My mother Died because of physician negligence. She was admitted to St. Vincent Emergency via ambulance with inability to swallow even a drop of water. She was not given a throat culture. Her lab work noted her white cell count was 1.4, she was immune suppressed due to medication to treat her Rheumatoid Arthritis. This was all on her chart. She was in a neutropenia state and a in SERIOUS condition. He dismissed her with a misdiagnosis of acid reflux and sent her home with a prescription. Over the next 2 days her symptoms became worse. She was critically ill because her immune system had deteriorated to the point she could not fight off the infection in her body that now had started to spread to her other organs. She was admitted again to the emergency room 2 days after the first visit. At this point her condition was very severe and life threatening. She rapidly deteriorated with bacterial strep that lead to sepsis that lead to multiple organ failure that lead to death in 1 week. It is my belief that if she had been properly diagnosed and treated quickly with antibiotics, she would be alive today. Her doctor in ICU said “this should never have happened”!

Submitted April 3, 2019