First Hospital Visit Missed the Actual Problem, Had to Rush to Second Hospital

[Core2]

My question involves medical malpractice in the state of: FL

My wife was having abdominal pain, so we took her to the ER on a Friday night. She thought it was a UTI, so they did a test for that, results were negative, and sent her home. (she still had pain). Discharge papers stated pain might be from kidney stones, or a ruptured ovarian cyst.

She stated she never saw a Dr either, only an assistant. Busy night at the ER I guess....

Saturday 2am the pain was getting far worse, and now was bothering her left shoulder of all places, so we went to a different hospital. This hospital did a CT scan after giving her morphine....she could not lie down flat at all.

CT showed she had a ruptured ovarian cyst, and needed surgery immediately. Had surgery same day (Saturday), and went home later that night, recovery was fine.

We are upset that the first hospital did not do any further tests besides what my wife guessed it might be, and then sent her home. We have a Hospital ER co-Pay for services rendered, but they did not diagnose the problem, and sent her home in the same pain she came in with.

Anything we can\should do? I do not feel that we should pay the 1st hospital's co-pay bill, as she was not properly taken care of.

She called a well known law firm here in FL, and they stated it was not in their 'best interest' to take this case, and that she should call around.

[Mr. Knowitall]

You have not indicated that your wife suffered any injury or complication resulting from the several hours between her discharge from the first ER and her admission at the second. Damages are an element of malpractice claims - it's not enough that there was an error, there must be an injury. It's also not clear that the standard of care was violated at the first ER - they did include "ruptured ovarian cyst" as part of their differential diagnosis. It's possible that had they performed a CT they would have diagnosed the issue, but CT's are both expensive and increasingly overused at ER's, and if your insurance was a factor they may not have wanted to stick you with an expensive copay (or the insurance company may have declined to authorize a CT at that point in time). If I were to guess that the provisional diagnosis included instructions to follow up with a doctor and to return to the ER if symptoms worsened, would I be wrong?

It's possible that you could find, upon having a full review of the medical record, that there was a violation of the standard of care; but without being able to document significant damages, and with malpractice cases often costing in the mid-five to six figure range to take to trial, it seems unlikely that a malpractice firm would find the economics of the case to justify taking it to trial.

[Life Care Planner]

Did she suffer any problems because she was mis-diagnosed? That is where your issue could be. If she had an extended stay in the hospital or if she had to have an "open" procedure rather than laproscopic? Did she have any post-op infection? These are a few issues I would look at if I were involved. I see this as a legal problem where attorneys do not want to pay for a consult unless they are pretty sure of the case. Maybe you should have an independant medical consult. probably cost up to a 1k but may be worth it if she had some post op issues.

[Core2]

No, she is fine. We are just concerned over the 2nd visit required, as the first hospital did not do much of anything.

[linka]

From what I've learned and I was a patient and was forced to be in ICU for 48 days because first hospital did not diagnose me correctly. I recovered even though I have life changing complications because of that. My lawyer told me I cannot sue for something that might have happened. Like I said I could've been dead if I did not go to the 2nd hospital and I did code twice in 2nd hospital and doctors had no hope for me. Yet my lawyer refused to file a lawsuit because I am alive. It's an irony because I am alive, I can't sue if I were dead my family would have a good chance to recover damages/neglect from hospital #1