My question involves medical malpractice in the state of: Oregon
This is a very complicated situation so I'm not sure where to start. My brother-in-law had multiple sclerosis and was being treated by an MS specialist in Oregon. This doc strongly encouraged my brother-in-law to get into the Tysabri infusion program to treat his MS. Because it was a very expensive treatment, my BIL had to get funding assistance from an organization...etc.
Now...my brother-in-law was an alcoholic when this all started and was actually open about his drinking habits with nurses and the doc. They were constantly bugging him to stop drinking...and when his liver function counts were high (which they usually were), they would even call him at home and speak to his wife about their concerns, etc.
However, despite this knowledge of his drinking and high liver tests, they continued to allow him and encourage him to continue Tysabri. If his liver tests were extremely high, they would not let him have treatment in the immediate future...but the moment they got a lower score (the scores were never low but always high or borderline high yet still technically in the safe zone according to their charts), they were calling him in for his infusion.
Point is that this man's scores were high more than normal...and they were very erratic, which we found out later from a liver doc that this it is common to get some "normal scores" among high scores and further testing should have been done on my BIL to see what the status of his liver was, etc. before doing anything to further damage the liver. (Yes..I know drinking causes liver damage but that isn't my point here today. Yes..this man had problems, etc....)
Anyway..point is that this MS doc knowingly allowed and encourage my BIL to continue treatment that is known to cause liver problems and even failure in some patients. My BIL's liver was already compromised from drinking...and we feel now that that problem should have been addressed first before ever allowing him to continue treatment.
His wife (my sister) even had a conversation with the nurse once and the nurse admitted that the MS doc was very much aware of the heaviness of the drinking going on.
Six months ago, my BIL started acting strange and was admitted to the hospital. Turns out his liver and other organs were failing and he died about a month later. Medical examiner said his liver was destroyed.
This is just very basic info but do we POSSIBLY have grounds for a lawsuit here? I realize this is just a bit of info but need to start somewhere.

