Legal action?

Has anyone ever pursued legal action or somehow contacted doctors that misdiagnosed apnea?
My son was just diagnosed with extremely severe apnea that they even said he's lucky to be alive. We went to so many doctors who did nothing. Thankfully, we finally found apnea as a possibility on our own and demanded to be sent for care. Our pulmo doc wants to contact all the doctors fhat missed it, but we were wondering if we should talk with a lawyer so that we will be taken seriously.
Thoughts?!

I'm concerned that the diagnosis, while not necessarily wrong, may be a red flag for some other condition(s) that your MDs have not realized, if only because they're not set up to do more there, which is why I've continued to say you need opinions from outside. I don't think a lawyer would be where I'd put my energy, money, etc. right now, but instead maybe a go-fund-me page to let you get more knowledge (more advanced diagnostic techniques, equipment, more 'heads') about what's happening with your son - that should be the priority (and people respond to those things when babies are involved). Legal action can take years to pay off even if you have a case against anyone and it would not help your son today. This may not be what you want to hear, but I don't think saying nice things to make you feel better will help your son who needs advocates to speak for him now.

I think that's my concern as well. We want to contact the doctors, not necessarily with a lawsuit, but we want to contact them and their higher ups (which our pulmo doc does too) just to let them know hey you missed this and so they'll think twice about the next mom who comes in with a 9mo who doesn't sleep 30 mins at a time. Just wondering if anyone had success with this.

The trouble is that apnea is usually seen in people who just sleep more hours than normal trying to compensate... the waking up every few hrs is not necessarily indicative of apnea at all, another reason I'm being so pushy about your trying to get outside opinions. I so understand being broke (you wouldn't believe how well) but I also would do whatever I absolutely could, out of the box if necessary, to get other answers where a baby's at stake. I don't WANT to upset people, but it's not as important as getting the answers.

What is your goal in possible legal action? If not a lawsuit for damages, then education of the doctors about what they "missed"? If it is education, the let your pulmonologist talk to his colleagues - they will listen to him. Getting a lawyer involved at this point before your baby is being treated properly and a final diagnosis is made (for anything beyond sleep apnea) will likely shut down all lines of communications between you and doctors. Your baby needs all the medical help you can get.

While it seems unfair, doctors are very reluctant to accept a patient who has a history of legal actions against any doctor. With their current work load and low reimbursement rates, such patients are not very attractive to them.

I believe now is the time to put your energy into your child's diagnosis, treatment, and care.

Continue to learn all you can about diagnosis and treatment options.

Take a good look at your insurance policy and your right to appeal denials.
Is there a way to get your insurance to pay for all needed specialty consults regardless of geographic location?
Possibly a good lawyer can help you with this.

Contact pediatric teaching hospitals and ask about possible resources for parents not able to pay for their baby's critically necessary medical care.

Even some current doctor's are likely not to want to continue to be involved with a parent threatening legal action.
Keep copies of all past, present, and future medical records and interactions.
If you want to sue your past doctors you can always look into this later when your child is stable.

There may be a time and place for legal action later when you have some idea of "damages" with a cause for the apnea diagnosis and evidence of the harm that the delayed diagnosis caused. I'm crossing my fingers that there won't be that kind of "damages" for your little one. Kids bounce back and I hope your little one does once his apnea is properly treated. Legal action takes an incredible toll on you, so you need to factor that in. But at some point legal action may be worth considering. Proof that the delay in diagnosis caused the harm can be very difficult.

The fact that your pulmonary doc is upset enough to want to let his/her colleagues know is telling. I will tell you that a well-worded letter from that doctor WILL have impact because (in my experience) the people whom doctors most respect are other doctors.

You are angry and you want revenge but a better use of your energy is to keep fighting for your child.

The child needs your 100% attention and money. There is a risk you will alienate the medical staff you have now, they might be angry enough to write a letter but they might not support legal action. Keep notes, put it all in a journal, but wait.

Keep your eyes focused on the real goal.

If your insurance covers it, find a therapist to talk to. Or even call a crisis line so you can scream about the issues, because you MUST look after yourself in order to look after the baby. Like they say in the airplane "Put your mask on first before assisting others"

I guess I should have been more specific. The team of doctors we were working with was in Hawaii where we used to live. We even went to the ER demanding help. My husband told them he didn't feel safe driving to work because he was so tired. We made several appointments for the fussiness and sleep. No one dug deeper or sent us to a specialist. Now, our doctors in our new state (VA) are working with us, and our pulmo doc wants to reach out to them, but he also recommended noting what delays he has which COULD be caused by the severe apnea. I think he's just concerned that his apnea is SO bad that he could have died and no doctor listened to us even after repeated appointments.
I was just wondering if anyone had any experience. It isn't something we are currently working towards, but just want all documentation in order incase once we get this figured out we wish to go that route since this road has been so detrimental to us all.

with all the incidences of SIDS ... it is hard to believe they would not look a OSA

grayghost4 wrote:with all the incidences of SIDS ... it is hard to believe they would not look a OSA

Because there was no consensus on the cause for a long time so unless the kid is dead there was no looking at it. And many doctors don't bother to keep up to date - too busy making money and being taken out to lunch by drug reps!

Forget the lawyer unless you're after money or revenge. Any mention of lawyers triggers an immediate defensive response that will prevent any learning, only denial and making up reasons that they did the right thing.

Unfortunately, there's only a small chance you can educate the doctors involved, but it's worth a try. Far too many doctors are plagued with delusions of grandeur (or competence.) There's way too much assembly line/big box store medicine these days.

A friendly note from your new doctor, especially with sleep test results probably has the best chance of making the doctors learn something. Unfortunately, the medical mafia is a xenophobic tribal society that tends to only listen to its own members, and not even listen to them that much. A note from you will not carry nearly as much weight as a note from a doctor.

However, I do encourage an attempt to educate the doctors involved.

HOWever... from someone who's worked my whole life with doctors of all kinds, I will say that any doctor with a modicum of sense and confidence in his work (confidence, not delusions of grandeur or insecurity), is usually happy to refer patients for 2nd opinions, if only to back up his theories. And some even have enough humility (it happens!) to know they don't know everything or have access to the latest equipment, etc., and do care about patients, so again will try to get them the best treatment possible. Don't assume your docs would not be happy about a request to get more insight some place else.

I guess one of my concerns too is that my son could have been a SIDS baby....we would have never known what was going on. When you have grown people consistently coming to you telling you that their baby is never happy and never sleeps, don't tell them it's normal. At least run labs or send us somewhere to help! We are trying to figure out the chain of command as far as who our new doc would have the best luck talking to.