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Milwaukee Children's Hospital
Posted on March 19th 2009
What some patients consider to be an example of negligence, substandard care and suffering from damages.
Timeline - Dec 2007 through end February 2008
Patient - 15 year old male.
♦ 1) - If prior to the antibiotic stage a second blood culture had been taken it might have negated the leak phase by timely surgical intervention.
♦ 2) - The cessation of Coumadin intake, without even a Heparin cover, was not done with any advice from a hematologist and so predicated clot formation and the stroke. Furthermore, the last surgery, by utilizing a homograft, means the patient will have to have a further (third) major cardiac surgery in as little as seven years.
Following installation 2 weeks prior of a mechanical aortic valve and aortic graft an ascending aorta enlargement lead to surgical intervention to replace the valve and graft. A few weeks later the heart's right ventricle had collapsed and a major pericardial effusion had to be drained. A brief return to school showed extreme fatigue and a blood test showed very low haemoglobin - iron supplement was given. Two weeks later pectoral chest pain and intermittent fever led to re-admission. A short period of antibiotics was administered to treat a suspected Staph' infection (prior to obtaining a second culture and rendering additional culture results (negative) suspect) but was soon stopped when contamination of blood culture became obvious. A pleural effusion developed necessitating a drain tube and drainage, this being many days after cessation of administering Coumadin anti clotting agent.
Valium was prescribed as a "comfort" measure. Eratic movement and slurring of speech occurred. Initially this was thought to be a side effect of the Valium. Several days passed before a neurology consult was brought in. A MRI showed evidence of a stroke with clots in three places. Possible clot also on aortic valve. Echocardiogram showed a leak causing a false aneurysm and so more surgery was undertaken to replace the artificial valve and aorta with a human origin graft. Follow-up assessments showed reasonable recovery short term.
If you have a documented experience of what you consider to be negligence or sub standard care, or know of one, please contact Aaron Zelman at or go to our Report Form Page for all reporting options.