Vegas hospital royally fucks up a woman's brain after she comes in after hitting head, now she can't talk or move

Imagine the absolutely nightmarish scenario where you are completely paralyzed, and can't speak or move. Your only ability to communicate is by blinking your eyes, yet your brain is otherwise functioning, and you're aware of what is going on.

Living for even 20 minutes this way would be torture. Imagine if it's the rest of your life.

That's what happened to Amy Geiler on January 1, 2019. She fell and hit her head on a dresser, and was brought to Mountain View Hospital in Las Vegas. When she was admitted, her sodium levels were abnormally low, which can cause all kinds of brain issues, including seizures and coma. However, if sodium levels are artificially raised too quickly, water can rapidly be drawn out of the brain, leading to permanent damage. This occurred while she was a patient at Mountain View, completely paralyzing her and making her unable to speak -- something referred to as "locked in syndrome".

She won a $47 million malpractice suit, but will only get $350,000 of it, due to a stupid law in Nevada which caps malpractice awards at $350,000.

Other mistakes were made along the way, as well. The full story is here: https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...-suit-2726235/


Overall, it's said that she will get about $4-5 million, due to damages related to medical fees and lost wages, which aren't subject to the cap.

From my years living in Vegas, I noticed that healthcare was absolute shit. Tons of incompetent doctors, and most specialists are consolidated into giant groups, meaning there's very little competition, and patients are shuttled through like a mill.

Even the independent doctors tend to be both shitty and arrogant, from my own personal experience, as well as the experience of others I've talked to over the years.

I remember when I got pink eye in 2010. It was during the worst cold of my life, so it was almost surely viral pink eye (which does often ride along with colds), but I went to an ophthalmologist just in case. If it was bacterial pink eye, I'd need antibiotics. I was dismayed to see that all of the ophthalmologists in Vegas were part of a gigantic group, in a warehouse-like building. I made an appointment for 11am.

I got there at 10:45am and there was a HUGE waiting room full of people. I waited and waited and waited. Finally, at 12:15 -- 75 minutes late -- they called me in. I then waited another 15-20 minutes in the examination room. Finally, after 12:30, the doctor strolled in.

He curtly said, "Hi, how you doing?", and I replied, "I'm okay. Long wait today!", at which point he broke into a whole lecture about how appreciative I should be that they could see me same-day, and that I need to stop complaining about wait times. He knew they were over 90 minutes behind in seeing me, and instead of apologizing, the dude was yelling at me for even noticing. All he had to do was say, "Yeah sorry about that, we are busier than expected. Thanks for your patience", or something to that order.

Then he examined me for about 5 minutes, told me, "It's pink eye, but I don't know if it's viral or bacterial, so here's a prescription for antibiotics", and he walked out.

Great job. And he knew he could be an asshole because there was literally no competition in the entire city. Every ophthalmologist in town worked in that same group.

lol, Surgery is not an exact science and it's a money-grubbing scam.
You will not live forever.
Bad Shit happens to people every day.
Deal With It.

Druff, did you happen to notice in the article where it said: "abnormal sodium levels because of her alcohol use and abnormal liver enzymes", as well as that this occurred on January 1, New Years day?

There is a pretty good chance that Ms. Geiler, was drunk as a skunk (with whatever other substances she indulged in), from partying all night New Years Eve, to the point that she couldn't stand and fell, hitting her head on the dresser. If that is the case, doesn't she bear some responsibility?

I am not making excuses, but when you show up in an emergency situation at a hospital on a holiday like that, with staff and doctors likely stretched beyond what they should be, shit happens. Not defending anyone, but I am sure no one set out to intentionally harm Ms Geiler. If mistakes were made, and the jury decided there were, that is life. There are no guarantees in life.

As for Mountainview Hospital, I have had two major heart surgeries there and have been very pleased with the care I received. I found staff to be very professional.

Dan Druff, you have made reference to what you consider substandard medical care in Las Vegas numerous times now. Look, it is Las Vegas, a smaller to mid-size city. We don't have a John Hopkins, or Mayo Clinic, or Cedars-Sinai, or UCLA Medical Center. If it is important to you to have such a top medical facility nearby, Las vegas might now be the place for you to reside.

LV always does very poorly in rankings of medical care quality.

^^ And education

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Originally Posted by Ozzy

^^ And education

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I'm not positive about this, but I do think they rank #1 in Triple Zero Roulette.

This medical-themed thread is just too difficult not to post a common sense-based comment on.

I agree with kew--only I'm not afraid to say there's a reason Dan skipped over the New Year's Eve angle and what the chances are this lady abused substances all night long before falling down.

California flakes will come up with ANY rationale other than personal responsibility when it comes to assigning blame for just about anything. After all, these people are all about "Me First", "Entitlement", and being better than everyone else.

Further enhancing this thread's motivation is the financial angle--something that obsessively drives Californians down whatever road might be at the end of the rainbow. As any successful person who started off elsewise knows, life's enjoyment is a product of much more than money. And that's why Dan continues to go on these "somebody seems to have been screwed" and "I got cheated out of twenty bucks" rants: the financial challenges he faces every day, likely due to the same reason Alan always had problems, is a product of too much bad gambling.

Winners and/or otherwise successful people would NEVER have the ongoing incessant need to continuously point out perceived or real "personal financial insults" or have an infatuation with bring up the unfortunate--and frequently questionable--personal and financial circumstances of others, as if it's a slap in one's own already red face.

You're full of shit there, Rob, but hey, good to hear from ya.

I've no reason to hurl aspersions at Dan for posting this or any other article.

That you do so is consistent with your agenda to discredit him after he basically said you're a lying troll.

Did you blow that %1.5M VP win yet, lol

Either the doctor was negligent in treating the patient or they were not. The patient's part in causing the initial injury is irrelevant to a malpractice claim.

You can shoot yourself in the head and if the surgeon screws up in treating you, he's responsible for whatever harm his negligence caused.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YknF5saKQTk

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Originally Posted by MisterV

You're full of shit there, Rob, but hey, good to hear from ya.

I've no reason to hurl aspersions at Dan for posting this or any other article.

That you do so is consistent with your agenda to discredit him after he basically said you're a lying troll.

Did you blow that %1.5M VP win yet, lol

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As usual, you hardly got the point and instead did your normal "trying to cleverly fit in" again.

I saw the article as something interesting to read. No "aspersions" for Dan having posted it.

My comments were related to his usual portrayal of either being the "victim" of someone else's shortcomings, or him getting all lathered up over reading about others absorbing such actions. Then he goes on a rant about the so-called "terrible" medical care all over LV....as if it was all put in place just to agitate him personally. The reality is, medical systems and care are pretty much the same in all these big cities. I've been to an overnight ER at a hospital in LV and it wasn't an emmy-winning experience. I've also been to one in Karachi (Pakistan) that was about the same. But they both delivered decent, and not fabulous, results. And that's all I cared about--all ANYBODY should be concerned with. Other patients may have worse, better, or much better experiences.

I get that he is, like so many others, a one-hit poker wonder who now chases dreams via habitual betting at online gambling sites. My point is that anyone who tries to give the perception of gambling or any other success, would just let these type of things go. Dan seems to believe that the whole world is out to get him, on all accounts. As someone who's had successes in life, I understand that everything isn't gonna always turn out roses, so I think more about the good and just let the stinkers go. When I read about being upset over getting cheated out of an enjoyable time at an expensive steakhouse or some hotel clerk stiffing him for twenty bucks--while making it all seem like crimes against humanity--the big red flags come out.

That's all I was saying. It's not because I'm upset with him for not believing my gambling successes or that he lied big-time about my being in LV when I sent him (copy to mickey also) a room tv screen shot of my GVR welcome/time/date. All that told me was his level of envy over my big win--much like most here which is very understandable. I'd feel the same if someone hit something like that. I think Dan needs to re-evaluate how he feels about everybody being out to get him. A hundred years from now no one will care. But these people who believe every little annoying thing they go thru is worthy of a bitch session, do need a good attitude-adjustment. It's also not healthy, you know, like your weed-smoking....

You called him a "California flake," Rob.

Try to hide you animus if you like, but it is evident.

It seems you are willing to accept ANY level of service without complaint; perhaps you've rarely experienced "quality" in your life.

Quality is something to be sought in all things; by settiling for mediocriity the piquancy of life is diluted.

As for your statement that LV medical care is the same as in Pakistan: that is damnation via faint praise.

Seems to me you were projecting, big time when you accused Dan of thinking everyone is "out to get him."

But thank you for your contributions to the thread, Rob: provocative, as always.

__________________________________________________ ______________________

imported from another thread, "just because..."

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Axl went to the local library to peruse old copies of "Boys Life" and "Mad" magazines.

As he traipsed over the homeless lying on the floors of the stacks he noticed a rather dirty, smelly fellow at one of the computers used by the public: the old guy was swearing up a storm and hitting the keys.

Ever helpful, Axl approached and offered to assist.

"Fuck off you California flake" snarled the surly, odiferous codger, "you're no use to me unless you understand the ins and outs of photoshop and similar programs."

As it turns out, when he wasn't a lawyer Axl was a computer scientist, a software maven and a coding expert.

He offered his help, was thanked, said "You're welcome" and they shook hands.

"OK, here's the deal. You wouldn't know it to look at me now, but I used to be somebody important. I really miss those days, so I want to convince strangers that I am wealthy and win huge jackpots, record jackpots. I want them to envy me."

"Why try to convince strangers? Focus on your family, your friends, your loved ones as the source of your satisfaction in life."

"You don't get it, I've burned those bridges. They're on to me. All that I have left is bullshitting."

The scamp then explained how he wanted to convince and impress strangers with a bald-face lie about winning one and a half million dollars on one pull of a VP machine, and that he was unable to construct a fake image on his computer showing just that thing.

"Oh, I can do it" said Axl: and he quickly did so.

"Take a look."

The codger looked at the picture of the VP machine with the huge jackpot amount now inserted: just what he wanted.

"Can you make me one showing a gun safe with guns and money?"

"Here ya go old boy, and happy variance to you" said Axl.

They shook hands, and Axl wandered off, dreaming of DQ strawberry blizzards and quasi-retarded black ladies with ugly hand bags and gambling problems.

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Originally Posted by smurgerburger

Either the doctor was negligent in treating the patient or they were not. The patient's part in causing the initial injury is irrelevant to a malpractice claim.

You can shoot yourself in the head and if the surgeon screws up in treating you, he's responsible for whatever harm his negligence caused.

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This post is goofiness at it's finest.

Smurgerburger, you are conflating two different 'responsibilities'. You are talking purely legal responsibility as per the legal system. But there is also personal responsibility and Rob has it exactly right for a change. You put yourself in a bad position and shit happens.

Las Vegas has some really bad areas. Drugs, gangs, extremely high crime. Just as Philly and all major cities do. So if I put myself in the Twain/Maryland parkway area or stretches just off boulder highway or sections of North Las Vegas at 2:45 in the morning, you can't go playing the victim card when something bad happens.

Now we don't know all the details of this case that Druff posted. We do know that there was mention of high alcohol levels and that this person fell hitting their head on New Years morning. Don't know for a fact but there is reasonable assumption, this person was severely impaired and if that is the case, they put themselves in a bad position of needing emergency care at an urban/city hospital on a holiday when such medical personal are often 1) severely shorthanded and over extended and 2) often residents and inexperienced. Who's freaking fault is that? :confused: People have to take some responsibilities for their decisions and actions.

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Originally Posted by kewlJ

Quote:

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Originally Posted by smurgerburger

Either the doctor was negligent in treating the patient or they were not. The patient's part in causing the initial injury is irrelevant to a malpractice claim.

You can shoot yourself in the head and if the surgeon screws up in treating you, he's responsible for whatever harm his negligence caused.

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This post is goofiness at it's finest.

Smurgerburger, you are conflating two different 'responsibilities'. You are talking purely legal responsibility as per the legal system. But there is also personal responsibility and Rob has it exactly right for a change. You put yourself in a bad position and shit happens.

Las Vegas has some really bad areas. Drugs, gangs, extremely high crime. Just as Philly and all major cities do. So if I put myself in the Twain/Maryland parkway area or stretches just off boulder highway or sections of North Las Vegas at 2:45 in the morning, you can't go playing the victim card when something bad happens.

Now we don't know all the details of this case that Druff posted. We do know that there was mention of high alcohol levels and that this person fell hitting their head on New Years morning. Don't know for a fact but there is reasonable assumption, this person was severely impaired and if that is the case, they put themselves in a bad position of needing emergency care at an urban/city hospital on a holiday when such medical personal are often 1) severely shorthanded and over extended and 2) often residents and inexperienced. Who's freaking fault is that? :confused: People have to take some responsibilities for their decisions and actions.

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Of course I am talking purely legal responsibility in a sub thread concerning whether a medical malpractice suit was justified.

Why wouldn't I?

AGREE: With everyone not named KewlJ and Singer that how she got the injury that required her to go to the hospital is immaterial to the treatment.

DISAGREE: With Dan Druff that a $350,000 cap on punitive damages is a, "Stupid law." You could perhaps make an argument that the limit should be increased upward, but it's important to have some sort of limit. If you think medical care is expensive now, just see what happens to it after malpractice claims are getting awarded in the tens of millions of dollars left and right. Beyond that, no cap on it would make it more difficult for cases to be settled out of court as Defendants would be able to seek more than whatever the punitive cap is. With the limit, it's mainly just arguing, especially with something like this, how much the compensatory should be and you can probably take full punitive cap for granted.

From:

https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...-suit-2726235/

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Claggett said Geiler’s case highlights issues with Nevada’s law that caps noneconomic damages in medical malpractice suits, which Claggett said allows hospitals to avoid liability.

“It’s truly one of the most awful laws ever created, and it was done to benefit big hospitals and insurance companies,” he said. “That’s who’s the winner.”

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He would be right if the insurance companies and medical providers were just going to eat those costs, but they're not; those costs would get passed down to consumers, one way or another, so then everyone would end up paying more money (directly or indirectly) to cover for medical fuck ups...not to mention lawsuits that are a bit less cut and dry...or borderline frivolous, "Nuisance" lawsuits that they may settle out of court simply because that might be even cheaper than defending and winning.

Also, it would appear from this article:

https://blog.cvn.com/52m-malpractice...balance-begins

That her sodium level issues were a result of excessive alcohol use. In the above-linked article, we do learn that one problem was the fact that MountainView was mostly concerned with transferring Geiler to a different hospital, due to MountainView not being in the network for Geiler's insurance. It was also alleged (because I don't know whether or not the jury specifically commented) that MountainView did not adequately transfer the records, or lab results, to Mountain's Edge hospital, the facility to which Geiler was transferred. Consequently, Mountain's Edge just kept pumping her full of sodium.

So, while we're talking about problems with the system, how about this in-network out-of-network bullshit where the hospitals are just taxiing people around rather than a person gets treatment and insurance just pays for it because that is what insurance, in theory, would exist to do?

We're only hearing about this, by the way, because MountainView decided to fight the case. Apparently, the original lawsuit was against three total defendants, but two of those settled. MountainView's arguments were basically that Mountain Edge, not they, fucked up AND that Geiler had consented to the transfer to Mountain Edge (to avoid a huge bill as MountainView was out of network) and was no longer in an altered mental state when she gave that consent.

I don't think anyone disputes that it was Geiler's fault she ended up in the hospital in the first place, but that's irrelevant to whether or not there was malpractice. She's not suing on the grounds that the hospital forced her to get drunk and hit her head. lol

I don't know whether there should be a cap or how much it should be, but judges can and routinely do reduce punitive awards that they deem to be excessive. I can't remember what the rule the standard they follow is but it's a common practice.

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Originally Posted by smurgerburger

I don't know whether there should be a cap or how much it should be, but judges can and routinely do reduce punitive awards that they deem to be excessive. I can't remember what the rule the standard they follow is but it's a common practice.

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I don't know if you followed the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard thing (I didn't really follow it, but it was tough to completely avoid seeing it), but I learned from that Virginia has a 350k punitive damages cap, period, not just on medical malpractice.

I'm not certain what the standard is for decreasing a punitive award, but I imagine that it would be yet another thing that could end up getting appealed...meaning, the winning Plaintiff might decide to appeal on the grounds that the judge's reduction was legally inappropriate or unwarranted, for one reason or another.

Here's an interesting page on the punitive damage caps (if any) for all of the states:

https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/...al-source-rule

Idaho is one example of a state in which their punitive damage cap ($250,000) is less than this Nevada one specifically for medical malpractice; Indiana appears to have a hard punitive damage cap of $50,000. Louisiana mostly stays away from allowing for punitive damages at all, though they aren't strictly forbidden.

Evidently, some states have decided that it is Unconstitutional (pursuant to state Constitution) to have punitive damage caps, but Nebraska has declared that punitive damages themselves are Unconstitutional, assuming the source is correct. I don't know why 350k is so popular, but New Jersey has also capped all punitive damages at that.

Looking at this site:

https://www.millerandzois.com/malpra...mage-caps.html

A few states would appear to have total/all damage caps on medical malpractice, where a few of these total caps are less than Geiler was awarded in just compensatory damages.

Boy, I just don't like the idea of "punitive" damages. Punitive comes from punishment does it not? Doctors and nurses go into that field because they want to help people. There is a lot of schooling and dedication. They do the best they can. Being humans, there are sometimes mistakes made. Are we punishing them for that?

Now a patient that has suffered a loss of quality of life, due to such a mistake like the person in this story, is entitled to some compensation, certainly including covering medical bills, but it shouldn't be about punishing anyone.

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Originally Posted by kewlJ

Boy, I just don't like the idea of "punitive" damages. Punitive comes from punishment does it not? Doctors and nurses go into that field because they want to help people. There is a lot of schooling and dedication. They do the best they can. Being humans, there are sometimes mistakes made. Are we punishing them for that?

Now a patient that has suffered a loss of quality of life, due to such a mistake like the person in this story, is entitled to some compensation, certainly including covering medical bills, but it shouldn't be about punishing anyone.

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They are punished for negligence.

If your surgeon shows up high on cocaine and removed the wrong kidney, does he deserve to be punished?

(Also they are required to carry malpractice insurance although I'm guessing in cases of gross negligence such as I described the insurer can sue the doctor to recover the payout.)

How well the malpractice system works in practice I have no idea but it's not as simple as "doctors want to help people so they shouldn't be punished".

And incidentally a lot of people go into medicine for more worldly reasons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YksYuWOJPE