Man falls off xray table and is now paralyzed

Deffenbaugh founder sues hospital over paralysis
By DAN MARGOLIES
The Kansas City Star

Ronald Deffenbaugh, founder of the region’s largest waste removal business, has sued Shawnee Mission Medical Center over an incident at the hospital in June that allegedly left him a quadriplegic.

The lawsuit, filed in Johnson County District Court Tuesday, seeks unspecified damages for negligence. It was filed just weeks after Deffenbaugh sold his business to a New York firm in a transaction valued at more than $300 million.

The suit alleges that Deffenbaugh was left sedated, improperly restrained and unattended on an X-ray table. It says that he fell off the table and broke his neck, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down.

“You certainly wonder in this day and age how, in a major hospital setting, this could take place,” said Deffenbaugh’s attorney, Jim Bartimus of Bartimus Frickleton Robertson & Gorny in Leawood.

more . . . http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/446432.html

Shit happens, I mean it. Peace

if this was not such a high profile member of the community, if we would hear (ala media coverage) about this story.

This family is in the local news a lot.

in the quality control movement in the medical community. The idea is to open the books, so to speak, on when things don't go right (and to create measurements and reporting methods to record these things) in order to regularly identify and address gaps in safe procedures at hospitals. Needless to say there is some resistance to this work. And it is all internal (no public release of findings).

from an infection she got from an injection with a dirty needle.

Made me a believer.

When even the very rich can't escape the effects, are they finally going to acknowledge that we have a major problem with our health care system?

Humans are imperfect, expect computer errors.:shrug:

allege he was drunk when he fell off the table.

first, that makes no sense.

:rofl:

Most US hospitals are in the same league - you don't want to see what's going on. Stupid things happen all of the time, ranging from people not getting the right medication to the wrong hip getting replaced. The key is to have solid, easy-to-follow and well-enforced procedures. Most US hospitals do not have these.

:hug:

Supervisors are expected to keep their depts lean. There should have been someone staying with him while he underwent any testing since he was sedated, and he should have been retrained while undergoing the actual test.

Nurses are complaining about the risks to patient safety from understaffing, but hospitals would rather save a few bucks in payroll and than have to deal with massive lawsuits for the problems it creates.

The patient was supposed to be sedated so the XRay Tech was NOT negligent in believing that the patient was safe. It was up to the nurse and/or physician to determine the level of consciousness of the patient before making the decision to leave that patient alone. In theory, this patient should have had someone with him.

Make no mistake, corporation involvement in hospital care can and will continue to kill and injure people.

I remember the days when they figured staffing on patient acuity instead of figuring it on a head count. A patient that is confused and combative is not the same as a "walkie-talkie" and requires more care and more attention. However, a nurse is generally handed 6-7-8 patients without regard to the condition of the said patients. Factor in that insurance companies do not allow people to get well before they kick them out...then you can pretty much guarantee that the remaining patients are all pretty sick so that is going to be a heavy load no matter how you cut it.

But, the one thing you cannot ever factor in is what the patient will do. I remember quite a few years ago a patient...He was ex-WW II vet who had his leg blown off during the war and wore a prosthetic leg. He was a very tall man--6 ft 5 inches. Anyway, he came into our unit for observation of possible stroke. He was able to walk and talk. No deficits. Really honestly didn't belong there but he insisted that the Doc admit him and the doc appeased him. Anyway, hospital beds are not made for men that big. He took his leg prosthesis off and when he put his good leg on the floor to thrust himself into bed, he overshot and went off the other side, breaking his neck. Unfortunately, he was one of those cases that despite everything, anything that could go wrong, did. There was no amount of intervention on the part of the medical staff that could have prevented this unfortunate accident. Sometimes shit just happens despite the best care available.

It sure sounds bizarre. Thanks for your perspective.

You rarely end up being seen by a doctor, yet from the time you step through the door it's all about $$$...pay up now! ...how's about $85 for this semi-retarded college student to half-ass diagnose you in less than ten seconds? Sound fair? ...pay up! What a racket.

"retarded" as a pejorative term is about as PC as "gay".

The economy is in midfall about to hit the floor.

he would have been laughed out of the room.

:eyes:
rocknation

We were often called on to stand beside an x-ray table if the tech had to leave the room momentarily and there was a patient on the table. We never left the patient on the table alone...NEVER!!!