Woman gives birth; doctors cut off all her limbs by mistake

[Ecthy]

But Winston, she can't hold her baby because of the evil people in charge of the hospital!

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Asher
What she doesn't know is how she got streptococcus. So she's been demanding to know who else had streptococcus in the hospital, which the hospital is saying is privledged information they cannot give up unless subpoenaed.

There appears to be no "mistake" here, that was your fabrication in the title.

Beg your pardon, but the Previous quote seems to say to me, quite clearly, that she went into surgery and was surprised to find all of her limbs chopped off. Which can mean one of several things:

• She went into an unrelated surgery and the hospital accidently chopped her limbs off
• She went into surgery for streptococcus expecting minor work or one or two limbs to be removed and finding all four gone. This begs to ask: Did the Hospital get Family member consent when/if they discovered additional problems in surgery?
• The Hospital out and out lied to her when she went into surgery. This falls under the realm of "not very realistic"
• She, and her family are either lying or concealing one whopper of a piece of the puzzle.

I'm inclined to think that option "2" occurred, and the hospital didn't get her/family consent in the process. I wonder how the diagnostic process goes then, if she goes into surgery with the intent of having (relatively) minor work done and something so bad is discovered that all the limbs and arms have to come off now.


Hopefully Dr. Strangelove will be by to set me straight (which is half the reason I made this thread.)

[Ecthy]

What I'd like to know is, how can it be that the streptococcus appeared in all 4 limbs at once. But then maybe that's just where it starts reproducing.

[Odin]

WTF?

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Ecthy
What I'd like to know is, how can it be that the streptococcus appeared in all 4 limbs at once. But then maybe that's just where it starts reproducing.

I'd believe that...but only if the Torso was infected as well. Otherwise it sounds sketchy to me. Like I said, hopefully Dr. Strangelove will be by to clarify matters.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Lonestar
Beg your pardon, but the Previous quote seems to say to me, quite clearly, that she went into surgery and was surprised to find all of her limbs chopped off. Which can mean one of several things:

1) She was under general anesthetic and groggy and confused when she awoke
2) It adds drama to her emotional case to get money out of a civil case

I'll take option 2 as well.

[Asher]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-flesh2106jan21,0,7773695.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-seminole

Two days later, though, her condition turned critical. She was moved to intensive care. Soon after, doctors performed a hysterectomy.

A few days later, they transferred her to Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando.

According to her medical records, Mejia suffered not just the infection -- she went into shock, and her kidneys began to shut down. Gangrene set in.

Twelve days after she gave birth, doctors amputated her arms and legs.

"They gave her a choice of either dying or getting her limbs amputated," said her husband, a manager at Target in Lake Mary.

As I suspected, this thread is bull****.

It was not a mistake, it was an infection. She was given the choice to amputate or not, she was not confused and it was not done without her permission.

Local American TV stations.
Gullible Americans.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Asher

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-flesh2106jan21,0,7773695.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-seminole

As I suspected, this thread is bull****.

It was not a mistake, it was an infection. She was given the choice to amputate or not, she was not confused and it was not done without her permission.

Local American TV stations.
Gullible Americans.

Well...I seem to have been had.

[Dr Strangelove]

I've got no idea. It's possible that she developed the infection during birth, They may have performed an episiotomy to ease the last stages. Streptococci introduced into the wound multiplied rapidly and overwhelmed her bodies defense systems.

I've never heard of someone have all four limbs amputated in response to toxic shock. If someone had a severe streptococcal infection of one limb, they might have to amputate it to keep it from spreading, but if it had spread to all four I'd think that it would have been too late. It's possible that she might have developed ischemia of the limbs secondary to vasoconstrictive toxins released by the bacteria. I've heard of people losing fingers just from the toxic effect. Perhaps if this were an espcecially severe case tissue death in the limbs was already too extensive to salvage the limbs, but I'd think that she would have known that her limbs were turning dusky and cold and that they would have discussed their plans with her. I suppose it's possible that she was too far out of it to know what was happening, and perhaps no adult family members were around for the doctors to talk to. She may indeed be lucky to be alive. I've lost patients to infections acquired while giving birth.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I'm by no means an expert here, but doesn't someone have to sign a consent form going into these things? I can't imagine the doctors spontaneously decided to lop off all four limbs in the ER. So either someone -- the patient, presumedly -- signed a consent form; or someone -- again, the patient, presumedly -- was lied to about the nature of the operation; or some idiot surgeon screwed up. That question, at least, should be easy enough to answer.

Edit: And I see Asher answered it already. Never mind.

[Winston]

"They gave her a choice of either dying or getting her limbs amputated," said her husband, a manager at Target in Lake Mary.

So she consented to the procedure herself.

I'm now tempted to use the b-word for her, in spite of her unfortunate situation.

[Mao]

Is it possible that she got the infection from someone at the hospital? Would that qualify as negligence? Is that enough of a basis for a lawsuit?

[Winston]

Originally posted by Mao
Is it possible that she got the infection from someone at the hospital?

I think that's a given.

Would that qualify as negligence? Is that enough of a basis for a lawsuit?

Not here, unless there were some special circumstance under which the hospital personnel acted with gross negligence. It might be different in the U.S., but I doubt it. Presumably, that's why this woman tried to twist the facts - to put it nicely - about the consent she gave, so they seemed more favourable to her "case".

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Winston

I think that's a given.

I don't see how that's a given; while the article doesn't say which species of streptococcus it was, the bacteria could have been among the normal flora present in her body and then introduced to the bloodstream by vaginal abrasion during childbirth. For all we know it was already in her bloodstream beforehand and the stress of labour weakened her immune system just enough to let it get out of control.

[Winston]

I still think it is. You hardly ever hear of this type of infection occurring outside hospitals.