[The most appalling thing about the needless death of this Kaiser member — who suffocated and died due to a severe allergic reaction to an antibiotic — is that the Kaiser doctor and nurses that were present didn’t know what to do to save her. They called 911 instead, and the patient wasn’t given what should have been a life-saving shot of epinephrine until she was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, when it was too late. Let that sink in for a minute. She was in the doctor’s office, where presumably the drug that could have saved her life was sitting in a cabinet nearby — if only they had used it — but they didn’t and she died. With no medical training whatsoever, even we know that epinephrine should be administered for severe anaphylactic reactions, and that time is of the essence. The EMTs in the ambulance certainly knew it. Everyone knew it but the health care “professionals” at Kaiser. Be very afraid.]
From the Maryland Daily Record:
Family: Death from drug allergy was preventable
BRENDAN KEARNEY
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer
The family of a Temple Hills woman who suffocated after receiving an antibiotic at a Kaiser Permanente facility has filed a claim against her doctor and health plan, alleging they failed to recognize and treat her allergic reaction to the drug.
According to the filing, Laverne Williams, 54, had trouble breathing immediately after receiving intravenous Rocephin at Kaiser’s Camp Springs Medical Center.
“You don’t go to Kaiser to die,” said Christian A. Lodowski, the plaintiffs’ lawyer. “Mrs. Williams relied upon the wrong people to do the right thing. Kaiser just blew it.”
Williams, a retired federal government worker, sought treatment for urinary tract problems at the center on the evening of Dec. 11, 2006.
According to the claim filed this week with the Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office, Dr. Sharada Jain prescribed the intravenous Rocephin.
When Williams became unresponsive, Jain and the nurses stopped the intravenous drug and administered oxygen therapy, then cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillation, according to medical records.
But they never gave her epinephrine, “the definitive treatment” for anaphylaxis, which they should have had close at hand, the claim states.
“Sadly, over the next several minutes the Health Care Providers stood by while Decedent suffocated and became brain dead right before them,” the claim says.
Lodowski said the case is the worst his medical expert has seen in 20 years.
“For that doctor to not think and do something is just so far below the standard,” Lodowski said.
Lodowski is representing Williams’ husband and two adult children in the claim against Jain, a family practitioner, and the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States Inc., the nonprofit health plan component of Kaiser Permanente.
Lodowski said he plans to waive arbitration and file the claim as a lawsuit in Prince George’s County Circuit Court next week.
Amy Goodwin, a spokeswoman for Kaiser Permanente, said the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act prevents her from speaking about the specifics of the incident.
“This is an unforeseeable event,” Goodwin said. “We would like to comment on the medical facts of this claim but we are prohibited by federal privacy regulations. When the truth comes out in the court of law, it will show that we delivered excellent care.”
Williams had been given Rocephin during previous visits to the facility and had no known allergies, according to the medical records. But reactions can occur on second or third exposure, Lodowski said.
“You have to take patients as they come,” he said.
Kaiser’s policy is to call 911 right away if something happens at one of the doctor’s/medical offices. It’s a good policy for a lot of reasons but it doesn’t mean the nurses and doctors can sit back and relax after they call 911! Most Kaiser doctor’s offices normally have epi vials in their small med fridges since it is often used. Why this office didn’t have it — or if they did, why it wasn’t used — is a very troubling question.
How can you explain this to that poor woman’s family? Horrifying.
Either way (whether they didn’t have it, or had it and didn’t use it) it is negligence, because there is no possible acceptable excuse for not being prepared to handle an allergic drug reaction, which happens in doctor’s offices all the time.
But will they apologize and willingly make restitution? Of course not. They will lie, mutilate medical records, smear and blame the patient, and re-victimize the family every step of the way. They’re already starting with remarks like this:
Excuse me, but did you give the woman a shot of epinephrine? No? Then you didn’t deliver excellent care, Kaiser spokesliar. Period.
Excellent care??? Yeah right. If that is excellent care I would hate to see what awful care looks like. I am not at all surprised by this. The comments that the plaintiffs lawyer made sound very much like my own comments over the past few years. Strange, how seemingly treatable situations happen at kaiser with the result being death.
It almost looks like the motivation is to “kill” the patient not “treat” the patient.
?You don?t go to Kaiser to die,? said Christian A. Lodowski, the plaintiffs? lawyer. ?Mrs. Williams relied upon the wrong people to do the right thing. Kaiser just blew it.?
Yep. My experience EXACTLY.
What is the definition of manslaughter?
hmmm… Indifference, that sounds oddly familiar.
Negligence rises to the level of criminal negligence where the conduct reaches a higher degree of carelessness or inattention, perhaps to the point of indifference.
Involuntary manslaughter
Involuntary manslaughter, sometimes called criminally negligent homicide in the United States, gross negligence manslaughter in the UK or culpable homicide in Scotland, occurs where there is no intention to kill or cause serious injury but death is due to recklessness or criminal negligence.
Criminal negligence
Negligence consists of conduct by an individual which is not reasonable ? that is, the individual did not act with the care and caution of a reasonable person in similar circumstances. This “reasonable person” is an abstraction, reflecting the standard of conduct which society wishes to impose. Violation of this standard may lead to civil liability for the consequences of the negligent behavior.
Negligence rises to the level of criminal negligence where the conduct reaches a higher degree of carelessness or inattention, perhaps to the point of indifference.
BECAUSE I WORK FOR KAISER, I AM MOST UNFORTUNATELY NOT SURPRISED AT WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS POOR WOMAN. SHE WAS KILLED AT ONE OF KAISER’S “AFTER HOURS CARE” ALSO CALLED “URGENT CARE(LESS)” FACILITIES. THE M.D.’S WHO WORK IN THESE PLACES ARE OFTEN EMPLOYED IN NON-CLINICAL JOBS BY DAY AND MOONLGHT FOR KAISER IN THE EVENINGS TO MAKE EXTRA MONEY. FOR THIS REASON, IT IS SURPRISING THAT PEOPLE ACTUALLY SURVIVE THEIR EXPERIENCE AT AFTER HOURS CARE. THIS MAY BE WHY DR. JAIN DID NOT ADMINISTER EPINEPHRINE OR EVEN RECOGNIZE WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO THE PATIENT. I WOULD BET IT WAS ONE OF THE NURSES WHO CALLED 911 WHILE THE GOOD DOCTOR IGNORED WHAT WAS HAPPENING. IN ADDITION TO THIS, I READ AN ARTICLE ON THIS WEBSITE NOT LONG AGO THAT POINTS OUT ANOTHER AREA OF CONCERN WHICH ALSO MAY VERY WELL HAVE SIGNIFICANT BEARING ON WHAT HAPPENED TO MRS. WILLIAMS. THE DOCTOR INVOLVED WITH HER CARE IS CLEARLY FROM INDIA OR ANOTHER COUNTRY IN THAT GENERAL AREA. KAISER LOVES TO RECRUIT DOCTORS FROM UNDER DEVELOPED COUNTRIES BECAUSE THEY ARE EASY TO “KAISERIZE”. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY ARE MALLEABLE AND NOT ATTUNED TO THE HIGH STANDARD OF MEDICAL CARE AMERICANS EXPECT. THEY ARE ALSO EASY TO BRAINWASH BY TELLING THEM THAT THE MORE PATIENTS THEY DO NOT SEND TO THE HOSPITAL OR EMERGENCY ROOM, THE MONEY THEY GET AS BONUSES (KICKBACKS). THIS MAY HAVE BEEN ANOTHER CONTRIBUTING FACTOR TO THIS AWFUL OUTCOME.
IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, KAISER SHOULD JUST SIGN THE CHECK AND LEAVE THE AMOUNT BLANK.
I WORK FOR KAISER AND YOU COULDN’T PAY ME TO ACCEPT IT AS MY HEALTH CARE PROVIDER !!! THE REASON I CONTINUE TO WORK FOR THIS SHIP OF FOOLS IS THAT I WANT TO DO THE BEST I CAN TO HELP THESE UNFORTUNATE PEOPLE.
Junie, I personally want to say Thank You to you. I wish more people at Kaiser would come forward and do the right thing. It is really, really sad and unfortunate for all kaiser victims that we have all innocently gone to kaiser expecting them to do the right thing and putting our lives in their hands. It is truly criminal the way they run their sinking ship. It is the victims who have to go on and live a lifetime of sorrow and regret. REGRET for ever having step foot in kaiser.
My baby’s father worked at Kaiser too and you couldn’t pay him now to go to kaiser for “care.”
I read this with my usual sense of doom and gloom and wonder how long this practice of charging for services they are neither qualified nor inclined to provide will be allowed to continue.
As Beth said above, the weather report in Hell will be frosty cold whenever I or anyone I care about will step foot inside a Kaiser facility, unless it includes a giant sign saying “Run for your Lives”. The old adage “who do I have to sleep with to get away with this?” rings true to me with good ole Kaiser P?
How can people still go there? Truly how do they stay in business–except for the very generous tax credits they receive as a non-profit? This is a crime. Pure and simple–Kaiser continually (and literally) “gets away with murder”.
It is just not right.
My cousin also died from the incompetent doc’s at Kaiser. She had gastric bypass sergery and there were complications after her doctor failed to do a simple dye test to double check that her staples wern’t leaking (which they were.) Her stomach acid ended up causing a massive infection in her abdomen which they were constantly cleaning. Every time they sewed her up it became infected again and they would have to reopen it, so eventually they just left her cut open in order to access the infection easier. Then, they took her of antibiotics, while her wound was still open and exposed and she died of a massive staph infection. Her doctor tried to cover his ass by telling us she died of severe blood clots and he even went so far as to cancel the autopsy on her, forcing my family to request one which meant we had to pay for it when it is supposed to be free.
Dear Marina,
I am so very sorry for your loss.
Your cousin deserved much better care.
I worked in a hospital where there were a few incompetent Physicians (the hospital I worked for fired those “doctors” however the medical boards did not take their licenses…..i have to wonder if they now work at Kaiser).
From my experience, whenever a “Doctor” tries to talk a family out of getting an autopsy it means they are *fully aware* of what they have done and are attempting to cover it up.
I am glad you and your family decided not to follow this murderer’s independent decision to cancel the autopsy.
God Bless You and Your Family….
Wow I am so glad I found this website. After years of complaining of headache and neck pain I begged for further testing at Kaiser. They agreed to an MRI and found part of my brain in herniating 7mm out of my skull into the spinal canal. They refuse to give it a diganosis or do anything. It actually has a name and treatment option from accredited reseach. But I was told this does not have symptoms and there is not treatment for it. I been to several Family practice doctors and the last one said my problem is emotional issues. Emotinal issues I am suffering everyday and you will not direct me to a specialist. I filed a grievance but was denied. I am now paying out of pocket until I can switch insurance plans
April, you can file a complaint with the Department of Managed Health Care and request an Independent Medical Review.