Re: newbie Help

From: zipzip (mcpucho_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 12/05/04 

Date: 5 Dec 2004 11:13:39 -0800

FYI:

the hospital is $42 million dollars in debt (after a $10 million
dollar gift), is getting no public funding, was dropped by its major
insurer and is about to face a multitude of lawsuits.

check the Journal News archives for more info if you so desire.

whose Tom R? Tom Ridge retired you know..... lol.

and i correct myself, at the time of print it was 4 babies who
unfortunately died. and the young man who passed was not this past
summer but much earlier.

article 1 :

New York Times
July 31, 2004

Westchester Hospital Seeks Source of Baby Deaths
By KIRK SEMPLE
 
VALHALLA, N.Y., July 30 - Doctors at Westchester Medical Center are
trying to identify the source of a bacterial outbreak in the neonatal
intensive care unit, where seven infants have tested positive and four
of them have died, hospital officials said Friday.

The officials said that three surviving infants are being treated with
antibiotics and that the outbreak has been contained and poses no risk
to other patients. It was still unclear, they said, whether the
bacteria, first discovered at the unit about two weeks ago, had
contributed to the four babies' deaths.

The hospital's neonatal intensive care unit treats some of the sickest
premature infants from the Hudson Valley region, New Jersey and
Connecticut. Dr. Michael Gewitz, the center's director of pediatrics,
emphasized on Friday that the babies in the unit were critically ill
and therefore more vulnerable to the bacteria, acinetobacter.

"It's impossible to say that this was a cause or the cause" of the
deaths, he said.

The germ was discovered during a post-mortem analysis of one of the
babies, Dr. Gewitz said. Six other babies - among a total of about 30
who had been exposed to the germ, officials said - tested positive and
were swiftly isolated. Further testing of the exposed population has
indicated no further spread of the bacteria, officials added. "We
believe at this time that everything has been contained,'' said Danny
Loughran, a medical center spokesman. "At this point in time we don't
feel that our patients should have any concerns regarding this
issue.''

Dr. Gewitz and another doctor who spoke with reporters said they did
not know exactly when the four deaths occurred.

Acinetobacter (pronounced AH-sin-knee-to-back-ter) is a commonly
occurring and particularly hardy group of bacteria found in many
different environments, including soil and water, homes and hospitals.

"It's not a common infection among people who are healthy, but it can
cause opportunistic infections among people who are debilitated" such
as babies, the elderly and the sick, explained Dr. Alex McAdam,
medical director of the infectious diseases diagnostic division at
Children's Hospital Boston.

Dr. David Lewis, an immunologist and infectious disease physician at
Stanford University School of Medicine, said that acinetobacter
infections most commonly occur among older hospital patients. While
infections among neonatal populations are not common, he said, other
cases have occurred elsewhere in the United States. and in several
countries around the world.

He said occurrences are rarely fatal in the neonatal population. "This
is bad," Dr. Lewis said of the Westchester outbreak. "I hope they
figure this out."

Dr. Gewitz said the medical center suspects that one of the babies
imported the bacteria when it was transferred from another hospital,
though he did not give the name of the other facility or explain how
it might have been transmitted to the other babies once it was inside
Westchester Medical Center. An investigation into the causes of the
outbreak, which was first reported by The Journal News on Friday, was
still ongoing, he said.

Several experts in infectious diseases and pediatrics said Friday that
acinetobacter can be transmitted within medical facilities by various
routes, including in medical solutions or by health care professionals
who do not strictly follow common rules of hygiene, such as washing
their hands between handling patients.

According to Dr. Don Goldmann, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard
Medical School and hospital epidemiologist at Children's Hospital
Boston, in most outbreaks "it's concluded that the organism was
transmitted from baby to baby or patient to patient because the hand
hygiene was not perfect."

Dr. Gewitz said that compared with other medical facilities around the
country, Westchester Medical Center has a very low death rate - 40
percent - among the most severely infirmed premature babies - those
weighing below or around 1 pound.

The medical center reported the outbreak to the New York State
Department of Health within the past two weeks, officials said, and a
department spokesman confirmed on Friday that the state was
investigating the outbreak at the Westchester Medical Center but
declined to comment further.

The outbreak is another setback to the medical center, which has been
suffering a financial crisis that threatens its long-term solvency.
Earlier this week, the Westchester County executive, Andrew J. Spano,
and a county legislator called on the state comptroller to conduct a
thorough audit of the center. The hospital, Hudson Valley's premier
health-care provider, recently announced that it lost $83 million last
year and has projected a loss of $31.6 million this year.

The medical center spun off from the county in 1997 and became a
public benefit corporation, though the county still guarantees a large
amount of the hospital's debt.

The hospital has been the subject of several recent wrongful death
charges. In 2000, a 6-year-old boy died after being hit in the head by
an airborne metal oxygen tank during a magnetic resonance imaging
test. The hospital quickly admitted its error and was fined by the
state.

article 2 :

Westchester Medical Center faces $100M suit

By TIMOTHY O'CONNOR
THE JOURNAL NEWS

WHITE PLAINS — A year ago today, 12-year-old Michael Tyler Fisher of
North Castle was admitted to Westchester Medical Center complaining of
a severe headache.

A day and a half later, the boy was dead.

Yesterday, the boy's family filed official notice they intend to sue
the hospital, charging that the staff improperly administered the
child a lethal drug cocktail. After the staff gave the boy the
painkillers morphine and fentanyl, they failed to conduct proper tests
or to monitor his condition, the family charged in legal papers.

"They administered inappropriate medication to this child," said John
Q. Kelly, the lawyer representing the child's estate and his parents,
Steven and Elissa Fisher. "It's right there on the labels: These drugs
are not for children and are only for chronic pain like cancer, not
acute pain."

Michael Fisher was an heir to the real estate empire of Fisher
Brothers, a New York City firm that owns high-end office buildings
throughout Manhattan. The notice of claim filed on the hospital in
Valhalla is a necessary precursor to an eventual lawsuit that will be
filed in state Supreme Court in White Plains, Kelly said. The filing
says the family will seek $100 million in damages.

The notice comes on the heels of the disclosure of severe financial
problems at the hospital that have pushed the institution to the brink
of insolvency. The hospital has lost up to $157 million since 2001,
and may lose about $50 million this year. Last week, Moody's Investors
Service downgraded the hospital's credit rating to one level above
junk-bond status.

The county owned the hospital until Jan. 1, 1998, when it was spun off
as a public-benefit corporation. Should the hospital fail, the
county's most immediate liability would be making good on the medical
center's $263 million in debt. Beyond that, the county is examining
the agreement that allowed it to spin off the hospital to determine if
it would have even more liabilities.

The hospital's lawyer, John Corgan, yesterday defended the medical
treatment Michael received and said the family was trying to gouge the
hospital.

"To attempt to blame the medical center in order to extract a huge
payment is unconscionable," Corgan said.

He called the boy's death "a terrible tragedy." The hospital, he said,
had conducted a "thorough review" of the procedures followed by the
staff in treating Michael and determined that appropriate care was
administered. He pointed the finger of blame at the dead boy's family.

"There was substantial, extraordinary parental interference that
severely impeded the medical staff's ability to do their jobs," he
said. He declined to offer details.

Kelly, who represented the family of Nicole Brown Simpson in their
successful wrongful-death lawsuit against O.J. Simpson, reacted
angrily to Corgan's comments.

"That's absolutely false," he said. "Whatever happened, it's their
responsibility to take appropriate measures. Their responsibility is
to the patient. If they continue to take that stance, it will be
actionable itself."

The state Health Department is investigating the Michael Fisher case,
but spokesman Rob Kenny said he could not release details.

Fisher was taken to the hospital on the evening of Jan. 15, 2003, and
admitted about 9 p.m., according to the notice of claim. Kelly said
the boy had a severe headache that night and had never been
hospitalized before. He said he did not suffer from any chronic
medical condition. He died about 8:50 a.m. on Jan. 17 from "acute
mixed-drug intoxication," according to the notice.

Carin Grossman, a hospital spokeswoman, said, "This is a very tragic
matter, and Westchester Medical Center offers its condolences to the
Fisher family."

But she echoed Corgan's statements that the hospital had reviewed the
boy's treatment and determined it was appropriate.

Kelly said the eventual lawsuit will contradict that assertion.

"We feel confident that they did otherwise," he said.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

so "jwismille", while i am not apt to get into a nefarious diatribe i
will due my conscionable best to back my acts with facts. if you want
to get into a battle of wits you better come armed next time brother.

i'll have a nice day if the Jets win.... ciao bella.

jwismille@aol.com (JWismille) wrote in message news:<20041204160144.11401.00001738@mb-m29.aol.com>...

>FOWARDED TO TOM R. IN THE LEGAL DEPT.
>
>
>Have a nice day

Relevant Pages

  • South Korea Joins Lucrative Practice of Inviting Medical Tourists to Its Hospitals
    ... South Korea Joins Lucrative Practice of Inviting Medical Tourists to Its Hospitals ... West of Seoul, on the muddy beaches of Inchon where American troops splashed ashore 58 years ago to fight in the Korean War, a new steel-and-glass town is rising to attract foreign visitors, including medical tourists. ... But clinics and the South Korean government are trying hard to attract these tourists, who not only bring in money for cash-strapped hospitals but also help the economy by staying on to shop and sightsee after their procedure is over. ... Gregory Kellstrom, a civilian forklift operator at the American military base in Seoul, decided to go to Wooridul recently to get spinal scans and medication for his back and hip problems instead of returning to the United States. ...
    (soc.senior.issues)
  • Re: St. Margarets Hospital of Dyer, Indiana ---Abuse, Malpractice, Incompetence, and Lie
    ... St. Margaret's Imports Part-Time Incompetent Third World Doctor to ... This incompetent Pakistani doctor treated my son at St. ... providing the wrong medication to a patient that did not contribute, ... hospitals to have affordable surgeries, because GREED is not the name ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Stigma.
    ... influence that they can abuse and use their trust with impunity.. ... You cannot see what an overdose of nerve block looks like... ... Why do you think the only medication not signed for is the very nerve ... Hospitals do not treat just anyone like this,, it happens because of ...
    (uk.legal)
  • Re: The Bullshit Parade
    ... how much medication can be included... ... regulating physicians, as it currently stands. ... they can charge and their profitability. ... hospitals are businesses and are ...
    (sci.med.cardiology)
  • Re: The Bullshit Parade
    ... how much medication can be included... ... regulating physicians, as it currently stands. ... they can charge and their profitability. ... hospitals are businesses and are ...
    (sci.med.nutrition)