Woman Becomes Quadruple Amputee After Giving Birth
ORLANDO, Fla. — A Sanford mother says she will never be able to hold her newborn because an Orlando hospital performed a life-altering surgery and, she claims, the hospital refuses to explain why they left her as a multiple amputee.
The woman filed a complaint against Orlando Regional Healthcare Systems, she said, because they won’t tell her exactly what happened. The hospital maintains the woman wants to know information that would violate other patients’ rights.
Claudia Mejia gave birth eight and a half months ago at Orlando Regional South Seminole. She was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando where her arms and legs were amputated. She was told she had streptococcus, a flesh eating bacteria, and toxic shock syndrome, but no further explanation was given.
The hospital, in a letter, wrote that if she wanted to find out exactly what happened, she would have to sue them.
“I want to know what happened. I went to deliver my baby and I came out like this,” Mejia said.
Mejia said after she gave birth to Mathew last spring, she was kept in the hospital with complications. Twelve days after giving birth at Orlando Regional South Seminole hospital, she was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center where she became a quadruple amputee. Now she can not care for or hold her baby.
“Yeah, I want to pick him up. He wants me to pick him up. I can’t. I want to, but I can’t,” she said. “Woke up from surgery and I had no arms and no legs. No one told me anything. My arms and legs were just gone.”
Her 7-year-old son, Jorge, asks his mother over and over what happened to her. Neither she nor her husband has the answer.
“I love her, so I’ll always stick with her and take it a day at a time myself,” said her husband, Tim Edwards.
The couple wants to know how she caught streptococcus, during labor or after. She doesn’t know. She knows she didn’t leave the hospital the same.
“And why, I want to know why this happened,” she said.
Her attorney, Judy Hyman wrote ORHS a letter saying, according to the Florida statute, “The Patients Right To Know About Adverse Medical Incidents Act,” the hospital must give her the records.
“When the statute is named ‘Patients Right To Know,’ I don’t know how it could be clearer,” Hyman said.
The hospital’s lawyers wrote back, “Ms. Mejia’s request may require legal resolution.” In other words, according to their interpretation of the law, Mejia has to sue them to get information about herself.
That’s the sticking point, the interpretation of the Patients Right To Know act, a constitutional amendment Florida voters passed a little more than a year ago.
Mejia’s other attorney, E. Clay Parker, said the hospital is not following the law
“We were forced to file this and ask a judge to interpret the constitutional amendment and do right,” Parker said.
Mejia hopes the right thing is done. She said not knowing exactly why it happened is unbearable. She only hopes she’ll be able to soon answer her little boy’s question, ‘What happened?’
“He told me everyday, ‘What happened,’ and I don’t have any answers for that,” she said.
ORMC said Mejia is requesting information on if there were other patients or someone on her floor with the streptococcus. They said, if they release that to her, that would be a violation of other patients’ rights.
Courtesy of WFTV
Filed Under: Offbeat News
Let’s burn that hospital to the ground!
I mean….WTF?! Are they serious? They screwed up BIG time there…
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Violating other peoples right to what? Also not know what happened to them???
I mean this is seriously messed up. You’d think that the hospital doesn’t want to tell her because then she’ll sue them, but they’re telling her to sue them?
I hope she gets a big fat check from the hospital, and an understanding of what happened.
What I don’t get is how you can get a flesh eating disease in ALL FOUR OF YOUR LIMB but not have it effect the rest of your body. but then again, I’m not a doctor. And they should at least be able to tell her if she had it before she was in the hospital or contracted it during her stay. Smells like malpractice to me.
Obviously the hospital is at fault, and are trying to protect themselves by not releasing the info.
Most people don’t know how bad public hospitals really are. They make mistakes ALL the time, some really really bad ones like this.
My advise: Never go or STAY at one unless you REALLY need to.
WTF
It was just a simple switch-up of papers, by time they found out *oops wrong patient*
Unbelievable! I wonder just how the hospital’s gonna try to get out of this one….I agree with John, it was probably an “oops” mix-up with another patient…but if not, they have some SERIOUS explaining and paying up to do! I hope the family gets through this ordeal….
but they cant just tell her what other people’s disorders are. the too is against the law. and they are right she does have to get the court to order them to tell her. but every other patient that was in the hospital has rights just like she does and she has no business knowing what other people’s problems are. i know its not right but its the law.
I hope there are some serious firings and losses of licenses over this one. These doctors are a menace.
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I think this is the most remorseful thing that could ever happen to anyone in their life and the worst part is not knowing what happened. I think the hospital should be shut down if they cannot give an explaination and if they have made a mistake, its the most bizzare and disgusting mistake anyone could make and after all of it, they don’t even want to apologise or accept it. I believe if they dont feel guilty about it, it can certainly happen again to any one of us and therefore we should as human beings fight for the lady’s rights.
Annie, where does it say that she is looking for information on other peoples’ diseases? The other patients at that hospital don’t have anything to do with the issue, which is why were four of her limbs amputated without any prior consent from her on the issue?
besides, she is not asking who had this disease, all i read was that she asked “if” anyone did, there is no violation of anyones rights there, because its not asking for a name, just if it was present in the hospital or on her floor at the time that she was there
If it had been an immediately caught oops scenario, I’m pretty sure they could have re-attached the limbs. On ice, those things can last a bit. I too want to know how all of her limbs ended up like that. Before doing that type of procedure, they’d need to have patients or families permission. Something about this screams psychotic. I hope the hospital is driven bankrupt, and someone ends up in prison. Going in to deliver a child, and waking up without arms and legs, is like a sick horror story plot.
That was a stupid doctor who didn’t know what was doing. I would sue the hospital and anyone involved. Sue them girl!!!!! The have to be punished for doing this to you. Malpractice pays with jail or loosing the license. Imagine, that could happen again if that stupid continues working.
The doctor who did this should be personally sued also. What kind of doctor would do this to another human being and not even have a consultation with them first? This is really sick and scares me.