A social friend of ours died yesterday and our Healthcare system sucks

[Laura PourMeADrink]

Anne was a vibrant, healthy, active person. 61.

In October, she started feeling sick. She was diagnosed with some kind strep infection.

Since then, they tried 6 different antibiotics which never really cleared it up. In November, she
developed an itchy rash. Supposedly, she caused a staph infection from scratching it.

All the while, she continued to work as a teacher, travel, tailgate, camp, kayak, etc. Reluctant to seek more answers to why she was feeling so bad. Without a great doctor who could have recognized the implications.

On December 1st, she had a stroke. The infection had actually eaten away at her aorta. She needed surgery immediately - but they had to get rid of the infection first. she was placed on an antibiotic IV drip for four
weeks.

When they transferred her to the hospital yesterday, she died of a massive heart attack.

It is bad enough when someone dies of a disease - but this was preventable. If only she could have convinced a doctor to admit her early on for tests - they might have caught it. The more we thought about it - when is the last time you heard that - "he/she's in the hospital for tests"

[GeorgeGist]

1. First of all ...

We have NO system.

[elleng]

2. Right, what we have is not a 'system,'

its a hodge podge, and if we as individuals are fortunate, we can devise 'systems' for ourselves, to begin with a good, trusted, reliable primary care physician who can diagnose, explain, and refer us for further treatment, all this based on the assumption that we are located where all such are available.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. You are exactly right. Over the years it has become more and more

YOUR responsibility and less and less the "system's" All the talk of "preventative care" seems like bullshit too

[frazzled]

12. In this sense, NO country has a system

I can't think of any country's health-care situation (British or Japanese National Health, etc.) in which a misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose could not occur. It happens in single-payer health systems as well as mixed-payer ones.

Tragic as this case was, you can't draw any generalities about it. This woman received health care. She received medication. Six different antibiotics is not nothing. From the information, I can't even say she was misdiagnosed.

Staph infections, if they get into the bloodstream, will kill in a very short period of time. It happened to a friend's brother last year. All the organs can shut down within hours. My husband had a very bad staph infection (from a large hematoma on his hip sustained in a bike fall). When his leg turned bright red and the hematoma had swelled to the size of a basketball, I rushed him to the ER (after consulting his orthopedic surgeon and primary doctor). They immediately had to see if it had entered his bloodstream. He was lucky--it did not invade an artery.

I'm sorry for the loss of the OPs friend, but there for the grace of you-know-who goes any of us.

[hollysmom]

3. Some insurance frowns on expensive anti biotics.

I had a cold where the coughing was so bad, I was told I was upsetting others at work and since I was hourly, I could not work there anymore. The manager knew me though and arranged for me to work after 6PM week days and on weekends so I could still support myself.

After a year of this going on with antibiotics not doing anything, my primary physician got sick and I got a wonderful new doctor. She prescribed an antibiotic that cost insurance $1000 a month and really controlled the problem but did not solve it. She sent me to a specialist who was fantastic and after the previous doctor had me go for an hour long MRI of my head that showed nothing, this guy just shoved a TV camera up my nose and found the problem. The year of ineffective antibiotics allowed the infection free reign in my sinuses and sealed them shut, I had an operation that redrilled the sinuses open and that finished it. But for this new doctor who was later booted from Aetna because she spent too much time figuring out what was wrong (standard 9 minutes per patient). She left the practice and I followed her.
Doctors really need to be attentive when you sleep with a bucket next to your bed so you can spit flegm all night and you sprain the muscles in your chest from coughing so much. Heck even my dog got worried. I would wake up coughing and find her attentively watching me in the middle of the night.

I am so sorry for your friend and hope ore people can find doctors that spend the extra time. And that people know when to switch doctors. I was lucky, your friend was not. My condolences this wom'an should not have died.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. Yes, that's the key...keep looking until you find a doc who cares. Had to laugh though

when you said they did an MRI or your head that "showed nothing"

[hollysmom]

10. Smack - put my foot in my mouth on that one, ha ha .

probably not too far from the truth though,. But let me say it is horrible. I demanded an open MRI and they fought me on it, but even that - they put a mask over your face and screw it down. I had to keep my hands on the screws to keep from screaming. We did it in 15 minute blocks, but I could not move between shots. Apparently it was at the wrong angle or something. It was expensive and not neccessary, the TV camera up the nose cost very little and found the problem right away.

[LeftyMom]

4. I'm so sorry. That could easily have been my mom.

Twice now she's been told she had the flu, kept feeling miserable, gone in to a different hospital for a second opinion, and been admitted for something life threatening. Once was a pulmonary embolism, once was endocarditis.

[Barack_America]

7. Endocarditis usually has significant symptoms...

High fevers, night sweats, generally feeling awful.

Just want to alleviate the fears of people who might think they could have this condition and not know it. Typically not.

[magical thyme]

8. I'm so sorry for your loss.

I don't know if your friend had Strep A (associated with pharyngitis), but it is susceptible to penicillan and it's derivatives, and that is the first line of drugs used against it. However, if you are allergic to penicillan (and many people are) then you have use alternatives which may be less effective against it.

The timing between her Strep infection and subsequent heart disease suggests rheumatic fever, which is a sequelae to Strep A (the type associated with pharyngitis) where the person's own antibodies to the strep infection attack the heart muscle. That is why doctors aggressively go after Strep A infections with rapid tests to confirm it and antibiotics early on. The goal to clear up the infection before your immune system has a chance to start producing antibodies against it. Once antibody production begins, it is too late to stop the autoimmune response.

[Zorra]

9. So sorry about your friend, that's truly awful. We need universal public healthcare

where human health, well-being and life is valued over profit.

My hearing was permanently damaged because of doctors who repeatedly made stupid diagnoses about my condition, despite the fact that I kept telling them that there was something more serious wrong with me. Back then, you had to be referred to a specialist by a GP, and the insurance companies wanted to keep costs down. Some of the misdiagnoses were that I had a minor ear infection. One asshole doctor told me. "You need to clean your ears. You have wax in your ear."

Anyway, after two years I finally got referred to a specialist (by a PA who had been a medic in Vietnam). The specialist looked in my ear for 30 seconds and said "You have a growth in your inner ear, and need surgery ASAP", just like that. Turns out that the growth was the size of a peanut, and was pressing on my brain, and could have killed me.

I've been a professional musician much of my life, fortunately, my ability to distinguish tones was not severely impaired, so I could continue working.
But I had to learn how to compensate for this with special stage monitor systems. All because of a hearing loss that would never have occurred if our healthcare system didn't suck so bad and my condition was properly diagnosed in a timely manner.

I detest for profit insurance companies, and our entire healthcare system needs serious repair. The ACA is a start, but only just a start.

[B2G]

11. I'm so sorry about your friend, but

It sounds like they were trying diligently to find effective meds (6 different ones in 3 months is a lot). Bacterial infections can be very hard to treat...it's trial and error until you hopefully come up with the right antibiotic.

The number of antibiotic resistant strains are growing rapidly too. It sounds like she was under a doctor's supervision the entire time. She was 'reluctant' to share how bad she was feeling, which was a really bad idea. Without a patient sharing this information, a doctor might assume the latest med is working. This is especially true of internal infections that don't present outward symptoms.

Again, I'm sorry, but I'm not sure how this is the fault of the doctor.