In June of my husband went into this hospital with burning chest pain. They had advertised (falsely) that they had "State of the Heart" care. They had this on a billboard at a very bury intersection close to the hospital. Dr. Dale Elliott did stents in his heart and told us that he would keep him there four or five days and then transfer him to another hospital for bypass surgery. We were shocked to find out after the fact that they were not so "State of the Heart". My husband's chest pain never even improved after the heart stents even though Dr. Elliott said it would be gone. My husband continued to burn and his condition deteriorating. When we asked them to move him the next day to a hospital that had surgery available, the charge nurse told us that we could not change hospitals or doctors. Dr. Elliott called me on the phone in the waiting room and threatened me saying that if I tried to change hospitals or doctors, I was cutting off my options to the five largest hospitals in Birmingham and most of the cardiologist because he belonged to the largest group in Birmingham. I was in shock and my family could not believe they were doing this. He said he would get a doctor there to see my husband but he went for 48 hours without seeing a doctor.By then, his mind was going and we were to find out later it was because his blood pressure was so low and his pulse was very high so he was not getting any oxygen to the brain. Five days later they are telling us that he has had another heart attack and he was going to die because they could not get the clots out of their stents. And, of course, we were still in a hospital that could not do surgery. We asked for a transfer to the University of Alabama in Birmingham for a heart transplant evaluation and was again told that he did not have enough heart muscle to live on. Dr. Elliott's plan was to open the ICU room he was in and let us sit by his side until his heart quit. I got in touch with Dr. David McGiffin from UAB and he drove down and moved my husband and his life was saved. However, they had destroyed 80% of his heart muscle and all but one artery. He also has some mild anoxic brain damage due to the lack of oxygen. This was all about politics. Baptist Shelby had not been approved for the procedures they were doing by the Certificate of Need Review Board so it seemed to us that when their stents messed up, it was obviously better for them if he did not live for other hospitals to see the mess they made. They had put their billboard up falsely advertising their services before they got the Certificate of Need so they took it down right after we managed to get my husband out of their hospital and into one that could help him.
My family was emotionally abused by this doctor and hospital and my husband suffered and was in pain for five days. The doctors that had to talk with our family would shout at us and walk away. No one wanted to take the time to answer any questions because they knew they had done so much damage and they were not even suppose to do those services anyway. We now know that they never stopped the heart attack in the first place. I have talked with 2 different CEO's from this hospital and the Vice President of Medical Affairs about this doctor but he still is doing these procedures and he is not even certified in interventional cardiology. They are suppose to be a Baptist affiliated hospital with a mission statement, but they are all about the money. Patient's well being is not a consideration and they surely do not care about patient's rights.
It took my family four months and a court order to get my husband's medical records and they would not even give UAB the medical records they needed to continue my husband's care. To our family, it was criminal behavior but they can get away with it.
Marie
Tarrant, Alabama
U.S.A.
0 comments