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CB Medical Negligence and Deficiency Ohsu aren't medical staff supposed to listen to their patients?
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Ohsu review: aren't medical staff supposed to listen to their patients? 10

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recount of things that happened at ohsu starting march 30 2009. my MIL ( mother in law) was transferred from silverton hosp. To ohsu. She is 61 years old, also right leg amputee w/ mrsa infection in right groin/ w/ infection spread down through her right stump, appearing very swollen and red, very painful for her especially to the touch, she also has a history of a broken foot on her left side as well as an oct. of 08 sprained knee, also she has a history of fractured hips and back all of which give her a fair amount of trouble.

The first disturbing incident was with a c n a I didnt get her name but she was the day c n a working on march 30th w/ the nurse aaron on 11k for room 8. anyways she shows up, keep in mind my MIL has 103 degree fever and is under a lot of pain medication, with out of control chills from fever, she shows up and tells her shes going to go for a ct scan while she has the bed to transport her in the hall way outside of her room. She told my mil she needed her to walk out into the hall way and get in that bed to go for testing. She immediately states well how do you expect me to do that!? I said she only has 1 leg! She says I know, its not that far can you hop! It was @ least 12 feet away! My mil says why no I can't and the c na still insisting says what if I get you a walker. She says no. I told the c na how bout u get her a wheel chair! She still tries to convince my mil that she could just hop out there and she will help her. Finally her son robert stood up and firmly states NO ITS NOT HAPPENING! She is not hopping out there! So reluctantly she brings in the stretcher to the room. What a ditz I can't believe she even asked her to hop! The c n a was a blonde haired, w/ hair shorter than shoulder length, very young about 20 something I wish I could remember her name.

Other issues we had during our ohsu sentence, my mil has over 20 different medications she takes for various reasons. So normally anytime she has to go to the hospital it is very common for a dr to take the time to go over her lengthy med list with us. Well not here. I had to ask every nurse over and over again about her meds. The nurse who was there, Aaron when she first arrived was the one who I first tried to go over them with. For starters she takes requip for restless legs syndrome 1- 2 mg tab @ bedtime she has been taking that for years. Suddenly I find out that they are giving it to her 3 x daily why you ask? As did I. But all I got was the answer of it was just a clerical thing and they would contact pharmacy and fix it! That was said by the dr who saw her the first night didn't get his name though either, I just know that he was the dr that was in to see her second on the 30th. OK well I realized later that when aaron the first nurse was going through the med list with me at the computer he asked me about her having parkinsons I couldnt understand why but now I do, parkinsons is sometimes treated w/ requip 3 x daily! So it is my guess that although he heard me answer no about the parkinsons his mouse finger just clicked the 3 x daily for requip button or he did it before when he assumed she had parkinson. needless to say that was never corrected! she was taking that 3 times daily until released. what a joke.

Another medication error which was stressed to the drs and the nurses over and over again but nobody would listen they were so arrogant like I didn't have a clue! she takes skelaxin 800 mg tablets 4 x daily for controlling right leg severe muscle spasms, she has been taking that for almost 6 months and for the most part her muscle spasms are controlled. I tried to get them to hear me I stated over and over again if she stops this medication as soon as her levels start dropping she will be in constant spasm! Did they care? NO because they stopped it. No one could tell me why. So this is her spasm medications process: she takes the skelaxin 4 x daily / she has a few breakthrough spasms now and then so she takes Robaxin as needed for breakthrough spasms every 6 hours PRN. Well everyday all day she was hanging on for dear life ( onto the bedrails) screaming in horrible pain from constant muscle spasms in her right stump for 6 days they would only ad minister the robaxin for them which by itself is basically a band aide for the moment. Finally I stopped the vascular dr. and showed him the bottle I brought from home and I explained it to him hoping maybe he would listen and do something about it and he did. she started taking them again on about the 6th day of her stay.

Another medication they were giving improperly was a newer medication to my mil shes only been on it for about 3 months but it has been able to help her immensly. For about 4 months my mil was suffering from terrible heartburn, nausea, and vomiting on a daily basis. She was already taking prilosec every morning and eating tums right and left which never helped. She was able to see gastroenterologist a few months ago where they performed a colonoscopy and upper Gi endoscopy to try and find the problem. Well they said she had gerd and another issue dont recall at this time what it was but he prescribed sucralfate aka carafate, 4 times a day the directions are clearly stated on the bottle which were clearly written on her med list and was clearly stated each and everyday at the hospital to each and every nurse and dr who would pretend to listen they all in turn told me they would make a note and several said they would contact pharmacy to get the time they were scheduling the med corrected well it happened on the 7th day she was there only after I called administration. The directions for her medication was as follows take 1 tab before each meal and 1 @ bedtime on the side of the bottle where all the warning labels are located was a sticker that said shoud be taken on empty stomach 1 hour before meal or 2 hours after a meal well since dr prescribed it before meals that means 1 hour before each meal. Well they were giving it to her whenever, with a meal whenever they got around to it. So needless to say she was vomiting and nauseas with severe heartburn continously the entire time she was there. Until the day before she was released they didn't get that fixed. Just so you know the day she came home and we got her back on her stomach pills right, is the day she stopped having nausea and vomiting! Go figure!

On the moring of the 5th I had called my MIL and was talking to her when the nurse came in to give her her meds and she was going over them with her and she mentioned she was giving her lipitor and my mil said no I take that at night! And the nurse says we didn't give it to you last night so we are giving it to you now. She then said she was giving her her potassium and aspirin and iron and nuerontin and coreg well I heard that and I asked her ( my mil) if she had eaten yet and she said no! I told her to please tell the nurse that she shouldnt give you those pill w/out food cause they make you sick and she told her that she couldn't take them on an empty stomach and that she had not been given her hour before pill( sucralfate) so she couldn't eat yet. the nurse said she was getting that with the rest of her meds. ok well since she wouldn't listen to my mil I told her to put the nurse on the phone then when she told the nurse that she needed to talk to me on the phone about her medicine the nurse told her I'm not talking to anybody until you take these pills. I could not believe it. So my mil took the pills and when the nurse got on the phone I tore into her I told her what was she thinking treating her like that? Half of that handful of pills you just forced her to take are directed to be given w' food! And one of them is directed to be given 1 hour befor a meal I told her I thought she was very rude to treat my mil like that and to completely disregard her requests and if she wasn't going to listen to her that she should please talk to her caregiver on the phone. Well apparently grace was frustrated and she said that it was the first time she had taken care of her and that she was just following directions, she also let me know that out of all four of her patients my mil was the only one she has seen. Which doesn't explain anything if you ask me! I will tell you that finally this nurse grace got the point about this medication though, she went right out and called the pharmacy and got it straightened out .wow I guess I just had to get mad. I had almost given up trying to advocate for her about her meds because I had spoke to the charge nurse that was on the day before about the same thing and she told me it would get fixed! it was so discourageing to find a hospital with medical staff that would so blatenly treat people like this.

Another issue about discharge med list on the med list the isosorbide mononitrate when she was admitted to ohsu her regular dose was 30 mg twice daily well on the discharge instructions they say 3 mg twice daily? well it must be a typo because there wasn't a new prescription for it so I hope its right! because once again when I asked questions they never got answered! OHSU IS BY FAR THE WORST HOSPITAL EVER! AND WE HAVE BEEN TO MANY!

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Blue Sam
Vancouver, US
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Jul 18, 2009 9:07 am EDT

I had a bad experience with an Cardiac ICU male nurse named Bill on 8C at the main hospital there as well. He was very arrogant and made me feel like I was interfering with his work when I expressed concern about the care of my family member. He had a fairly bad attitude and perhaps hostility towards patients' family members.

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OHSU is terrible
Portla, US
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Aug 07, 2009 8:42 pm EDT

I agree whole-heartedly about OHSU. I'm ashamed to have worked for them. If you think they treat their patients horribly, don't work for them. You get treated even worse.

I was referred to Orthopaedics today to see Dr. Veri. DO NOT see him. He will send in a ### named Matt (resident) who will be heartless, insensitive, raise his voice to you, not care about what you have to say and interrupt you to answer his own questions. I was treated less humanely than a dog at the pound. Then Dr. Veri comes in with the resident and someone else, sits there for less than 3 minutes, and tells me that I have a badly sprained ankle and it'll just take time to heal. Didn't examine me, didn't ask me any questions, didn't even look at the x-rays. I guess that's what he had his little monkey do for him. I'm appalled that I was treated in this manner. I am never going back to OHSU.

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J Sears
Clearwater, US
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Feb 19, 2010 12:09 am EST

We had very poor experience at OHSU with the birth of our son. Very poor attendance by physicians despite an obviously difficult birth.

When he showed delayed development we found that despite a good case (per a top malpractice attorney) we could not sue because they are protected as a government institution from judgment by a $100, 000 cap.

Arrogance due to lack of culpability is how I remember our experience at OHSU.

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kxwolfe
US
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Jun 30, 2011 10:30 pm EDT
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Yes, OHSU is a horrific place. I went to their new Family Medicine Clinic on the South Waterfront, and got the resident from hell. I said I had pain in my feet - she accused me of trying to get drugs. I told her I wasn't interested in drugs, just finding out what was going on - she accused me of being mentally ill. After shouting at me that I kept talking about my pain (she did ask what was wrong) she wrote in my chart that I was narcissistic and hypochondriac. Thankfully I got that taken off - I'd probably never be taken seriously by another doctor if I hadn't.

A week later I walked into another doctor's office, he whacked a tuning fork on the table and pressed it to my leg, and we had a diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy in about two minutes. Resident from hell wouldn't deign to examine me.

The thing is, it's easier to make money if you charge for care, but don't give any care. OHSU obviously, repeatedly, and egregiously chooses to not give the patient care they're paid to give. It should be a crime - unfortunately it isn't.

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callvictory
Portland, US
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Nov 04, 2011 10:56 pm EDT
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My mother had a pancreas cancer, which was surgecally removed by Dr. Sheppard team. First, I was very thankful to Dr. Shappard, but only until my mom had to go through hell at OHSU experiencing all possible complications from teh surgery (inner skin infection, abscess, pneumonia, etc. all related to the surgery). The staff is unprofessional. I only liked one CNA who really cared. His name is Jeremy. The RNs at the ICU on the 7th floor, were careless, rude, and brutal. The RN, Sarah, was inferrior with me when I asked questions aout my mom's care. I only seen the Dr. Shappard once after teh surgery because the rest of the after surgery "care" was done by residents and PN in training. They totally ignored me addressing issues with my mom's health such as change in her skin color, her new pain, etc. All I heard that it's all normal... Soon after releasing mom from the hospital we had to rush her back to OHSU emergency department, but it's even worse. Instead of helping her, all they did sending a lower grade personal to examine her instead of having to see her by experienced MD. Each time she would leave teh emergency department in much worse condition than before. One time they had CT scan done suspecting an abcsess due to surgery, but the results were read again by a resident. He said that she just has a melted fat around the scar tissue, which is normal due to surgery. The result is that now my mom is suffering from extensive abcsess and almost died if I would not take her to Providence, where St. Vincent's Emergency Department doctors finally diagnozed her with abcsess and sent us back to OHSU. Mom was operated again, but the drainage was done by a resident again. The result is that she is in much worse pain and it goes on and on. When I spoke to a Resident - Dr. Witten- he raised his voice and was yelling at me. He also suggested that if I do not like the care at the OHSU than I should not come back here. Please avoid this hospital if you can.

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Captv8
Hillsboro, US
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Sep 20, 2012 1:55 pm EDT
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I had a surgery for my back a couple years ago. I will not say the name but it was an asian surgeon for the spine center. I had incisions both front and back and many IV's on being in the side of my neck. I was not comfortable because there was no side I could lay on that did not have something very painful. After 24 hours the stopped caring for me the level I needed cared for. Most of the male nurses were kind and several of the female but 80% of the staff disrespected me and neglected me. I became more and more terrified the longer I was there and the nurses became more and more horrible to me. It was clear they did not help me so that I would have to do it for myself. It is a very helpless feeling begging for help and being treated like you are a pain. I was told multiple times to do it myself and " I saw you walk to the bathroom you can do it yourself" I never once had help in the bathroom. Turning myself and being pushed to hard by PT and lack of help with the bathroom caused something to tweak the 4th day. It was agonizing. The nurses treated me like I was a wuss and like I was a pain in their hineys even though I rarely saw them. I never once yelled or cursed. I begged for help for hours and because they refused to leave my door closed I had to lay there unable to shout because of the incisions and the breathing tube induced throat pain and listen to them laughing and gossiping at the nurses station for days while telling me to do it myself when I asked for help turning, bathroom, water, ice packs etc. The PT treated me horribly and lied to me and demeaned me to get me to do things they wanted. I don't appreciate their tactics of leaving you somewhere so you are forced to either be upright for as long as they want or to have to move yourself. It is disrespectful and made me angry and scared. I will never forget laying there (room was at nurses station) and needing help and when they finally came being treated horribly. The day after surgery I had told the surgeon that all of a sudden I was not getting the help I did right after the surgery (obviosuly they had changed my status) was not being helped and that the nurses that I was getting were very unkind and that the PT was traumatizing me with the "trick"tactics they were using. Because no one would shut my door I heard him go 20 feet away and talk to them and they laughed. After that it was like they had put some code in my chart and I was punished for daring to ask for better care and help turning. The surgeon did not come after that it was uncaring underlings who he sent instead who did nothing for the issues I was having. I had an allergic reaction to the latex catheter and the adhesive for all my incisions. Nothing was done. I had contact eczema for a year seeing mutiple dr's and two specialists to try to rid myself of this humiliating rash in a private place. Can you imagine? I have scarring around my groin from the horrible eczema for so long and around the incisions from the large blisters I had for a month on my incisions as I was unble to care for myself. They knew I was having a reaction to both things I dont understand why they didnt do anything about it then. It would have saved me so much humiliation and pain afterwards. I have nightmares about being unable to get up and leave that situation and it has been a couple years. I never understood what post traumatic disorders were but I get it now heh. Having a new roommate brought in the last 24 hours or so was a nightmare also. She was not awake and they wanted her to start being more alert so they would come in and yell at her and shake the bed and knuckle her ribs on her chest to hurt her to wake her. If I dared ask that dr or nurse for help I was lashed out at as they were not there for me. The treatment of myself and the constant yelling at her terrified me and I was already in a constant panic mode at that point.

A night nurse on the third night took my pain pump and rolled it away from the bed so that I could not press the button on the cord winding the cord up on the thing as she rolled it away. She told me I needed to stop using it which I am sure you all dealt with it was a common thing to be harped on by each nurse about pain meds. My pain meds were not given timely in general. On the third night when the am shift came a two hour pain med I was not given for 5 hours. They took me off of the pain pump and then left me to rot in agony and with a high temp. The cruel night nurse had not sealed an icepack properly and it had dumped in my bed. I begged and begged for help to the call button and the person stopped answering the call after telling me the nurse had an emergency patient and would come when she could. I begged for any other person to come give pain meds and to help me get out of the wet bed. I laid in a wet cold bed with no meds for 5 hours the night they took me off the morphine pump for the first time. Every agonizing minute was pure terror. After this I really didnt do well. I was scared and did not trust the hospital staff. It was a mental shift for me I could not come back from and each staff seemed to treat me worse and worse. I spent hours crying that last 24 hours I was there.
I had to have a revision surgery a week later because something was wrong. Being the person this happened to I know it was because of my lack of care. I had to do to much ...something was injured when I was tricked yet again by PT and they had me walk to farl. I was already doing to much for myself. I felt it happen and then I was in excuruciating pain. I couldnt breath the pain wa so severe. It took hours for the nurse to notify my dr because at first I was treated as if I was pill seeking and ignored. I made my family come from Salem and was having an anxiety attack and was in overwhelming pain. I told my family to come get me that I needed help. They finally had the doctor come and he signed me out lol I never should have been allowed to leave. I took a huge backslide could no longer even move and he released me. I thought I was going home to die. I had that flight instinct that these people were going to kill me. I was on massive amounts of painkillers I had a fever and I just wanted to feel safe. I was IN a hosptial and felt like I needed to call 911 mutiple times I was in such critical need of help and helpless.

After the second surgery the help I had arranged for the first surgery were not there. I could not care for myself. I spoke with ohsu frequently and they did not help me. I asked to be sent to a nursing home. I was told I could make an appointment and come in to see him but that there was nothing they would do that I needed to contact my primary care physician from now on. I was abandoned. I was hospitalized when I was found none responsive by a friend. my blood pressure was critically low it was 60/50 and my heart was iiregular I think he finally did it I think he almost did kill me with his lack of medical care. They pumped fluids and ran tests because I still had a fever. I was able to call ohsu in the morning and the dr said to call my primary care. The lack of care caused something to happen to me and I still have some sort of weird low blood pressure thing undiagnosed. No one is able to tell me what is wrong with me I only know when it started. The last time I saw this dr I was in a wheelchair because I could not stand or I would pass out from the low blood pressure. He told me that I was lucky and that his mother had low blood pressure he wished that he had this problem and laughed at me.
I read all of the paperwork diligently before the surgery. My mother came with me to every appointment and every post op pre op etc and read every bit of material provided. No where in the paper work did it say that after three months the surgeon would no longer provide medication refills that the primary care would need to. I called for a refill the third month and they refused. Even though I was still in a wheelchair and had some horrible low blood pressure condition I was told I was fine and no longer needed medication. I cant relay to you the amount of medication I was on. Would have put down an elephant hehe. I was out of medication and they did ultimately provide refills but it took 5 days until they sent the refills. I had morphine withdrawals for 5 days again thinking the dr was going to kill me. The thing that made me most angry with that one was that my refill message (that is documented in the chart by the way) to them was that I was going to wean off the morphine and lower the others that month. It was not even like I was pill seeking. It was very dangerous to cold turkey me off of mutiple pain medications. This dr is cruel and neglectful. He should not BE a dr. It was like the medical board was covering for him when I wrote the complaint it was weird.
If anyone ever has no choice but to be treated at OHSU their family and friends need to be in the room with the person 24 hours. Someone needs to be with the person even at night because the neglect is severe at night. At night they know you cant tattle on them and that no family will be there to complain so they dont even attempt to be decent. I complained two years after the surgery to the medical board and they did nothing. I did not want to sue the hospital, I wanted my surgeon to be accountable for neglecting me and not ensuring the nurses were more professional when I complained ot him about my lack of help. I wanted the nurses who terrified me and abused me, neglected me to be accountable. I want to look them all in the face and tell them how I feel about their treatment. I think I had to file a civil suit for me to be able to file the complaint or something? I dont understand why he did nothing when I was clearly having an allergic reaction to the tape and the catheter. I dont understand how when I was so ill from being unable to care for myself after the surgery why he did not send me to a nursing home or have me come there where there where his colleagues are specialists and could have helped. He never offered to have a nurse come to my home and look at me which I also asked for when I was not doing well at home. I am supposed to have two other surgeries and I am so terrified of being treated like this again I cannot do it. There were so many more things that happened in that short period but this is already long enough.

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TenishaTruth
US
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Sep 20, 2012 5:25 pm EDT

OHSU knowingly and openly discriminates against their patients. Have had staff provoke and engage in rude abusive behavior. Then turn it on me..I have serious disability s. What's ur excuse! Wish I could get paid to play GOD with others health.

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juliehandsaker
Portland, US
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Nov 21, 2012 10:03 pm EST
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Has anyone ever enjoyed a negative encounter with Allison Fox FNP at OSHU Richmond Clinic?

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Captv8
Hillsboro, US
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Mar 26, 2014 8:33 pm EDT
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I posted here in 2012. I want to tell this thread what I found was wrong with me that was caused by OHSU and untreated afterwards for 4 years until I was bedbound this last year. What I have been dealing with is Adrenal Insufficiency. The surgeon induced it. The spine Surgeon Dr. Yuu (Sp?) had me take steroids in between the surgery and the surgery following it when the first was botched and screw put in to long and when already in a fragile state after a major surgery did another one it caused my adrenals to no longer function properly. The reason it has been intermittent but slowly got worse was because it is antagonized by stress, illness or trauma of any sort. The poorly functional adrenals caused my other hormones and organs not to function properly. It has been so many years like this it will take years to recover from their negligence. Having the knowledge I do now I look back with such anger that OHSU surgeons should absolutely be aware that when someone has a crashing blood pressure after surgery to check for adrenal insufficiency and it is extremely life threatening. I am very lucky to be alive. I had made a complaint to the medical board about this a couple years ago and they did nothing. I am to ill to see if there is anything I can do legally now that 4 years later I know what it did to me. A hospital full of specialists and they did not catch this nor try.

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Teresa Boze
US
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Jun 16, 2017 6:29 pm EDT

It's called a mill. OHSU runs a spine mill. people re not assessed for surgery by surgically qualified medical personnel. The surgeons certifying board office told me that the medical organization a doctor works for is responsible for providing patients with certification status. OHSU refuses to do so. That PA named Matt? (SEE: OHSU is Terrible, 2009) The Spine Clinic says they trained him, when I asked how he was qualified to discuss surgery. I asked if he had certifiable training of any kind in surgery, and was told that no, since they had trained him in the office, that was good enough. The state medical board says that OHSU is a private for profit, and ergo very little governs the standards of care regarding who does what as trained to do it. Thus, CNAs telling people to hop on one leg, with the other missing; PA's intimidating patients to compensate for incompetence. And I still can't get my meds records straightened out at other medical care facilities, because of OHSU's ineptitude at record keeping and their IT department's using the ability to turn off features of the technology so they don't have to bother with the security aspects with it. The place is a rat hole of untouchable incompetency because of their status and the big draw for medical and tech research satellites to open offices in Oregon. The reason they do not prescribe pain meds is because they do not provide training in opioid meds and conditions to the PCP's required to prescribe those. The entire organization is run that way. And if you talk to other docs in other hospitals, what you will hear is that those who trained or worked at OHSU were so glad to "... get out of there!" The only things they seem good at is not treating patients they think might be able to sue, but not telling them what is being left to rot until they are in too deep to find help that will change a now intractable condition. Take you loved ones up to the hospitals in Washington or California if you can. Oregon treats its medical regulation over site like it treats its discrimination laws - there aren't any. There is only policy; suggested guidelines.