Some doctors, hospitals and medical groups are now making it policy to apologize to patients and families who have been harmed by medical errors.
It’s about time. Before I go farther, though, let me just say I understand the reason for not admitting guilt. You’d have to live under a rock to not know we live in an exceedingly litigious country. That being said, though, I think many potential litigants are like my family: We just want to hear, “We apologize.”
My experience with medical errors stretches back to May 1990, when my mother found a lump in her breast. It hurt. She went to see her doctor, who ordered a mammogram and then sent her a letter stating, in essence, “Nothing to worry about. Appears to be a cyst. Check back with me in six months.” Six months later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. And no, the doctor didn’t apologize.
Fast-forward five years. Mom had been cancer-free for five years when she once again began experiencing pain in her chest. She went to the doctor, who ordered diagnostic tests. We were thrilled when we found out, just two days before Christmas, that the tests were clear and the problem was likely scar tissue. Two months later, the same tests were performed again, with a much different result. The kicker was that the first chest X-ray clearly showed a vast amount of fluid in her chest. Whoever had read the X-ray had misread it. And no, there was no apology forthcoming.
Fast-forward four years. The breast cancer was back with a vengeance and had spread to the bone. She had a hip replacement and was released from the hospital less than five days later — too soon, we thought, but the insurance company demanded it. So much for patient choice. Two weeks later, she was back in a different, smaller hospital closer to home to treat an infection. I was able to travel the distance necessary to see her the first night she was admitted, but I wasn’t able to go the day after. When I talked to her on the phone, she was in extreme pain. She insisted it was different from all the other pain she’d experienced, which by then was often excruciating. Three hours later, she described the stomach pain as “worse than childbirth.” The reason for the agony only became clear the next morning, when my aunt visited and discovered her curled on the bed, writhing and moaning. Her bed was soaked and urine was on the floor. She summoned a nurse, who found that the catheter had been inserted wrongly or had shifted soon after insertion. For nearly 24 hours, she had put out little fluid and complained repeatedly of intense pain, but apparently no one thought to check the catheter or fluid output.
I was then, and am to this day, beyond fury. I wrote a letter to the administrator of the hospital and received a cursory reply stating that there hadn’t been a mistake and that all procedures had been followed and that the charts indicated there had been no problem and therefore, there was no problem.
Now, if we’d been in the mood to sue, I would have done it then. I didn’t want to sue anyone. I just wanted to hear, “We’re sorry,” along with an explanation as to why the error had happened and, if it was a procedural problem, what was being done to prevent it from happening again.
I would have signed a paper waiving my right to sue just to hear those words. Instead, we got lies and cover-up. I’m angry all over again just thinking about it. I would never set foot in that hospital again. And I tell everyone I can about the story.
Is it really so hard to say, “I’m sorry?”
