Routine Tonsillectomy - 13-Year Old Girl Brain Dead

Nozzelnut wrote:Reading about this on some other sites; it's rumored that the family of the girl fed her some McDonalds and her grandmother may have removed some of the packing and gauze. The family also tried suctioning for whatever reason.

Looks more and more like her family was the cause; not the hospital.

I am interested in the case and was curious to find information about it. I defend malpractice cases and have learned to be skeptical of accounts based mostly on statements by a lawyer for the injured person's family. However, Google was no help in finding any news stories with evidence that family members gave the recovering child solid food. Can you provide a citation, Nozzelnut? All I could find were anonymous comments on sites like this one. Obviously those people have no actual knowledge and are speculating based on their prejudices. Did you find any informed sources for this theory or just cruel, ignorant comments founded on negative stereotypes? No one wants to spread that kind of rumor.

Hi PST,

I did find this blog entry by an RN which presented a side I haven't seen anywhere. Apparently, parent non compliance was at work, as they disobeyed instructions to keep the kid quiet. But more importantly, a bleeding disorder may not have been disclosed and if that is true, shame, shame on the parents.

http://sprocket-trials.blogspot.com/201 ... egacy.html

Via messages left on SFGate’s message board, commenters claimed that the family did not follow the physician’s post-op instructions. Because of HIPAA laws, the hospital and staff are not allowed to talk, but civilians visiting the hospital are not bound to silence. Numerous posts claimed that the family marched extended family to Jahi’s bedside, talking to her and encouraging her to talk back. Doctors and nurses instructed the parents to keep the teen quiet.

There has also been chatter on message boards regarding co-morbidities. While it is true that anything on the Internet needs to be read with suspicion, sometimes the truth eeks out. Posts were made stating that she had Type 2 diabetes and asthma. Posts were made claiming that Bay Area physicians, when asked by parents about tonsillectomy risks, replied that the word in the medical community was that Jahi’s family failed to disclose a familial predisposition to bleeding. Because of HIPAA laws, the hospital is not allowed to discuss the case at all, and is only allowed to say that Jahi is in the facility and that her condition has not changed.

Things are starting to look like this was family noncompliance, not physician error or nurse negligence. Talking is a no-no in the immediate post-op period after any sort of upper airway surgery. Failing to disclose something as serious as a potential bleeding disorder may well have been fatal

49er wrote:Hi PST,

I did find this blog entry by an RN which presented a side I haven't seen anywhere. Apparently, parent non compliance was at work, as they disobeyed instructions to keep the kid quiet. But more importantly, a bleeding disorder may not have been disclosed and if that is true, shame, shame on the parents.

I thought that much in the post was of interest, but I part company with the author when she starts basing conclusions on comments about newspaper articles and "chatter" on message boards. She expresses appropriate skepticism at first, but before long she is saying "Things are starting to look like this was family noncompliance..."

The world is full of know-it-alls claiming to have the real inside story. Some perverse instinct makes people share what they think must have happened even when they have no real knowledge. They want to make sense of events and fill in whatever gaps they need to. I find it hard to believe the family could have got away with much in an ICU. And I find it very hard to believe they would withhold information about known medical conditions, especially when this was not the child's first treatment. I just had surgery myself. I was poked and prodded by more people than I can count, asked scores of questions, and provided liquid samples of more than one kind. I think asthma or diabetes would have come out. Maybe that's what happened, but I'm not giving it any credence until the source is something more reliable than internet chatter.

That is not to say that anyone should take the family's version of events at face value. Among other things, lay people (and I include myself) overestimate blood loss and its significance. I don't know what happened, but it would not astonish me if the explanation lies elsewhere.

The news media is not always accurate in their reporting of events. I have personally seen this happen.

Good points PST.

49er

PST wrote:

49er wrote:Hi PST,

I did find this blog entry by an RN which presented a side I haven't seen anywhere. Apparently, parent non compliance was at work, as they disobeyed instructions to keep the kid quiet. But more importantly, a bleeding disorder may not have been disclosed and if that is true, shame, shame on the parents.

I thought that much in the post was of interest, but I part company with the author when she starts basing conclusions on comments about newspaper articles and "chatter" on message boards. She expresses appropriate skepticism at first, but before long she is saying "Things are starting to look like this was family noncompliance..."

The world is full of know-it-alls claiming to have the real inside story. Some perverse instinct makes people share what they think must have happened even when they have no real knowledge. They want to make sense of events and fill in whatever gaps they need to. I find it hard to believe the family could have got away with much in an ICU. And I find it very hard to believe they would withhold information about known medical conditions, especially when this was not the child's first treatment. I just had surgery myself. I was poked and prodded by more people than I can count, asked scores of questions, and provided liquid samples of more than one kind. I think asthma or diabetes would have come out. Maybe that's what happened, but I'm not giving it any credence until the source is something more reliable than internet chatter.

That is not to say that anyone should take the family's version of events at face value. Among other things, lay people (and I include myself) overestimate blood loss and its significance. I don't know what happened, but it would not astonish me if the explanation lies elsewhere.