My question involves medical malpractice in the state of: Georgia
So here's the situation, Very late Sunday night/Early Monday morning (3-27/3-28) (around 1am) my husband was admitted to our local hospital through the ER for a ruptured abscessed urachal cyst that was seeping out of his navel, while in the ER we spoke to a ER physician, then a surgeon came in gave us his name and then told us he was admitting my husband and would be performing surgery on my husband at 5:30 am Monday (3/28) morning. We were taken upstairs and placed in a room. The nursing staff took the steps they needed to take to get us settled in and then left us to rest. Well around 5 am a nurse stepped in to get my husband's vitals, I then asked her when they would be coming in to prep my husband for surgery, the nurse then stated "well we don’t have any written orders other than he was to have IV antibiotics and a clear liquid diet, so they didn’t know when or if he was even going into surgery. We don’t even have a diagnosis" I then asked about the test results from the tests done down in the ER and the response I got was "we don’t have the results in his records and we haven’t seen any reports regarding them so we aren’t sure about them" So the nurse left. Each time they came in after that I asked the same questions and got the same answers (different wording but the same answer) Then around 8am the surgeon came in and said that he decided to wait to do the surgery until 5am the following morning (Tuesday 3/29) but that he was keeping my husband in and continuing the IV antibiotics along with the clear liquid diet, we said ok we thought maybe my husband needed more antibiotics before he could have the surgery, throughout the day (Monday 3/28) the staff prepared my husband for the surgery the next day getting all the paperwork signed and so forth, they were wonderful. However, things changed the next day (Tuesday 3/29) again when the nurse came into get my husband's vitals I asked when they were coming in to prep my husband for surgery and was told "oh they changed it to 2pm" (this is the second time it had been changed) but the doctor would be coming in to talk to us shortly. Again we figured something more urgent came up and we understood. Well by 7:30am we still had not seen the doctor yet so we inquired about the doctor and the nurse said that she would check on it. When she came back she told us that the original doctor wasn’t coming but that we would be speaking with another surgeon (supposedly his associate) and that he would be here around 8:30am. Well 8:30 came and went, no doctor, then 9, then 9:30, and 10, still no doctor. Then around 10:30 abruptly the nurses come in stating they were going to prep my husband for surgery (the third time his surgery has been rescheduled). We were shocked since we had not spoken to a doctor of any sort in over 24 hours. We immediately asked about the doctor we were supposed to have spoken to and the nurses (obviously surprised) stated “he didn’t come into see you?” we answered “no” and the response we received was “oh wow, he’s already gone.” We allowed them to do their job and get him ready to go into surgery assuming that the reason he left was to prepare for the surgery. They prepped my husband and we all headed downstairs, my husband to surgery and me and his mother to the front waiting room. We went to the desk in the waiting room and were informed that the doctor actually doing the surgery was actually the original doctor, not the “associate” that we had been told, in the elevator, would be doing it. A while later (around 12pm) my mother-in-law and I were escorted to the physician consult room where we were told to wait and that the doctor would be in to speak with us about the surgery. “Finally,” I thought, “we will be told what is going on and can get some answers to the questions we have.” These answers are necessary for us to understand what happened, why it happened how it happened, how we can avoid it in the future not to mention the questions my husband’s employer is requiring answers to. Remember, we haven’t spoken to any doctors (the original nor the “associate”) since 8am the day before (Monday 3/28). We waited there for around 20 mins before the gentleman who escorted us there came in and asked “has the doctor been in to see you yet?” We both stated, “NO” the gentleman then states, “Oh, well I think he left.” Just then an RN magically appears, the gentleman turns to her and steps aside, she stepped in and introduced herself before stating “the doctor just left, he normally meets the family in a different room but because you are in here, he left. He will be back after office hours to talk to with you.” We asked her if we could ask her a couple of questions and she answered she would try to answer them, however, the answer she gave us to every question was “you’ll need to ask the doctor that” or “you need to speak with the doctor.” We were then informed that my husband was being transported back up to his room. His mother and I followed him up and upon getting to his room we were informed immediately that my husband was being discharged! This again shocked us! In the last 24 hours my husband has had his surgery rescheduled twice, actually had the surgery, was now being discharged and we have NOT seen a doctor at all!!! We explained to the discharge nurse what had happened over the last 24 hours and what we had been told in the consult room, and asked if she could answer the questions, she (like the RN in the consult room) would try but her answers were the same. However, when she realized that she didn’t have the answers we require, she told us to give her a moment and she went to call the doctor. According to her, she explained to him the situation and the doctor replied “well they can sit there until I have time to come back up.” She states that she then asked him “if he was coming to talk to us tonight” and he replied “maybe, if I have the extra time.” So that leads us to now, my husband and I are sitting here in the hospital, ready to go home, waiting for a doctor we have only met twice very briefly and who may not show back up until tomorrow morning if then. So our question is can be this considered neglect, malpractice or is it just a matter of rudeness?

