My question involves medical malpractice in the state of:
Hello. I recently had weight loss surgery 2 weeks ago. Everything went great with the surgery, except where the IV was. I am a hard poke and the nurses tried more than 7 or 8 times to put in the IV but were unsuccessful. Finally the anesthesiologist was able to put the IV in on the inside of my left wrist (which also happens to be my dominant arm.) Towards the end of my stay I complained of pain in my arm and noticed some redness and bruising. The nurses said they may have to re-poke me somewhere else, but shortly after wound up taking the IV out since I was being discharged.
I noticed increased swelling, redness and pain in the left arm so I went to a local ER, 5 days after the surgery. I told them I was worried about blood clots and wanted to get it checked out. The ER doctor told me that he "could tell by looking at my arm that I had no blood clots." He sent me home with a handout on a muscle strain and said I would be fine.
Two days later I called my surgeon's office to see if I should get a second opinion. They were really worried and sent me straight to an office to get an ultrasound in my arm. They found several superficial and deep vein blood clots. I was then referred to a vascular surgeon the next morning, where he sent me immediately to the hospital for 4 days. By the time I left I still had the clots but they continued me on the blood thinner shots and pills to dissolve the clots. The doctors there told me that there was a 99% chance that the clots were due to the IV, since the arm is a rare spot to have blood clots resulting in the surgery itself.
I have missed quite a bit of work, have had pain and suffering and have been just plain scared. Because of the ER doctor, I was put 2 days behind treatment and glad that I took initiative to get a second opinion.
Is there anything I can do in terms of the ER doctor misdiagnosing my condition, and such a serious one at that? He did not take any tests or anything. Secondly, is there anything I can do to the hospital since I developed the clots from the IV and not due to the surgery (as I understand clots are a general risk of any surgery, these were related to the IV.)
I would appreciate anyone's help, thank you very much.
Steph

