Woman Becomes Quadruple Amputee After Giving Birth
A Sanford mother says she will never be able to hold her newborn because an Orlando hospital performed a life-altering surgery and, she claims, the hospital refuses to explain why they left her as a multiple amputee.
The woman filed a complaint against Orlando Regional Healthcare Systems, she said, because they won’t tell her exactly what happened. The hospital maintains the woman wants to know information that would violate other patients’ rights.
Claudia Mejia gave birth eight and a half months ago at Orlando Regional South Seminole. She was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando where her arms and legs were amputated. She was told she had streptococcus, a flesh eating bacteria, and toxic shock syndrome, but no further explanation was given.
The hospital, in a letter, wrote that if she wanted to find out exactly what happened, she would have to sue them.
“I want to know what happened. I went to deliver my baby and I came out like this,” Mejia said.
The hospital’s lawyers wrote back, “Ms. Mejia’s request may require legal resolution.” In other words, according to their interpretation of the law, Mejia has to sue them to get information about herself.
That’s the sticking point, the interpretation of the Patients Right To Know act, a constitutional amendment Florida voters passed a little more than a year ago.
“That’s what Republicans and Libertarians want for the United States.”
Utter nonsense. Libertarians are the number one advocates for CIVIL court actions taking the place of a government creating civil code or criminal prosecution.
You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Tort reform does NOT mean removing the ability to sue because of negligence or malpractice and anyone who claims that is simply lying or too stupid to understand what tort reform really means.
Welcome to Florida.. that wonderful place where we set prisoners on fire when we electrocute them and torture them when we give them lethal injections.
The excuse given sounds like that — an excuse.
This is what happens (the flesh eating bacteria part) when hospitals try and look like hotels…and install rugs on every floor in every room…and put in curtains and fancy chairs in the rooms (ESPECIALLY THE BIRTHING ROOMS). All of the surfaces cannot be “disinfected” with good ol’bleach or lysol. You can’t clean a rug like you can clean linoleum!!
Plus, spots and grime and dust and GERMS can collect ..without notice…so why clean at all?
Hospitals have become profit-centers for big corporations so at one end they try and make them look like a budget Hilton, on the other, they cut back janitors and find the cheapest nurses. I’m sure “corporate” clean is no match for what hospital clean used to mean.
Hmm, and now there are super bugs attacking. Go figure…
And, on top of that….we have new statutes, rules and “privacy polices” that protect the hospital. Great. Just great.
#17,
Streptococcus is a fairly common bacteria. Your mouth, nasal passages, and intestines are crawling with them. As for the “flesh eating” variety, it may be caused by any of several forms of strep. Not everyone is susceptible to the virulent forms of strep.
Even improved sterile conditions might not have saved her as it appears she had little immunity against it. Her own family has as much a possibility of passing her the bacteria as any Hospital employee.
This is a sad case and I wish she never experienced the disease. I don’t know enough to pass judgment, but I would think she has an uphill struggle to claim damages from the hospital.
24,
The problem is that she has to obtain enough evidence to determine if there is grounds for a claim, the point of this story.
#21 “That’s what Republicans and Libertarians want for the United States.”
Utter nonsense. Libertarians are the number one advocates for CIVIL court actions taking the place of a government creating civil code or criminal prosecution.
You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Tort reform does NOT mean removing the ability to sue because of negligence or malpractice and anyone who claims that is simply lying or too stupid to understand what tort reform really means.
When the libertarians stop being an umbrella group for every nutjob that doesn’t like following the law, and starts acting like a serious political party instead an Ayn Rand fan fetish club, then I’ll take them seriously.
In the meantime, the only clear message i have ever gotten from that party is “I got mine, fuck you” and I might be a pussy liberal in your eyes, but Libertarians do not want a social safety net, they do not want anything for society… they just want to be left alone. That’s just not good enough in my view.
The disease can be transferred through direct contact with fluid from the nose and throat of an infected person, for example, through kissing, or sharing cutlery. It is also spread through direct contact with secretions from infected sores on the skin.
Casual contact, such as shaking hands, riding on the same school bus or being in the same classroom rarely results in infection. While group A streptococcus is passed from person to person, FLESH EATING DISEASE IS NOT!!!
In instances where serious disease develops, the presence of sore throat is very unusual.
Necrotizing fasciitis (flesh eating disease) is very rare, I highly doubt she picked it up from home, though. Hospitals should be extremely cautious when a person comes in and is diagnosed with such a fetal disease.
I would also want to know if other patient/s were diagnosed with this before I entered, and if so, I’d certainly make the hospital pay!!
It would be nice to see the hospital pay (for) “an arm and a leg” for once!!!
http://www.ocdsb.edu.on.ca/General_Info/Fact_Sheets/FED.htm
#27, While you summarized the “don’t be afraid” factoid, you downplayed the critical.
Casual contact, such as shaking hands, riding on the same school bus or being in the same classroom rarely results in infection. While group A streptococcus is passed from person to person,
Strep is communicable. That is how infections are spread.
FLESH EATING DISEASE IS NOT!!!
Wrong. As a communicable disease, it is passed through human contact. This could be by casual contact, but is more likely by way of respiratory droplets from coughing and sneezing.
The important fact is that only a few people become affected by the severe effects. Most of us have an immunity that makes the bacteria less dangerous. It is inconsequential if other patients had the bacteria. As as many as 1/3 of people at any one time may carry the bacteria without even knowing. As I said earlier, even her own son or husband may have passed on the bacteria.
Whoa there, Mr. Fusion…I didn’t write that article. I was simply passing on information that I had found (you did see the link, right?). Therefore, I was not downplaying anything, and I certainly never used the phrase “don’t be afraid” in my message either.
However, I do admit that I was incorrect in “my statement” regarding how she may or may not have contracted the strep A, as I was not fully aware of how the disease process worked. I thought perhaps it was a different strain of strep A (ya know, like herpes I and II). I had no idea that one has to be “susceptible” (or lack immunity) to the flesh eating disease, but I do now, so all is well…..ramble on
i don,t why