Hospital Horror Stories: Surgical Apparatus left in Patient after Surgery!

A patient came into the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital after a traffic accident with a fracture of the hip and was sent to surgery. The orthopedic surgeons are in a group of two. The two orthopedists see all of the orthopedic injuries at this hospital. Despite other doctors wanting to share the load the administrator refuses to let any one else see the orthopedic patients.

The doctors work 24 hours on and 24 hours off. Well all was going okay until the patient with the hip fracture was transferred to another hospital. As is the protocol for the hospital admitting the patient, an x-ray is taken of the injured area on admission. This new x-ray showed some surgical apparatus, a tube to drain the wound, was left inside of the patient with the injured hip.

The other orthopedic doctors have cried out to the Henry Mayo administration to open up the emergency room to orthopedic care for other doctors at the hospital. The administration, as in the past, has refused once again. The Henry Mayo hospital medical staff feels the two orthopedic doctors are too tired to safely operate on patients in a sleep deprived haze. The apparatus in the hip was removed at another hospital and patient did well except for having to endure another surgery!!

Hospital Horror Stories: Patient has Heart Attack while waiting for Doctor to return

A father was having some unusual feelings in his chest and his family drove him to the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital emergency room to get checked out by a doctor. The dad is not overweight and exercises on a regular basis. He is 47 years old and has a healthy father as well.

When he arrived at the emergency room he was first checked in by the clerks in the emergency room. Then he was told to wait till a bed is available. So the family sat down in the waiting room and could see the clerks and nurses walking around and talking and sipping on drinks. After 45 minutes of waiting they called this man’s name and he was escorted back to see the Doctor. The doctor came over and briefly talked to this dad. Again he appears muscular and fit. The nurse put him on oxygen and ordered an EKG. The tests were done and the family waited for 85 minutes for the Doctor to come back. But the emergency Doctor did not come back in until a Doctor who was walking buy noticed the EKG on the scope. Immediately he was yelling for help as the father started to experience a heart attack. The cardiologist that was walking by saved this mans life. The cardiologist called over to Holy Cross Hospital and got the man a bed there. The man went there and had a cardiac procedure saving his life. Had the patient been left to the care of the Henry Mayo emergency room he may have died. The advice this patient’s family gives “is don't go to this hospital as the care is below bad. Again stay away from Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital.”

Hospital Horror Stories: Treatment for Diarrhea leads to Emergency Surgery

A middle age woman was admitted to the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital with diarrhea. After five days she was discharged against her wishes. She was told she no longer met the criteria for admission. She repeatedly told the hospital she was not feeling well and was told she would be sent to collection for the extra days if she did not agree to be discharged. The Hospital had put a small camera in her stomach that was to take pictures as it went down her bowels. The patient was crying and in pain but the threat form the administration scared her and she was discharged.
She went to the San Fernando Valley the same day and was re-admitted to a different hospital. What the other hospital found was the camera lodged in her bowels and she needed emergency surgery to remove the camera. This is another case of poor patient treatment by Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital.
Keep the stories coming folks, our valley community needs to know what is going on at the local hospital!!!

Hospital Horror Stories: Wrong Medication Dose results in Kidney Failure

A Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital patient with an infection was given a medication to treat the infection. The doctor wrote a specific order for an antibiotic with precise dosage of the medication with respect to the patient’s weight. The hospital pharmacy made up the wrong dose and sent it to the nurse to be administered. The nurse injected the medicine in the patient and the patient then went into kidney failure. Because the patient was given the incorrect dose and developed renal failure the patient had to begin renal dialysis. The patient’s kidney function never returned to normal and now the patient is waiting for a kidney transplant. Why can’t the hospital be precise and why did the pharmacist incorrectly give the wrong dose? Was the pharmacist chastised? Knowing the hospital as we do, a giant pay raise was probably given instead of a pink slip! Speaking of pink slips why doesn’t the Board of Directors start to seriously look at these problems and deal with them.
Keep the stories coming folks, our valley community needs to know what is going on at the local hospital!!!

Hospital Horror Stories: World Class Pathologist replaced by Rookies

If you read the previous Hospital Horror Stories post you would know about the employee who illegally entered the HMNMH computer system and looked at some 300 patient files. Well, that hospital employee is the pathologist who resigned. What is really sad for the community is the fact that the former pathologist was world famous and had written 13 pathology books and consults with the United Nations.

What the administration did was get the snooping pathologist to resign and then she was to enter the negotiations to be rehired by the hospital. But in the middle of the negotiations she was outed by a hospital supervisor and then the hospital had to take her name off the list of potential pathologist. So the hospital was firing the world class pathologist who served this community for years and was at the top of the lists for best pathologist in California.

Now the administration was in a big hunt to find a new pathologist. They hired two doctors and then quality started to slip. Cancer was sometimes misinterpreted as normal and vice a versa. Now the local doctor's started sending out their biopsies to other non hospital pathologists because they could not trust the hospital pathologist reports. From the best pathologist to the new duo was a steep fall to mediocrity.

The administrator resisted any logical sense of what is best for the community to bring on a pair of rookie pathologists. I would ask your doctor to send any pathology reports needed to an outside facility.

Hospital Horror Story: Un-certified Respiratory Therapist misses Baby’s Lung

A baby was born at the hospital and had difficulty breathing and an un-certified respiratory therapist attempted to intubate (the insertion of a tube for the purpose of adding or removing fluids or air) the baby but missed the lungs and put the tube in the baby’s stomach. The therapist had never intubated a baby by her own admission. Eventually, the baby was sent to another hospital and the tube removed. The baby was eventually discharged unharmed by the hospital. The member's of the medical staff were not told of the error but only heard through scrupulous nurses who were outraged at the behavior of the respiratory therapist.

The medical staff leaders made a formal report to the Joint Commission of Hospitals. The Joint Commission investigated the incident and sanctioned the hospital with formal written reprimand. The hospital was required to have all respiratory therapist certified. The medical staff wanted to know why the doctor's in house were not intubating the patients. The hospital would not use the in house specialists who are available 24 hours per day to assist in an emergency but allow the therapist who is less qualified to perform this procedure.

Hospital Horror Story: 75 Year Old dies from apparent Incompetence

A 75 year old patient was evaluated in the Emergency Room (ER) at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and was found to have a blood sugar above 500. Normal blood sugar is around 100. A physician admitted this patient and came to the ER in the middle of the night to evaluate the patient. After evaluating the patient the physician wrote admitting orders. The admitting orders had very exact insulin dosages written in the chart. The orders would say check blood sugar every 15 minutes and give insulin that is written in the chart and call me if blood sugar is not decreasing. The physician gave the nurse in the ER his cell phone, pager and home numbers to contact him if needed. Through out the night the nurse did not check the blood sugar or call the physician. This patient was noted by the nurse to have a cardiac arrest and subsequently died. The nurse who did not follow the orders was a part time nurse that was later asked to be a full time nurse at this hospital. The family is suing the hospital but the admitting physician was not named as part of the suit because his level of care was excellent and the patient expired because of poor nursing care.

Hospital Horror Story: Medication Screw up puts Patient in ICU

A 93 year old home bound senior was admitted to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital for dehydration and had low blood pressure that required intravenous medication to reverse the downward sloping blood pressure. The admitting doctor diligently ordered a blood pressure medicine meant to increase the blood pressure. A medicine was started and the physician asked the hospital staff to call him with the new blood pressure readings.

The hospital staff called the physician with the blood pressure reading as the new medicine should be working by now....but the pressure was lower...the physician asked for an increased amount of the medicine and the blood pressure continued to drop. The physician came to the hospital to see the patient and was shocked by what was found. After determining the condition of the patient he transferred her to the ICU as she was becoming critical. What the physician discovered was the complete reversal error by the hospital. Instead of starting the patient on (dopamine) a medicine to RAISE blood pressure the patient was given a blood pressure LOWERING medicine (nitroglycerin). Through the diligence of the physician the patient recovered and subsequently went home.