Hello all, I'll give you the readers digest condensed version of this story;
While my wife was in labor, she recieved an epideral (sp?). The hospital we delivered at is a smaller, regional medical center and there was no Anesthesiologist on staff at the time. Instead, they had to call a nurse anesthecian to perform the epideral.
The lady that performed it was older, probably in her 50's or 60's. What struck me was that she was very short and not very nice. Anyway, she didn't seem to have the right tools, so she was asking the OB nurses for different needles that they didn't have. All the while, she was having my wife lean way over as if in the fetal position except sitting up, this was obviously hard to do w/a baby in her belly. She kept adjusting the bed and finally asked for something to stand on because she was too short to get in a good position. While my wife was bent over, this lady probably stuck her 4 or 5 times in different places w/the needles and on one attempt my wife cried out in pain and was squeezing my hand to the point I thought she was going to break bones. Our Dr. was in the room watching this woman try to get the epideral in and at one point asked this nurse anesthecian if she was supposed to have air in the line. I was watching too and she was injecting saline into my wife and there was a very large air bubble in it, I'm no doctor but I've always seen them remove all air from a line before injecting it.
Anyway, she finally got it in, and my wife said she felt every bit of the pain during labor. We got through it, and at our follow up check up w/our dr. about a week or more later my wife's back still hurt and was bruised quite badly. I just wrote this up to normal behavior for getting over an epideral. We asked our dr. about the nurse and the poor job I thought she did and he agreed it didn't go as well as it should but the pain should subside. Well, a year later she is still having pretty bad shooting pains. I'm thinking it's nerve damage. If you push on the spot she recieved the injection she just about jumps out of her skin.
So long story short, I think we have a pretty good case against either the hospital or the company that provided the nurse anesthician, but I'm not the litigious type. I was delivered at this hospital and I'm not looking for a million dollar settelement delivered by a slimy lawyer to get to lie so he can make his 33% commision, but at the same time I think my wife deserves some compensation if she's suffered permanent damage.
I had 2 thoughts, one would be to call the hospital and see what they are willing to do about it, although I'm hesitant because I feel like if I'm honest w/them they'll use it to thier advantage and possibly try to deny all responsiblity if I give them too much info. I'm sure they've got a lawyer who's job is to deny these claims at all costs. On the other hand I don't want to blindly sue them and hope for the best. Is there a middle ground I can take to ensure she's compensated if she does have permanent damage and they wouldn't be able to deny the claim right off the bat if I just tell them our story.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
While my wife was in labor, she recieved an epideral (sp?). The hospital we delivered at is a smaller, regional medical center and there was no Anesthesiologist on staff at the time. Instead, they had to call a nurse anesthecian to perform the epideral.
The lady that performed it was older, probably in her 50's or 60's. What struck me was that she was very short and not very nice. Anyway, she didn't seem to have the right tools, so she was asking the OB nurses for different needles that they didn't have. All the while, she was having my wife lean way over as if in the fetal position except sitting up, this was obviously hard to do w/a baby in her belly. She kept adjusting the bed and finally asked for something to stand on because she was too short to get in a good position. While my wife was bent over, this lady probably stuck her 4 or 5 times in different places w/the needles and on one attempt my wife cried out in pain and was squeezing my hand to the point I thought she was going to break bones. Our Dr. was in the room watching this woman try to get the epideral in and at one point asked this nurse anesthecian if she was supposed to have air in the line. I was watching too and she was injecting saline into my wife and there was a very large air bubble in it, I'm no doctor but I've always seen them remove all air from a line before injecting it.
Anyway, she finally got it in, and my wife said she felt every bit of the pain during labor. We got through it, and at our follow up check up w/our dr. about a week or more later my wife's back still hurt and was bruised quite badly. I just wrote this up to normal behavior for getting over an epideral. We asked our dr. about the nurse and the poor job I thought she did and he agreed it didn't go as well as it should but the pain should subside. Well, a year later she is still having pretty bad shooting pains. I'm thinking it's nerve damage. If you push on the spot she recieved the injection she just about jumps out of her skin.
So long story short, I think we have a pretty good case against either the hospital or the company that provided the nurse anesthician, but I'm not the litigious type. I was delivered at this hospital and I'm not looking for a million dollar settelement delivered by a slimy lawyer to get to lie so he can make his 33% commision, but at the same time I think my wife deserves some compensation if she's suffered permanent damage.
I had 2 thoughts, one would be to call the hospital and see what they are willing to do about it, although I'm hesitant because I feel like if I'm honest w/them they'll use it to thier advantage and possibly try to deny all responsiblity if I give them too much info. I'm sure they've got a lawyer who's job is to deny these claims at all costs. On the other hand I don't want to blindly sue them and hope for the best. Is there a middle ground I can take to ensure she's compensated if she does have permanent damage and they wouldn't be able to deny the claim right off the bat if I just tell them our story.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
