<p>I’ve read reports that can have several interpretations as far as what the body is currently getting. I think we can assume it has not gotten a feeding tube (only based on reports we have heard - I think if this had happened, we would have heard about it from the attorney or uncle), and that the only way it is getting anything (the only thing I’ve seen mentioned is potassium) is via the IV tube (which is also providing the medications the body needs). If her body was indeed transferred to another facility, then I’m assuming someone there would know how to change out an IV bag and keep the line open. Even if the body had a feeding tube placed, all that is really required to start a feeding is someone willing to learn how; it does not require skilled (as in RN) care, although in hospitals, that kind of care can fall on the RN. There are plenty of people at home with feeding tubes whose family members can take care of the preparation and attachment. But they have likely been given extensive education on how to care for the site, how to prepare and attach, and what complications to look for.</p>
<p>I don’t work at CHO, but at all of the hospitals I’ve worked at, the staff is very racially diverse. It’s not like all the docs and nurses and other care givers are all white. Far from it.</p>
<p>We really can’t say much about what happened in the hospital unless and until we get the medical record and testimony under oath.</p>
<p>I can absolutely see how differences in communication style could have had an impact on Jahi McMath’s medical care. For instance, if pre-op her mother was seen as a bit overly dramatic, genuine post-op concern over her condition may have been misinterpreted as histrionics.</p>
<p>I had the opposite problem when one of my kids was in the hospital. I come from a family of people who remain calm and rational in a crisis. I found I needed to adjust my communication style in order to get my child the help she needed. For instance if I told a nurse, “Excuse me, but I think my daughter’s in some pain and could use pain meds” I was likely to get an answer like, “Sure, i’ll ask the doctor to check on her when he does his rounds [an hour from now].” I had to instead say something like, “Nurse Joan, my daughter’s in a lot of pain and needs pain meds right now.” Otherwise my calm told the nurses this was a problem that could wait.</p>
<p>Reading the latest statements by the family (“she’s in bad condition”) it looks like they are coming to accept she won’t recover, and soon her heart will stop beating. I hope the media doesn’t find out where Jahi’s body is; we don’t need to know. I hope her poor mother can find some peace when Jahi’s body gives out.</p>
<p>Yes. Perhaps it would be helpful for the people who distrust the legal machine so much to imagine what it would be like to distrust the medical machine (and all other machines) so you’ll get a sense of what the McMath family might be thinking.</p>
<p>To take another example mentioned upthread (by zoos, I think), fat people sometimes find that their health care providers blame any and all health problems on their weight, even when the health problem has nothing to do with their weight, and so health problems go unaddressed. Imagine you are fat, and you go to the doctor with some symptom, and the doctor says it can’t be treated. Maybe the doctor is right this time-- but the whole system is now set up to make you mistrust your doctor and doubt their diagnosis, even in cases where it’s right.</p>
<p>Similarly, when the McMath family sees the doctor, they know that doctors sometimes give black people worse treatment than white people. Maybe these doctors are giving the correct medical advice, but how do the McMaths know that? They have justified doubts that I, with my white face, would never have when dealing with the medical establishment.</p>
<p>Here’s what I’ve learned about the hospital. Apparently, it’s not well regarded in the community. The people who live in the community don’t trust that they’ll receive good care there. So this didn’t all unfold on a “clean slate.”</p>
<p>That might partly explain the family’s initial unwillingness to accept the diagnosis of Jahi’s death. It also, unfortunately, explains Dolan’s willingness to get involved. Regardless of the outcome of a med mal action in this particular case, his involvement in this high-profile case will get him many, many more clients from the same community - clients who already mistrusted CHO.</p>
<p>As for the uncle . . . well, beyond his “15 minutes,” not sure what he stands to gain from all this. Perhaps he’s anticipating a cut of any settlement. But he’s the one who turned this from a family crisis into a media circus. Imagine, for a moment, how this all would have played out if he hadn’t been involved . . . no call to Dolan, no calls to the media . . . none of us would likely ever have heard of this family.</p>
<p>I met my best friend on a bus when she got on and nobody would give her a seat, so the bus driver wouldn’t move. I changed my seat to sit next to her and it was the most epic decision ever. But there absolutely is a bias against fat people and a willingness to judge it in ways large and small that wouldn’t be acceptable toward other issues because people see fat as a choice. And people REALLY judge parents of fat kids and aren’t in the least subtle about it.</p>
<p>The “material” (for lack of a better term) that goes into an IV for nutritional purposes. I just can’t just buy that at Walgreen’s, can I? Does it need to be ordered / prescribed by a doctor? If so, I wonder how they will find a doctor who will write such a prescription.</p>
<p>Kluge seems to have gone, but this is part of the flip side of “coercion.” I appreciate not wanting to coerce the family to let go, but the flip side is that I don’t think a doctor should have to be coerced into writing such a prescription either.</p>
<p>If they were truly intending to fat-shame the young girl, they would have told her no on the surgery - buck it up yourself, cupcake, and lose the weight, and then come back to us if you still have the sleep apnea issue. They can’t win for losing, I don’t think.</p>
I agree. Which is where preparing for eventualities, closing loopholes and requiring mediation could protect everyone.</p>
<p>
I think that partly comes to the heart of the malpractice question of whether the surgery should have been done, and partly to the fact that there were likely many “medical professionals” involved in the care, but probably the surgeon made the final decision to operate. The surgeon could have walked on water with a golden halo on his head, but if the director of nursing (anyone but the doctor) was at war with the family, then it probably didn’t matter.</p>
<p>The reverse is true of the family, though, if they acted against medical advice, then they can’t hold the hospital liable, and if they were unable to consent in an informed manner, then they can’t have that both ways in terms of not letting Jahi be removed from intervention in the hospital.</p>
<p>You know, there are a whole lot of distractions in the entire fiasco.</p>
<p>Brain death vs. death. Race. Weight. Potential malpractice. Religion. Rights. This list goes on. And, while some of these may have some merit down the road nothing can explain away the fact that a family left the hospital with what it now sounds like was a clearly deceased body and has it stashed in some secret location. OMG!</p>
Because there is total agreement on the horror of that. OMG! and talk about shocking. We are all just trying to figure out what happened, how it could be avoided in the future and converse with each other.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I’m not saying that the McMath family got worse treatment because they were black, or because Jahi was fat. Like you, I have no opinion about whether there was any malpractice in this case; we aren’t in a position to know.</p>
<p>Rather, I’m saying that the McMath family’s reaction to the adverse result is colored by their justified beliefs. We know that fat people and black people get worse treatment in the health system. And the McMath family knows that too. So when they get medical treatment, they will be suspicious. When something goes wrong, they will tend to jump to the conclusion that inferior treatment led to the adverse outcome, whereas a person who like me, who isn’t subject to worse treatment because of her weight or color, doesn’t have that conclusion available.</p>
<p>Everybody wants to explain the world. “Your daughter was just unlucky,” doesn’t feel like a satisfactory explanation, especially when other explanations are cognitively available.</p>
<p>It may be, however, that the daughter was just unlucky. </p>
<p>I had a major health complication when I was pregnant (resulting in liver and kidneys shutting down, necessitating delivery) and it took me a loooong time to try to stop deciphering everything I had done during the pregnancy. I was absolutely convinced this had happened to me BECAUSE: 1) I was still going to grad school at the time; 2) I went and had 2 brownies for dessert one day; 3) I went to McDonald’s and had a milkshake one day in between work and school. I mean, seriously, I’m a reasonably smart person and I was truly thinking like this. It takes a while to get to the place of understanding that bad things happen to good people. And I have no doubt that the McMath family were decent, good people who loved their daughter. </p>
<p>Malpractice wouldn’t be the decision to operate, though, would it? This operation is presumably performed all the time with good outcomes; the mere presence of a bad outcome doesn’t mean it was a poor decision to operate. Wouldn’t the malpractice in this case be asserting either than something was done incorrectly in the operating room (a sponge left in or whatever) or that the patient was not monitored appropriately in recovery?</p>