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.