Negligent Surgery @ Tacoma General - Potential Lawsuit

We are in the process of looking for an Attorney who specializes in Malpractice lawsuits for a Negligent Surgery that was performed at Tacoma General. Please read below and if you are a Lawyer or know someone who may be able to help, please contact us as soon as possible.

 

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My wife was transferred to Tacoma General Hospital due to severe lower abdominal pain which was later diagnosed as a form of inflammation related to Lupus, a previously known condition. She was diagnosed with Lupus, Fibro Myalgia, and Sjogren's syndrome 10 years ago and all this information was ignored upon being transferred to the hospital. The surgeon was called before we got to the hospital and they were preparing for an appendectomy and some form of "exploratory surgery". When she first arrived they performed a CT scan and some form of lab work which should have indicated inflammation. All this information was bypassed and the Appendix was removed even though it was not the cause. Before they were going to take her to the surgery room I pulled the surgeon aside and asked very specifically if this could any way be part of the Lupus. She assured me that it was "very unlikely". The surgeon also told me that they would not remove the appendix unless it was the cause of the pain that she was experiencing. In the end the surgery did nothing but show what could have been determined through tests and delayed the treatment and put her at huge risk. It has now been 5 months since the surgery and my wife has been experiencing daily pain on her upper abdomen, a symptom of which we strongly believe was caused by the surgery. This is not a pain that she has experienced before. She has gotten an ultra sound a month ago and it revealed some irregularities, something to the form of gallstones and something that resembles a hemorrhagic cyst. It is not very clear yet and further tests are still needed but they have referred her to see a surgeon. This was not something that was seen on tests done on the day of the surgery. We strongly believe that this is also related to the surgery.

UPDATE** 10/18/15

Medical paperwork is now available on hand. Over 90 pages of documented proof picked up from Tacoma General Hospital. Most of it is pretty easy to read and it reflects on how all the facts were overlooked. We are hoping to find a Lawyer or even just some legal advice over the phone. Also if you have gone through a similar experience we would very much appreciate you sharing it with us.

As far as attorney fees go, we don't have much money as we live on a fixed income but I can pay for Attorney costs if I needed to. Can work out a payment plan or pay when we have won our case. We have talked to a couple of different attorneys who have agreed that we have a case but it was just not in their field.

 

Date in hospital 5/06/15 – 5/09/15

Surgery performed by Teresa D. Bell

Total Bill cost for surgery $1,601.03 + other bills (thousands owed)

I also almost lost my business and since then we have experienced a huge financial hardship and anxiety. My wife is in constant pain and every day is a worry and I feel the surgeon/hospital needs to be held accountable. You are not only hurting your patients but you are hurting the economy. The total charge for this completely unnecessary surgery was $97,416.07.




UPDATE** 10/22/15

This Complaint is in regards to Patient care at Seamar Medical in Tacoma, WA

(All this happened after the surgery of which my wife now experiencing daily pain due to negligence)

 

Dr Rao was assigned to my wife after her original doctor had gone on maternity leave. My wife has a long history with having Lupus and was hospitalized due to this illness 3 months ago. She has been recently experiencing severe flare ups when she was assigned to Dr Rao. Upon evaluation the Dr said that my wife did not appear to be in severe pain and she did not look like she was going through a flare up, essentially calling my wife a liar. First, I am sorry to go off the point but this infuriated me to the point of getting a panic attack. I did not understand how she could say this to my wife who has lived with this illness on a daily basis for the last 10-15 years. For her to say that is completely unprofessional and she goes on to add insult to injury by making my wife take a drug test before giving her a low doses of pain medication. She was however denied Prednisone, the one medication she needs that can mean not having to pack my 3 small kids in the car and wait at the emergency room every time she needs prednisone. She was denied by this so called Dr., saying she did not appear to be going through a flare up. Not only did she have my wife in tears but she prescribed her 2 different forms of Ibuprofen, which could have turned into a serious situation if we did not catch this mistake.  We tried contacting the Dr. to tell her about it and she was completely passive over the whole situation. She even has gone as far as to call us again and tell my wife that the Dr could be investigated for giving her too many Prednisone prescriptions. We were again shocked and thought we had put this behind us as we were already looking for another Doctor even though that would mean an hour’s drive. At this point I felt it necessary to file a complaint against this Dr. She has no respect for her patients, at least not my wife whom btw had an ultra sound done and it showed a cyst and gallstones. She has been going through extreme pain almost every day from this and her auto immune disorders, then to be treated like this!! We are not drug users, we don’t drink or even smoke cigarettes. We love spending time with each other but unfortunately we don't have any family around, which can make it hard at times. We are still in the process of trying to find the right treatment for her and looking for any options or recommendations that you may have.


At this point we will need to talk to a surgeon to fix the mistake from the first surgery which by now you know was completely unnecessary.


UPDATE 10/24/15

Semida Gallardo's Seamar Complaint – Denied Proper Medical treatment – excused as miscommunication (Wife was labeled as a Drug abuser)

This complaint has been written by Adrian G (Husband)

This complaint is in regards to Dr. Rao at Seamar Medical Clinic. Semida G first started seeing Dr. Rao on 10/07/15 after her assigned physician went on personal leave in early September but it has been noted in her paperwork that she has had her file or at least known of Semida since 9/15 and was already in communication. During this time frame Semida had called requesting auto immune suppressants and pain medication as she was suffering severe flare ups from her Lupus and Sjogren’s disease. She was also been experiencing complications from surgery from which tests were done. They revealed irregularities that were most likely the cause of the severe pain that she was experiencing in her upper abdomen. The doctor was very passive and did not review my wife’s medical paperwork properly. We later find out that most of the notes filed from this Dr. reflected that there was a concern of drug abuse and aggressive behavior because of request for pain and anti-inflammatory medication. My wife has been dealing with this monstrous disease for over 15 years and is now going through one of the worst experiences with it and then to be treated like a drug abuser made it incredibly frustrating, especially to know that was their assessment the whole time. Anybody who knows my wife would laugh at the notion of her doing drugs. We don’t drink, do drugs, smoke cigarettes and avoid germs as much as possible. Most of the time we only go out for 2 hours at a time because she cannot stay out too long before starting to feel the Lupus symptoms. This was a completely ridiculous assessment and to further add insult to injury they make her take a drug test before giving her medication which was still not what she had asked for or needed. This made her break down in tears and only increased her illness. I spent that night wrapping hot towels over her head from water that I would heat up. I did that for 2 hours until the pain had dissipated. This was almost an everyday situation where I had to find ways to help manage her pain.

 

Information on First visit with Dr. Rao

That was 2 days after she saw Dr. Rao on 10/07/15. Her appointment was on 10/05/15 and my wife had expressed concern over the symptoms she was having and the Dr. had told her specifically that she did not appear to be going through a flare up based on her knowledge. At this point Semida felt concerned over this situation as her symptoms were increasing and again denied anti-inflammatory medicine to the point where she had to go to urgent care and received an anti-inflammatory shot and a small prescription of Prednisone. This happened a week after seeing Dr Rao on 10/07.

All medical Paperwork for this Office including Notes had been received on disc

On10/23 we received all the medical files that they had on Semida along with the notes that were submitted after every phone conversation. On 10/07 the records show that the physician noted that Semida was showing signs of abusive behavior (drug abuse) and needed to be screened for drug testing and still on this day after taking their drug test she was denied anti-inflammatory medicine. She has been denied proper medical treatment ever since this Dr. took over with every note after this showing “Concerning abusive behavior” and a couple times would read “threatening to others”. None of this was mentioned during their apology for the misunderstanding or “miscommunication” as they put it or else we would not have accepted their apology. Now they want us to have full trust in them and were given the ultimatum on the spot weather we wanted to continue with this Dr. or start the process all over again with another Dr. For my wife’s health we had to suck it up and accept the continued services and apology even though it was eating at us to do so.

 

All paperwork is available with full disclosure minus some sensitive information. 192 file pages, most indication my wife’s current condition of having Lupus, Sjogren’s syndrome and Fibromyalgia.

If you are a lawyer and can help I will be more than happy to forward any documentation you need (currently on disc).

 

Medical paperwork Dates (Doctor’s personal notes about patient included)

• Reason for denial of proper treatment listed below

Dates:

9/02 – Medical records state that Patient (Semida Gallardo) “has records of abdominal labs in HER indicating her Sjogren’s Syndrome, and Lupus so hopefully you can process the referrals”. They never processed those referrals from three months prior to see a Rheumatologist. The whole time it was never processed even though we called a few times.

9/15 – Called for Prednisone, at this point they have noted on pg. 33 that they have never prescribed her Prednisone at this office before. This is when Dr. Rao took over Semida’s file.

10/07 – Patient is verbally abusive, Concern for abusive behavior, drug screen needed on next visit”. Also noted by Dr. that all anti-inflammatory medication will be discontinued (pg64)

10/08 - Patient is verbally abusive, Concern for abusive behavior, drug screen needed on next visit (Given Tramadol on Good will basis, anti-inflammatory still denied) Dr. also prescribed my Wife Ibuprofen and Naproxen, which was a red flag for us

Continued…

From this point on there was a lot of back and forth phone calls. At this time Semida was also experiencing migraine headaches more often and they were more severe, she was also experiencing Lupus Flare ups which we strongly believe was the result of stress caused by this experience and the lack of proper medication.

 

The Apology after formal complaint filed against Dr. Rao (10/22)

This would go on until 10/22 the day after I submitted a formal complaint to the Director of Seamar and that’s when they did a complete turnaround in their behavior telling Semida that it was all a big miscommunication/misunderstanding and that the Dr. had personally called the Rheumatologist personally to move up her appointment so she can be seen earlier. She had also expressed deep remorse for the way she handled the situation. But they did not ever once apologize for labeling her a drug abuser, at the time we did not have the paperwork from corporate office yet. This information was on 10/23 by mail after we had requested complete Medical records from the corporate office. If we had known this information we would not have accepted her apology but given the nature of her condition we have to proceed. Turning back at this time would mean starting all over again. She would not be able to incur something like this again. She is still going through extreme pain and upon reading these documents; she fell very ill with head swelling, lupus flares in her legs, ankles and arms.

 

We are now waiting for the weekend to be over to call and voice concern over this little detail that they left out but at the same time we don’t want anything to further delay seeing a Rheumatologist. It almost felt like that was the ultimatum; accept our apology and be willing to work with the doctor or start from square one again.

 

We are already in the process of potentially filing paperwork for medical malpractice from the surgery that Semida had. We are trying to stay strong but it is getting very hard. If you know of any lawyers or someone that can help us in our situation, please respond. We are on a fixed income and due to taking care of my wife and children I have limited income as well as I do not have much time for my online business. I also fell into depression after the surgery and during as we have no family or friends around and I have 3 small girls to take care of. My online account slipped and it was suspended because I couldn’t make the payments. I also got restricted for shipping time infractions which has now caused a delay in payment and is now really taking a toll on us. Our car is due in a few months and it may get repossessed. I will be making money but not sure if it will be in time. I am not one to ask for money or donations but I don’t know what else to do. I am selling everything I own. I have sold most of my life already but it’s not enough. I stay strong for my kids as they have no idea what is going on. Seeing their happy smiles is what keeps me going.

 

Thank you for reading.