I have been most pleased to have worked closely over the years with the staff at Medical Advisors, Inc. regarding a wide variety of individuals/patients who have received care in various clinical settings including acute care hospital, chronic care hospital, extended care facility, rehabilitation center and finally skilled nursing facility. It has been my pleasure to painstakingly review each part of their therapeutic journey with an eye towards comparison with an idealized benchmark representing the current and ongoing standard of care.
As an example of one such case recently reviewed involved a 20 year woman with cerebral palsy who following an unwitnessed fall from her bed at a rehabilitation center sustained a closed head injury. This prompted her admission to hospital the very next day where she was discovered she had developed ascites with peritonitis and likely aspiration pneumonitis and consequent bilateral pleural effusions. Her episode of pancreatitis was believed to be biliary in eticlogy necessitating the performance of a laparoscopic cholecystectomy as well as placement of a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube employed for feeding in light of the previously discovered aspiration pneumonitis. The patient also underwent placement of a tracheostomy to obviate recurrent episode of aspiration. All in all the patient spent well over a fortnight in hospital until finally at
the request/behest of her mother/power of attorney regarding health care matters/decisions she was transferred to another rehabilitation facility under the hospice benefit and where she was allowed to die with dignity some 24 hours later.
Needless to add the opinion of this medical expert was that the care the patient received leading up to and immediately following her closed head injury was woefully below the standard of accepted medical care and wholly responsible for her progressive decline in multiple organ systems which necessitated the performance of multiple operative interventions ultimately culminating in her untimely demise some 18 days later.
