"Hey doc, WTF?"

A few years ago I represented the children of a young woman who died from an undetected and untreated pulmonary embolism (PE). A PE is a clot, usually blood, that travels into the lungs from some distant part of the body, most often the legs. Small clots that travel to the lungs can cause shortness of breath, sharp chest pain upon breathing in, back pain and other symptoms. If the clot is large enough it can kill you very quickly. Many times, a large, deadly clot is preceded by small clots. If the presence of small clots is diagnosed, the condition can be easily treated with blood thinners, hence avoiding the formation of a large deadly clot.

My clients' mother presented herself to her doctor in January complaining about shortness of breath, sharp chest pain when breathing in and back pain. She did not have a productive cough and her lungs sounded clear through the physician's stethoscope. The doctor ordered some lab tests that revealed an increase in white blood cells and a reduction in the amount of oxygen in her blood. Additional testing did not reveal the formation of blood clots in her legs. However, a chest scan demonstrated the presence of small emboli. The doctor diagnosed PE and placed her on blood thinners which she took, as ordered and without incident, for six months.

In August of that same year, about two months after the blood thinners were discontinued, the woman went back to see the same doctor . She again complained to him of shortness of breath, sharp chest pain when breathing in and back pain. Like before she did not have a productive cough and her lungs sounded clear. Lab tests revealed an increase in white blood cells and a reduction in the amount of oxygen in her blood. There were no blood clots in her legs. The doctor order a different kind a chest scan than he ordered in January. The August scan showed cloudiness in the left lung, and it was noted that it was difficult to evaluate the small vessels of the lung. The doctor diagnosed the patient not with PE, but with pneumonia. In fact, when I took his deposition many months after the fact, he conceded that in August PE wasn't even on his radar screen for this patient. She died a short time later of PE, suffocating in front of her children.

The case resolved favorably for the woman's family.

Could she have done anything to protect herself, so as not to have been victimized by this clearly incompetent doctor? We trust our doctors. Most of us are inclined to except their opinions, diagnoses and treatment without question. There is, after all, a knowledge gap between them and us. They know things about our bodies that we just don't. They treat diseases and other ailments day after day. Who they hell are we to question. But, question we must. Should my clients' mother have asked her doctor, "Hey, WTF? I was just here 8 months ago with the same symptoms. Don't you think I could be experiencing the same thing now as then?" I know, that's easy for us to say now. It's much harder to think of such things when you don't feel well; when you're vulnerable. The point is not to second guess, but to drive home the notion that we simply must challenge our doctors when something just doesn't seem right. It could end up being a matter of life or death.