnt think the er could turn you away for not having insurance"

I think they can once you're stable and not in any medical danger but it doesn't sound like they did what they should have to make sure that was the case.

7/27/2008 6:07:37 PM

Was he obese ?

7/27/2008 6:08:00 PM

if they would have checked him correctly they would have saw danger. incompetence killed my cousin.

^ nope. just a sudden thing. relatively healthy person otherwise.

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:09 PM. Reason : asf]

7/27/2008 6:08:41 PM

damn, sorry dude.

7/27/2008 6:10:45 PM

damn...sorry to hear that...

7/27/2008 6:12:17 PM

yeah it sucks man. we were not close as some of my other cousins, but i knew him quite well. when his mom was pregnant with him she lived with my aunt and we were all pretty close at that time. on top of that, his mom died of cancer about a year and a half ago.

7/27/2008 6:12:31 PM

this is awful, i'm really sorry to hear it.

7/27/2008 6:13:00 PM

That's awful. I'm sorry.

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:13 PM. Reason : ]

7/27/2008 6:13:47 PM

yeah, and it really makes me mad that money was determining factor. yeah, maybe he could have died anyway, but he would have had a better chance if he would have been admitted to the hospital.

7/27/2008 6:14:34 PM

Sorry to hear that

They say July is the worst month to go to teaching hospitals because all the new interns and residents have just started.

7/27/2008 6:14:45 PM

socialized medicine is a bad thing right?

7/27/2008 6:15:04 PM

Quote :

"if they would have checked him correctly they would have saw danger."

or, they checked him correctly and found no reason at that time to investigate further because everything seemed somewhat normal?


sorry about your cousin though

7/27/2008 6:15:40 PM

fyi this was chesapeake general hospital, just so yall know

7/27/2008 6:15:42 PM

Quote :

"or, they checked him correctly and found no reason at that time to investigate further because everything seemed somewhat normal? "

they sent him home saying it was probably gas causing the chest pains... this can't be a real 'check it out'

7/27/2008 6:17:05 PM

did he refuse xrays or something?

7/27/2008 6:17:51 PM

apparently

don't know tho. but i would think so at this point.

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:18 PM. Reason : zdfg]

7/27/2008 6:18:09 PM

I fucking hate Virginia. Nothing good ever happened there.

7/27/2008 6:18:26 PM

i mean a ruptured aorta is pretty rare.. i doubt they had any idea. supposedly if they are real bad you can feel the artery pulsating in the abdomen though

7/27/2008 6:20:03 PM

Quote :

"they sent him home saying it was probably gas causing the chest pains... this can't be a real 'check it out'"

which is a probably a valid reason for chest pains when they can't find a more specific cardiological reason.

They most definitely checked his blood pressure, pulse and other routine heart/blood flow related procedures and probably found nothing out of the ordinary at that time to explain his chest pains or give any indication of a more serious condition.



[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:25 PM. Reason : asdfghj]

7/27/2008 6:20:07 PM

man stfu will you already. i am pretty goddamn sure if he would have gotten an xray they would have saw it. HIS FUCKING AORTA RUPTURED.

7/27/2008 6:21:21 PM

^^Not defending him or the hospital...just saying that you might have gotten a biased report. But your side of the story could also be 100% legit too.

Either way...it sucks for your loss. And it sucks the way our healthcare system is...but you can't take it out just on the hospital, its the way they have to operate because of our system. This ain't Europe.

7/27/2008 6:24:31 PM

im not trying to be an ass i was just asking. if someone refuses xrays or something its not like the hospital can force them to have them taken.

7/27/2008 6:26:12 PM

yeah you are right, i have thought abuot a biased report. but i look at it like this. if you are having serious chest pains (in this case i would be willing to bet an enlarged aorta was the culprit) that an xray is standard protocol. i am thinking that he did not have an xray because of no insurance, otherwise and xray would have revealed the pain source, if i assume correctly.

^ yeah that very true. if he did refuse, then oh well his family has no case (i am not sure if they have one anyway). i hope thats not the case however.

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:29 PM. Reason : asdfsdf]

7/27/2008 6:27:41 PM

wikipedia says its pretty hard to diagnose...FWIW...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aortic_rupture

7/27/2008 6:29:17 PM

no matter how hard what is to diagnose, doesn't seem like they make an earnest attempt to figure out anything from the info i have gathered. just the normal triage, and sent home becasue of no insurance.

^ thats 'Traumatic' . this is not a traumatic case.

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:32 PM. Reason : asdfsdf]

7/27/2008 6:31:29 PM

If you don't have insurance, it's standard practice to not do extensive tests. Doctors freely admit this. Sucks for him. Instead of wasting money on lawyers, I'd suggest you insure the rest of your family.

7/27/2008 6:39:41 PM

Quote :

"Wow, I'm sorry. Can you hold the hospital liable?"

whats the point in being rich when someone you loved is dead.

7/27/2008 6:40:58 PM

if there is a case, a lawyer would take this would a fee up front. anyway, not all are lucky enough to have insurance. in fact there are millions of people that are underinsured.

7/27/2008 6:41:13 PM

Quote :

"when to"

7/27/2008 6:41:40 PM

Quote :

"whats the point in being rich when someone you loved is dead."

If the hospital keeps getting sued, maybe they'll change their practices. Or maybe the government will decide to reform the health care system.

It's not always about the suing party.

7/27/2008 6:42:03 PM

Quote :

"if there is a case, a lawyer would take this would a fee up front. anyway, not all are lucky enough to have insurance. in fact there are millions of people that are underinsured."

He'd probably just take 1/3 of whatever you settled for or won in court.

7/27/2008 6:43:09 PM

affording health insurance for everyone else?

Putting younger family members through college that might not have otherwise gone

Not saying that money makes up for a death, or that a litigious reaction is always the right one, but if you have good grounds for suing or compensation, you might as well take money, especially if it's 'clean' (good case, no onerous strings, not scummy, etc). Odds are, the dead person would encourage you to take it and use it to the benefit of the ones they cared about.

7/27/2008 6:43:14 PM

^^ its more out of principle than for the money most of the time.

7/27/2008 6:44:24 PM

sorry for your loss.

7/27/2008 6:44:55 PM

isnt this what got john ritter? i heard he was misdiagnosed too

7/27/2008 6:45:56 PM

i appreciate all of the condolences. its just extremely saddening to me becasue of the insurance aspect of it.

7/27/2008 6:46:03 PM

John Ritter dropped dead of an aortic dissection and Im sure he had plenty of money and insurance.
You cant always blame the doctors.

It's very unfortunate that your cousin passed but this is a difficult medical diagnosis to make and with no money to cover extensive testing, the hospital did what they had to do.

Im not one for suing others just for pain and suffering since it's quite difficult to put a price on it.
Now, on the other hand, if the doctor did something that was grossly negligent, then I would surely seek legal action.



Again, sorry for your loss

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:49 PM. Reason : .]

7/27/2008 6:48:52 PM

Quote :

"the hospital did what they had to do. "

thats exactly the problem.

money money money

the love of money... you know the rest

7/27/2008 6:50:16 PM

So, a pretty healthy 22 year old guy comes in complaining of chest pains.....and they run tests and find nothing....I am pretty sure it would of been difficult if not impossible for them to find out that his aorta was going to rupture...since it hadnt at the time obviously. If he refused X-rays, not much they can do....doctors dont have x-ray vision to figure out what is wrong. It is sad, but they did what was expected when the patient refuses any extra treatments and I bet he refused to stay over night due to the out of pocket money it would cost him. Again, not the hospitals faught and any lawsuit will be thrown out. I had my own insurance in NC a year ago and it didnt cost me a whole lot, it was actually pretty affordable.

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:54 PM. Reason : w]

7/27/2008 6:53:38 PM

who said they ran tests, and he refused an xray?

7/27/2008 6:54:31 PM

how do you expect them to find that a aorta was about the rupture? He didnt have insurance, he is 22 years old, he probably wanted out of the hospital as fast as possible. He should have had insurance. Young people think they dont need it.

7/27/2008 6:56:12 PM

^^^^ the world runs on money...that's just how it is

And medical tests are very expensive.

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:57 PM. Reason : .]

7/27/2008 6:56:46 PM

^^if i was next to you i would beat your fucking face for being so ignorant.

and when did i say his family had a case?

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:58 PM. Reason : asdfsdf]

7/27/2008 6:56:55 PM

i live 10 minutes from that hospital.


it's shit.

7/27/2008 7:01:26 PM

they dont and even if he had insurance, it would of been very difficult to figure out what is wrong...i am pretty sure when a aorta ruptures, you have seconds to live due to the blood lose.

7/27/2008 7:02:20 PM