Its2boyz4me

I just wanted to say THANK YOU again to all that made a donation to my family after my dad died. You may or may not know that we used all the donations towards his headstone. The headstone was set yesterday and I wanted to share it with all of you who made it possible. Again, Thank You for all the support you gave to my family and I thru that terrible time. Love to you ALL.

Christy

Christy's right, don't ever go to a small hospital unless you're in the middle of frickin no where, at least for trauma that is! Go to Las Vegas (UMC or Sunrise both do a good job with trauma). Take an ambulance when in doubt, even if you have to wait...bad things can happen during that drive in. In Christy's case this would have not mattered, the staff in the ER had more than enough time and warning signs to treat appropriately! Anything we can do to help, Christy, let us know.

Greg & Julia

Greg you are right about the "ride to the hospital", we were worried about issues with the ride, he about passed out 4 or 5 times just getting out of Dumont trying to get to the paved road and that's why we went to Parhump instead of heading home ( home would have been at least a 2 1/2 hour ride safely ). We just wanted to get those drugs to make him comfortable. Again thanks for all the nice words everyone has sent our way.

Christy

Wow, first off I would like to say how sorry I am to hear about Christy's and her family's loss. The medical issues in the Vegas valley area are some of the worst case in the country. I know a nurse that works at Pahrumps hospital (part-time) and never heard her say anything bad about the docs (doesn't mean it can't happen). But, she has told me about numerous cases of the Paramedics there being very incompetent.

I have been involved in EMS/ER Nursing for over 25 years. I worked in Pennsylvania, Texas and now Nevada. This is the worst area I have seen. This is also the fastest growing area in the country. Be advised that anything I say is in no way an excuse for poor health care or someone not doing their job to fullest. My wife and I both work in busy ER's. We've seen it all from dead babies to mutilated trauma victims. Also we are constantly abused and taken advantage of from the misfits of society (homeless who fake chest pain just to get a 3 day stay, drug abusers who punch and kick and spit at us, my wife and I have had our lives treatened more times than anyone would believe). You've heard of the 6-12 hour waits in the ER to see a doctor.....well, it's just going to get worse, and swearing and treatening the triage nurse isn't going to get you seen any faster. We don't have any open beds!!! We have people who are admitted to the hospital and have to be kept in the ER for days, Too many people -not enough hospital personnel! 8 Thousand people move here a month! Las vegas area doesn't even come close compared to Cal. in pay. Traveling nurses come here and find out they have to take care of ICU patients in the ER and they walk out the same day. It's not like this in most parts of the country! The burn out rate here is incredible!

Nove of this is any excuse for poor diagnosis. But as someone mentioned getting a good doctor is hit and miss! I personnaly know more good doctors than bad. Insurance company's have played a huge role in this. Many dictate what tests they deem are truely neccessary and what aren't (arm chair quarterback/what they will and what they won't pay for). Of course management comes down on the doctors who order "excessive tests" and they get hit from both sides. These physicians have to walk a fine line in doing what is right (and not getting sued from a misdiagnosis) to having upper management coming down on them and losing their positions......yes we have bills and families too.

Don't know what the answer is, but local government needs to be more procative with healthcare and less with casionos (but hospital don't make money for politicians!). So there you go.

Christy, I think the doctor who misdiagmosed your father should be investigated. Did he order a CAT scan? X-rays will not show internal bleeding. Somethings cannot be seen in the first few hours or even the first day, even with x-rays or CT's. In those cases we either admit (24 hours), if we have a high level of suspician, or we have the patient follow-up the next day.....4 days seems like a long time for this type of injury. Alot of times it's a subjective thing...you have to go by prior experineces/gut feeling, not everything in life is black and white. Remember doctors and nurses are human beings and it's not easy to be perfect 100% of the time. I haven't meet a perfect human being yet. The majority of health care workers really care and want to do their best! This is a very difficult job and if you aren't a person who cares about other people, you won't last long!

Lastly, I want to again say sorry to Christy for the loss of her father. Let's hope we never hear about a story like this again!

To THE BOMB....please see your inbox for a long letter of explanation

So you all know they didn't do anything except a few x-rays of his ribs and shoulders. The didn't do any other body exams even though on his intake sheet states his whole left side is hurting. They didn't even write down all his meds except that he was on blood thinners. My father was also a diabetic and had high blood pressure. His first vitals were 115/53 with a pulse of 81 and his discharge vitals were 103/47 with a pulse of 99....and they thought this was stable how? I do not know. They even called on Monday, the day after he died, and they were quite "put out" for having to call and see if something happened to him and after I told him he had died last night, the lady's exact words were " OH OK, the coroners office had just called and we can't release without your consent so do you consent to the release of his records?" YES these were her exact words. Wanted to kill the DAM lady, she knew he had passed and wanted me to explain to her that he was dead

To you again that think people are bashing here......this is why, when a Dr allows things like this to happen and then the staff is heartless when they call a family that has lost a family member in this matter. They need to have a reality check and make sure they aren't careless with someone else's life again.

And once again to all that have posted kind words, THANK YOU.

Christy

I heard that many of the Docs in the Pahrump hospital are ones that rotate back and forth between there and the Vegas hospitals. Moral of the story is you can get bad service anywhere.

A good lesson to take away from this is not totally just "stay away from Pahrump" but to seek out a 2nd opinion as soon as you get back to your family doc or to another medical facility you're comfortable with after any appreciable accident.

Also, I agree 100% with Ross' comment above, there's absolutely zero excuse for not completely examining patients with impact injuries. Terry should not be dead today, he had a ruptured spleen from his fall that was on the x-rays and they missed it.....again, zero excuse for that.

You are exactly right about the 2nd opinion. That was our plan on Monday to see his regular Dr. (The hospital said to follow-up in 4 days which would have been Tues). We didn't obtain any other opinion prior because we thought all the syptoms Terry was having was from so many broken bones. We never thought he was bleeding inside and going to die from all this. You expect when you obtain professional help that they are thorough but my family has learned the hard way.

I know a few of you felt that others were bashing this hopsital and some took offense to it, but from the stories everyone has posted here....it appears that there are some serious issues with this hospital that need to be investigated. We all know that were are problems in any job field, but when someone is careless with someone elses life when that person trusted them...that's just not right!

Again I want to THANK ALL OF YOU that have taken the time to post a thought for my family, it was nice to see all the things people wrote.

Take Care and enjoy your Holiday, you never know what might happen.

Christy

I just want to Thank ALL of you personally from the bottom of my heart for the kind words you all have given me and my family in the loss of my dad Terry. It's been comforting known that perfect strangers out there have taken the time out of their day to write a few words.

Please know for anyone that had made a donation....you are wonderful and we are going to use the money for his headstone and give him the most Unique and Awesome headstone anyone has ever had, he deserves that.

Again Thank you, the kind words really do help in a time like this.

Christy

Where were you guys when they told me to take my dad to Parump. My name is Christy and it's my dad Terry that everyone is talking of. My dad was a humble man and refused the Ambulance because he felt others might need it, had he chosen that maybe he would still be here today. First let me THANK ALL OF YOU for the kind words you have posted here on your site. It's nice to know that strangers who all participate in our favorite past time care about others.

Since Friday evening my family and I have been on a terrible ride. My dad was an AWESOME man that didn't deserve to die the way he did. You are taught to believe in what you are told when you visit a Medical facility and we have learned that that is not always true. I just got off the phone with the lead Coroner a few mintues agao and he confirmed that my fathers accident was indeed going to be ruled an accident, that the lacerated spleen and bleeding of the stomach lining was over looked in the accident and should have been found. His exact words were, "it's an awlful accident (the death) of an accident (them over looking things)." The sad part about all this is that my dad was on blood thinners and just for that should have never been released and then to have a broekn collar bone and 5 broken ribs....what were they thinking! Their follow-up care was to see the family doctor in 4 days, he died almost exactly 48 hrs after his accident. I am one that has always handled things and make sure things were right and it's killing me that I let this get by. I can't bring my dad back but you sure can bet I'll make things right and not let another family have to deal with this terrible tradgey that we are experiencing.

Again thanks from the bottom of my heart for the thoughts and prayers, it means alot to us.

Christy