Wrongful Death: A Medical Tragedy

Rating:
Summary: A Tragic Yet Beautiful Lament.
Review: I guess it really does take a poet to effectively take on medical incompetence and professional arrogance. This book is a heartbreaker. It's also beautifully written and unforgettable. A story of mature love and unnecessary loss. This subject could not have been handled more brilliantly if every medical journal in the country addressed it. Of course addressing wrongful death and medical malpractice is not really in vogue in political circles today. Thank God for the lawyers! And thank God Sandra Gilbert was able to pull herself together after the loss of her husband to tell us this story and absolutely make us feel the loss, the tragedy, and the anger. It made me cry. Read it. It's important.

Rating:
Summary: A Tragic Yet Beautiful Lament.
Review: I guess it really does take a poet to effectively take on medical incompetence and professional arrogance. This book is a heartbreaker. It's also beautifully written and unforgettable. A story of mature love and unnecessary loss. This subject could not have been handled more brilliantly if every medical journal in the country addressed it. Of course addressing wrongful death and medical malpractice is not really in vogue in political circles today. Thank God for the lawyers! And thank God Sandra Gilbert was able to pull herself together after the loss of her husband to tell us this story and absolutely make us feel the loss, the tragedy, and the anger. It made me cry. Read it. It's important.

Rating:
Summary: She's a poet and very good with words
Review: It was negligence, or the university regents would not have paid the settlement. I've not reviewed a book here before, but wanted to counter some of the unfair reviews I just read. We know this kind of thing happens sometimes. She lost the love of her life, and their children lost their father. Ms. Gilbert needed to write this, and it is well worth reading. It is, however, very sad.

Rating:
Summary: She's a poet and very good with words
Review: It was negligence, or the university regents would not have paid the settlement. I've not reviewed a book here before, but wanted to counter some of the unfair reviews I just read. We know this kind of thing happens sometimes. She lost the love of her life, and their children lost their father. Ms. Gilbert needed to write this, and it is well worth reading. It is, however, very sad.

Rating:
Summary: Insight
Review: Our mother was diagnosed in the late 80's with the worse types of rheumatory arthritis ever and began walking with a cane as her primary complaint was the pain in her right hip. She was also an adamant smoker and in Dec. 97 was diagnosed with a cancerous spot on her lung. Her doctor wanted to do surgery stating she wasn't going to die; all the time ignoring her repeat requests for attention to her hip. He stated he wanted to take care of the problem at hand then he would deal with the hip. The middle of Feb 98 she expired and was, by the grace of God, brought back to life. Consequently, it was all over, as her hip bone was completely eaten up when they discovered bone cancer as it had matasized all through her body. She passed the 19th of Mar 98. During the first discovery of the cancer the doctor did an MRI and through the latter part of her life, kept ignoring repeated requests to deal with that hip. She suffered through this cancer thinking it was arithritis. A major part of the illness was pneumonia and continuous upper respiratory infections. I must mention that I live in Ga. and the other 5 siblings in Va and Md. Mother live in Pa. and would not move as she loved Pa. Of course, this made it difficult to track her and assist her in monitoring her visits to the doctor. Mother was always the type of woman who like to keep her "business" to herself; always an organized person. We have since tried, to no avail, to get an attorney to prove his negligence. I am still looking for someone to go over, verbatim, her medical records. To my knowledge, there has been no mention of her need to quit smoking. We, the family, also believe we have a case against the cigarette company.

Rating:
Summary: Our Mother Believed the Doctor Could Do No Wrong
Review: Our mother was diagnosed in the late 80's with the worse types of rheumatory arthritis ever and began walking with a cane as her primary complaint was the pain in her right hip. She was also an adamant smoker and in Dec. 97 was diagnosed with a cancerous spot on her lung. Her doctor wanted to do surgery stating she wasn't going to die; all the time ignoring her repeat requests for attention to her hip. He stated he wanted to take care of the problem at hand then he would deal with the hip. The middle of Feb 98 she expired and was, by the grace of God, brought back to life. Consequently, it was all over, as her hip bone was completely eaten up when they discovered bone cancer as it had matasized all through her body. She passed the 19th of Mar 98. During the first discovery of the cancer the doctor did an MRI and through the latter part of her life, kept ignoring repeated requests to deal with that hip. She suffered through this cancer thinking it was arithritis. A major part of the illness was pneumonia and continuous upper respiratory infections. I must mention that I live in Ga. and the other 5 siblings in Va and Md. Mother live in Pa. and would not move as she loved Pa. Of course, this made it difficult to track her and assist her in monitoring her visits to the doctor. Mother was always the type of woman who like to keep her "business" to herself; always an organized person. We have since tried, to no avail, to get an attorney to prove his negligence. I am still looking for someone to go over, verbatim, her medical records. To my knowledge, there has been no mention of her need to quit smoking. We, the family, also believe we have a case against the cigarette company.

Rating:
Summary: Wrongful Conclusions
Review: Sandra Gilbert's poignant tale of her 60 year old husband's death after prostate cancer surgery is marred by her universally distorted portrayal of his doctors at the UC Davis University Hospital, where he died in 1991. While she freely and repeatedly demonstrates her ignorance and lack of sophistication regarding the medical issues involved in her husband's case, that doesn't stop her from treating her misunderstandings and fantasies as reality. From her point of view, you would think that her husband's physicians were callous monsters, who didn't care if he lived or died. The truth is far less nefarious, though probably for her, less satisfying.

In the end, the real events surrounding her husband's death do not reveal any conspiracy, cover-up, or gross negligence. In fact, her husband suddenly "crashed" only after what was essentially over 4 uneventful hours in the recovery room, where the only abnormality was a low grade elevated heart rate (common after surgery) and a one time drop in blood pressure early on, which responded immediately to appropriate treatment (also common). Indeed, until he coded, he appeared to be doing quite well. It is only after the failed resuscitation that it became apparent that he must have been bleeding occultly, despite his apparent hemodynamic stability. The bottom line is that everyone in the recovery room missed the fact that that he was hemorrhaging internally, not because they were indifferent or incompetent, but because the clues were so subtle and their level of suspicion was too low.

She complains that no one was forthcoming with information, as she struggled to understand what happened, yet, with her own words, whenever the primary surgeon tries to discuss the case, before and after the surgery, she demonstrates that she has trouble understanding the simplest concepts, even though he speaks in plain everyday language. Instead, she offensively ridicules his accent, and follows every statement of his with her own italicized confused thoughts and fantasies. Almost every statement or appearance of a physician in this book is caricatured and editorialized.

In the end, she opts to take the money, accepting a settlement, rather than continue with depositions and go to trial, insuring that she never gets the explanation she claims she wants and needs so badly.

If there are villains here it is her friends and family. For example, after her husband's death, a couple comes up to her and with the same breath as they ask "What happened?", they announce that a lawyer friend has told them that she has a case for medical malpractice. How in the world would he know? There are so many self-appointed "experts" among her relatives and acquaintances, all whispering in her ear their own theories and rumors and offering advice. And there is so much cynicism and anger among her family and friends toward the doctors, you would have thought they had bodily thrown her husband out a hospital window to his death. Indeed, that is how his care is ultimately described.

There is much made of a missing hematocrit, drawn after an hour in the recovery room, yet it is acknowledged that hematocrits can be misleading because of the time required for "equilibration." She also makes much of an inability of the anesthesiologists to intubate her husband, which aborted the first attempt at surgery. His pictures in the book show him to have been a stocky man with a receding chin, short neck, and full beard. Of course they had trouble! There is no guarantee that you can successfully intubate any patient, even if you know ahead of time it will be difficult. They did the right and safe thing, by canceling the case, yet she repeatedly revisits the failed intubation and prudently cancelled case, each time more vehemently, until she ultimately claims her husband began to die then and there!

Mrs. Gilbert revels in the role of victim, but like so many that title becomes comforting only if there are villains. And if there are none, she and her family, friends, and lawyers will manufacture them. Indeed, mistakes were made, with disastrous consequences, but there is no evidence that her late husband was treated with anything but professional kindness, charity, and compassion. Maybe his doctors deserve a little too.

Rating:
Summary: Insight
Review: This book accurately reflects the emotions and disorientation experienced by the loved ones of a patient who suffers a sudden, unexpected and - at least in their belief - preventable death. I'm not going to debate the medical merits with the first reviewer, no doubt a physician. But after 20 years of representing malpractice victims in legal proceedings, I can say it truly reflects their pain and their motivation in seeking legal counsel in a death case: A desire for information, honesty and validation. The book also addresses how the legal system can be a crud tool for achieving those goals - but the only tool they have.

Rating:
Summary: Not about Wrongful Death, but about dealing with death
Review: This book is hardly about wrongful death. It is the story of one person's attempt to deal with the sudden and unexpected death of a spouse. Certainly there are some elements of the wrongfullness of the death of her husband portrayed in the book. However, the author is primarily focused on her own pain, suffering and inability to deal with the death and subsequent activities.

One most definitely has sympathy with the author and her family for their loss. The writing is a celebration of the misery brought on by the death. A similar tale could be told of any sudden and unexpected death of a loved one.

Rating:
Summary: A moving work that invokes every spouse's empathy
Review: This is a chilling story of the coverups that, while not routine, exist in large medical centers. While the novel has a tragic ending, it reveals a comedy of errors, and the unsettling subsequent covert response. The reader walks away recognizing that a woman as intelligent and as well-connected as Gilbert can still be stonewalled by "the system", and leaves the rest of us wondering what our chances are. Even with this, the reader is in complete empathy with Gilbert and her family, and the obstacles that they faced in seeking the truth.