Okay, I have a question… if this is in the wrong forum I am terribly sorry… I couldn’t figure out where to put it.
Four years ago on September 2nd I went to the hospital to have my labor induced. My daughter didn’t wanna be born. (42 weeks gestation!) All went well until I started having hard unable-to-breathe back labor and they offered up an epidural to help with the pain. At this point I would have agreed to a rubber mallet to the head but I digress.
My mother and my aunt were in the room at the time of the epidural (records are at the hospital of my case because I went to the ER there once whilst pregnant with my son, placenta previa occured and the doctor saw my name and said they all had a meeting about my case just the day before) and the doctor who performed it apparently wasn’t competent enough for the job. He put the needle into my back once but said he did not hit the right ‘spot’. So he waits until a contraction stops and tries again but when he picked up the needle (SAME NEEDLE) he dropped it on the floor. He then picked it up and used it in my back. Now see, that was wrong but to add to it, the first spot he punctured was now open. He said he would come do a “blood patch” later on it but never did.
Not long after the birth of my daughter (which was hell because I am a small person and she came out sideways… ear up) a headache began. It wasn’t so bad at first. They gave me pills and put cold rags on my face and tilted my bed to where I was almost upside down. Didn’t explain that one to me.
The next day (9/3/99) I still had this headache but again, it wasn’t severe at that point. The doctor came in and asked me how I felt. I told him of the headache but he said I’d be fine and even sent me home that day.
On the way home the pain worsened but they attributed it to the initial epidural. By the end of the day it was BAD. I laid on the couch at my mother’s house with the baby’s cradle next to me. The baby awoke in the night and I eventually got to her. I fed her and while holding her passed out. I woke up again with the baby in my lap and she was wet. I am guessing that only an hour or so had went by. She had soaked both of us… but I couldn’t get up. The pain was very intense and I felt off balance. I had to crawl to my mother’s bedroom and ask for help changing her. I didn’t go to any hospitals at that time. It was in the middle of the night then though that my parents did take me to the local hospital where I passed in and out of consiousness. They gave me a shot of some sort of painkiller and sent me on my way.
Early morning on 9/4 I was taken to the hospital in Columbus, Indiana because the pain was just too bad. I could not keep consious, I kept slipping in and out… and then I started hallucinating and screaming and… well, it wasn’t pleasant. They did the so called blood patch on my back but I was later told it didn’t take and had busted out. Later that day I was lying in bed with the baby and felt sick. I started vomitting uncontrollably.
I tried to step from the room to get my mother… I called out to her. All anyone heard was “Maa”… I didn’t get “mom” out in time. I started having a seizure. The left side of my body was contracting… it made me turn in circles a few times before I fell to the floor. I had several types of seizures… the worst being of course the grand mal. I went from the local hospital where I was stablized and rushed by ambulance to the one in Columbus. They weren’t skilled nor equipped to deal with it. They kept me in the ICU for almost a week and did not know what was wrong so they then transferred me by ambulance to a hospital in Indianapolis. I was not concious for any of this. I recall waking a few times but I will reserve those memories for those interested.
Indianapolis ran many tests… spinal taps, MRIs, catscans, etc… they found the problems. Infection of the brain (I had a complete layer of infection covering my brain) and spinal menegitis. (pardon my spelling).
They pumped me full of many different antibiotics. I awoke around 3 1/2 weeks later from a coma. I did not remember a thing about myself, my family, my life. Strangely enough though I knew I had a baby but did not recall her name nor looks, etc. I couldn’t even walk. I had bit my tongue in two as well so when I woke up… ouch… it hadn’t healed completely.
But this is so long now I won’t continue with the details… but being that long ago and with the case, can I still sue? Living in a very small town I’ve had no luck… NO lawyers will take the case here because they say there’s too much “red tape”. So I need a lawyer from a bigger place… can I use someone that isn’t in my town? Or is it too late to do anything?