Patient Horror Story Raymond Erickson Kaiser Patient - Angiogram results not shared with patient, family has to pursue 2nd opinion just in time to save fathers life.

Kaiser Permanente Patient Horror Story

Raymond Erickson
Fremont, CA
Angiogram results not shared with patient, family has to pursue 2nd opinion just in time to save fathers life. (As told by daughter Joni Canada, RN)

On November 20, 1996 my father was given an angiogram whilst an inpatient. The Doctor who gave our family the results recommended against bypass surgery and wanted to discharge him on trial medications. We were not satisfied with these recommendations and sought a second opinion. The second doctor recommended immediate bypass surgery!

Our father was then transferred to another hospital. During this transport he was not on a cardiac monitor, there was no oxygen on and no intravenous access. This was very concerning to us as he had experienced chest pain prior to the transportation. On arrival at the hospital my father was put in a room and left unattended, he had not been given a call light , no one was visible or even acknowledged his arrival. He then had to crawl out of bed and walk down a long hallway to the nurses station! When the nurses were made aware of this they immediately established intravenous access and transferred him to the Cardiac Care unit.

On November 25, 1996 our father had bypass surgery performed, the surgeon reported that there were significant Electrocardiogram changes and the prior graft site was disintegrating in her hands!

Our family has several concerns, first we do not understand why the first doctor did not disclose the full results of the angiogram to us. Only after our aggressive pursuit of a second opinion and further information was their a decision made to perform what turned out to be life saving surgery. Our father was transported from one hospital to another without advanced life support, this commute took over one hour. This decision could have had a much different outcome. And Finally our father being left unattended, which could have had devastating consequences for an unstable cardiac patient.