Aa
encephalitis
My 29 year old son just died. Listed in death certificate cardiac arrest (removed from life support), encephalitis and delerium. How hard is encephalitis to diagnose and how possible is it that an adult man could go to the hosptial 4 times compalining of being so ill he needs to be admitted and his encephalitis be missed.
He had chest xrays each day. He had blood work, urology, CT scan, lab bact-micr, ekg each of the visits. He was prescribed. Each time they said they could find nothing wrong with him and refused to admit him.
They prescribed doxycycline, prednasone, and hydrocodone his first visit. oxy the second visit and lorazepam the last visit.
Prednasone possibly made the brain infection worse. He took the doxy and then could no longer go to the bathroom. He lost control of his ability to walk and could not longer feel his chest. He went to another hospital (5th) visit. They did all the same tests and said nothing was wrong and were going to send him home, until they cathed him. His urine was coca cola coler (possible doxy side effect). he was transported to another hospital where he went into a coma and died 8 days later.
An MRI was only perfromed after he had been unresponsive for 3 days.At this time (first time it was found!) they discovered swelling in his brain stem. A lumbar puncture was done on the 4th day of his coma. The hospital told us he had meningitis, would most likely never come out of his coma, and indeed he never did.
My question is how in the world could no one have noticed the signs of encephalitis. He presented in almost a text book way. Showed all the symptons. Five different doctors found nothing wrong and then prescribed medicines that possible made his illness worse!
Encephalitis is not a terribly rare disease. Why would they continue to run the sametests over and over again? Why did they do repeated CT scans and not an MRI??
Is it common to miss encephalits?
Thank you
He had chest xrays each day. He had blood work, urology, CT scan, lab bact-micr, ekg each of the visits. He was prescribed. Each time they said they could find nothing wrong with him and refused to admit him.
They prescribed doxycycline, prednasone, and hydrocodone his first visit. oxy the second visit and lorazepam the last visit.
Prednasone possibly made the brain infection worse. He took the doxy and then could no longer go to the bathroom. He lost control of his ability to walk and could not longer feel his chest. He went to another hospital (5th) visit. They did all the same tests and said nothing was wrong and were going to send him home, until they cathed him. His urine was coca cola coler (possible doxy side effect). he was transported to another hospital where he went into a coma and died 8 days later.
An MRI was only perfromed after he had been unresponsive for 3 days.At this time (first time it was found!) they discovered swelling in his brain stem. A lumbar puncture was done on the 4th day of his coma. The hospital told us he had meningitis, would most likely never come out of his coma, and indeed he never did.
My question is how in the world could no one have noticed the signs of encephalitis. He presented in almost a text book way. Showed all the symptons. Five different doctors found nothing wrong and then prescribed medicines that possible made his illness worse!
Encephalitis is not a terribly rare disease. Why would they continue to run the sametests over and over again? Why did they do repeated CT scans and not an MRI??
Is it common to miss encephalits?
Thank you
I apologize, I meant to also say that I am truly sorry for your loss and I will be keeping your family in my thoughts and prayers.
Hi,
Are there any doctors you trust who you can ask about this, who did not treat him? You could bring all his records/CT scans/bloodwork results with you. Unfortunately, since there are so many diseases with so many similar symptoms it can often be difficult for a doctor to diagnose the right one, even if they do everything right.
If you really think that it may be a malpractice issue, you might consider contacting a lawyer who specializes in it. Usually these lawyers don't take a fee up front, they take a percentage of the monetary settlement you recieve and if you do not win your case they do not get any money. Therefore they are more likely to only take cases that they think have a solid claim and that they could win in court. So if they don't think it's malpractice, it probably wasn't.
I hope you find some answers, and some peace of mind.
E
Are there any doctors you trust who you can ask about this, who did not treat him? You could bring all his records/CT scans/bloodwork results with you. Unfortunately, since there are so many diseases with so many similar symptoms it can often be difficult for a doctor to diagnose the right one, even if they do everything right.
If you really think that it may be a malpractice issue, you might consider contacting a lawyer who specializes in it. Usually these lawyers don't take a fee up front, they take a percentage of the monetary settlement you recieve and if you do not win your case they do not get any money. Therefore they are more likely to only take cases that they think have a solid claim and that they could win in court. So if they don't think it's malpractice, it probably wasn't.
I hope you find some answers, and some peace of mind.
E
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