Do I have a case for medical negligence?

I’ll try to stick to just the facts and I’ll try to be brief but I have to cover a lot. If anything is unclear, I’ll answer any questions that you ask.

Location: Oregon

---

Symptoms: Complete watery diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, burning cramps in my stomach, can’t keep down any food other than saltines or any liquids other than water. Symptoms probably started before March 15th of this year, but I say that’s the earliest day I remember being sick because I had an appointment that day that I didn’t make it to because I was too sick.

• I had to go to the ER three times before the hospital admitted me. I was kept one day and then sent home again and told to come back in two weeks for a colonoscopy. First ER visit was the 25th of March. I waited ten days to see if it was just a stomach bug but eventually, I decided to go to the ER after a pretty bad afternoon of vomiting and diarrhea. The reason I waited so long is because I live in a very rural community and the nearest hospital is 100 miles away. Things aren’t that bad financially, but it’s tight enough that we don’t make that trip without a purpose.

• After the second ER visit, they diagnose me with norovirus, after I drop off a stool sample. They tried to get one at my second ER visit, but for some reason I couldn’t go. I asked for laxatives or an enema or anything they could give me to speed up the process, they said no. So, they sent me home again.

• I make a 4th visit to the ER. Remember first visit was the 25th of March. This visit was the 10th of April. There was also the trip to drop off my stool sample, so five trips in all. Each time I went, the symptoms had gotten worse. Things were very bad by the 4th visit. The ER doctor gave me a prescription for Pepcid and her exact words were “Yeah, I think you’re pretty much good to go home.” At this point I ask to speak to a patient care liaison. I explain the situation to her, with some outside factors, the key one being I live 100 miles away and this is the nearest hospital. I cannot afford to keep making trips back here. The liaison gets me admitted.

• I spend 29 days at the hospital. I was diagnosed with norovirus, h pylori and Crohn’s disease. I experienced a lot of what I feel can be fairly described as “pain and suffering” during this time. I am not lying when I say this: If I wasn’t already losing my hair before I went in there, I would be now. I have text messages between me and my mom where I am losing my mind and scaring the crap out of her because I’m saying very irrational things like “I’d rather come home and die than be here.” and then trying to justify it on top of that. Things got that bad. I also had some bad experiences, several with one particular hospitalist and one with a nurse. Bad enough that I considered checking out against medical advice just so I could go home. I can go into detail, but I’m trying not to make the post so long nobody reads it lol. I also tried to get a different doctor and transfer to a different hospital, but both requests were denied. I was just told by a nurse “You can’t do that, it doesn’t work like that.”

* I am better now. I probably came home a few days too early because I was still in pain for the first four days at home, but as of this moment I am pain free. Sometimes there is pain, but none of the burning cramps, just rumbling and grumbling from my stomach and some bowel problems, but I won’t be gross and give you any further details. I was given 16 prescriptions, and I have been following the medication instructions on my discharge paperwork to a T. However, there are some other problems. I’ve been having nightmares since I got home, and I’ve been having trouble sleeping. I’ve also been afraid to leave the house, or leave the property anyway, I still walk around outside in my yard. I postponed two follow up appointments by a week. One of the appointments was right nearby the hospital and the main reason I postponed was because I was afraid that I’d get there and they’d tell me I needed to be admitted again. The other one I was just too anxious to leave home.

I don’t know anything about lawsuits of any sort. My ignorant, uneducated opinion? I don’t have a case, right? Because they fixed me?

But I’ve been told by my family that I have a case, specifically because they turned me away three times and would’ve done it a fourth time too if I hadn’t asked for a liaison. They tell me I should at least look into it.

But I want your opinions, mostly because the entire situation makes me anxious and I don’t know what to think about it. So please, weigh in. Your opinions will decide whether or not I call a law office on Monday.