Location: Wisconsin(WI). Hello, I’ll include all the details in case anything is relevant. It’s long. Last Wednesday 7/16, my father called me saying he was having severe chest pains and shortness of breath. He was scared he was having a heart attack. He didn’t want to call 911 on his own so I came to him and called 911 for him. He was taken to the ER. They did several blood tests and chest x-rays on him. They said his x-rays showed no signs of a heart attack and the 3 enzymes they check for a heart attack were fine and wanted to discharge him. He was very weak, could not stand on his own, had difficulty breathing, and still had lingering pain. I asked to have him admitted which the ER eventually capitulated to. We stayed overnight in a regular hospital room where he continued to deteriorate. His breathing got more and more difficult by the hour and by the morning of Thursday 7/17 he was so weak he could only squeak out a quiet word at a time. I had rang nurses several times through the night to point out how he was getting worse and no one took it seriously or did anything to help. At 2:30am they said they were going to run another set of labs on him but by 6am no one had come in yet. When I got a nurse in at 6:15am to ask about the set of labs, I was told they were scheduled to be taken at 6:30am. I don’t know why they’d wait for 4 hours to do labs when I told them multiple times he’s getting worse and worse.
Around 8:45am on Thursday 7/17 his vitals started dropping quick. They decided they needed to take him to the ICU right away and intubate. A team of 15 worked on him in the ICU for over an hour to stabilize him. Once stable, they took him for a CT scan where they discovered he had a perforation somewhere in his digestive system. An hour later he was in the OR where they pinpointed it was a perforated gastric ulcer in his duodenum. They removed 2.5 litters from his abdomen. He’s been in the ICU since last Thursday morning and is still intubated as of now. Currently they are focusing on his kidneys which have been struggling which has lead to fluid build up through his body.
Now this morning, Monday 7/21, they discovered maggots were growing in his mouth which has been open since Thursday due to the ventilator. The nurse openly told my brother she’s never heard of this happening before. I know over the last several days they’ve said they have been doing oral care on my father. I’ve been there quite a bit during the day and have only seen it happen myself once or twice. My question is could we have a malpractice situation on our hands with either his care (or lack there of) before he was rushed to the ICU on Thursday 7/17 or the discovery of maggots in his mouth this morning, Monday 7/21?
Comments
First of all, I’m really sorry to hear that you’re going through that. Having family in the ICU can be incredibly stressful and emotional breaking.
It is not pleasant, certainly, but malpractice is a tort in which a patient or their family sues for some harm that was proximately caused by a medical professional’s violation of a duty of care. It isn’t clear that the maggots were caused by anything the medical staff did or didn’t do if they’re doing oral care twice per day.
If it was demonstrated that the maggots were proximately caused by some negligence on the doctor’s part, a jury would need to assess what damage was actually done.
It sounds like your dad’s issues are the perforated duodenam and other serious health concerns that he had before he came to the hospital. Unless the maggots caused serious damage or complications, he probably wouldn’t be in a position to recover much.
IANAL. Medical malpractice is exceptionally specific, you would need to consult with a medical malpractice attorney to discuss the merits of a case with them.
Keep fighting for him anyway you can and make sure a family member or a trusted loved one is with him as much as possible at any given point.
I wish I could give you more legally sound advice but I can’t. Stay strong!
They need to rid the ICU of flies!
Edit: IANAL, but I am a hospital social worker.
I’m sorry to hear about your father – it’s never something we anticipate ❤️
I would recommend filing a complaint with the Wisconsin Dept of Public Health. Usually, a social worker at the hospital can connect you. They are a 3rd party investigator (not affiliated with the hospital) and will look into your father’s admission, treatment, etc and get back to you regarding their findings (hopefully so, this is how it works in California). From there, you can use that information to bring to lawyers to see what type of case you may have.
Best of luck and hoping for a successful recovery for your father!
As awful as it sounds get pictures of the developmental stage of the maggots. Request them if the maggots have been removed. Fly eggs hatch in a day or two. In warm wet conditions maggots can turn into flies in 5 days. It is possible that this happened at the hospital. (Sorry forensics type job). You may need to refer to the pics at a later date to determine when the eggs were laid if something comes up. It’s better to have more information rather than lose that chance to have it. I’m sorry you’re going through this.
I don’t know anything about medical malpractice, but I would 100%
There is absolutely no reason for maggots to be anyone in a hospital, period. I can’t imagine what other disgusting things are going on there if they are allowing maggots to grow in a patients mouth.