October 1, 2010
Another Medical Mistake, That Recently Happened To Me!
Folks,
I frequently hear of the worst situations and stories of patient suffering, medical mistakes, and just plain apathy (also known as misfeasance) from health care providers. However, I also hear the most inspirational and helpful stories as well. Today I am going to talk a bit about the first kind, and this one is first hand.
I recently had a fall that resulted in a grand laceration to my leg. I went to the local Emergency Department and as we all too often hear, it just did not work out for me. Here is what happened:
I fell hard on a sharp rock and landed on my shin, a spot on the body with very little flesh, so the cut went almost to the bone. As a boisterous fellow I am not unfamiliar with cuts (some serious), sprains, strains, etc., so just another trip to the Emergency department to get some stitches and antibiotics. Here is the problem – I requested antibiotics and that request was denied by my ED physician, even though my fall took place in shallow water on a local river, that also happens to be notoriously polluted. Subsequently I developed the serious infection I thought I would less than 36 hours later which took me out of work for two weeks, left me unable to walk due to a big red tree trunk where my lower leg previously had been, and required six separate physician follow up visits to properly treat the infection.
We are still waiting to see if we need to reopen the wound (with a fresh incision) to drain the remaining infection and junk, and then we start off from scratch and put in fresh sutures. Never a dull moment.Part II will be coming shortly.
Take care and stay well.
