My Wife Was In And Out Of The Hospital For Almost 3 Months. Looking For Advice For Lawsuit.

Hello,

This is going to be a long one. I'm sorry in advance for anything that is unclear or for grammar or spelling mistakes. Ill try my best to cover all the revelant facts. My hopes for this post is to see my options or the best path forward.

This all happened in our home state of Massachusetts.

My wife gave birth to our son in June of last year. During that time she was admitted for pre-eclampsia and met the full term conditions. My wife was barely conscious unable to breathe and had no energy to move around. The doctor recommended she get a C-section immediately. 6 hours later me and my wife were holding our beautiful son. She was sent to the SICU and was under observation for a couple days. She was later transfered to maternity.

From there. My wifes condition began to deteriorate rapidly. She began vomiting what appear to be stool. My wife was then intubated for surgery and shipped to the OR. It turned out during the C-section they perforated her small intestine and was leaking stool into her abdominal cavity for three days.

Surgery went well and my wife remained intubated. She was unconscious for two days and placed in the SICU.

During this time the medical staff were constantly trying to manage my wifes medical condition. (Shortness of breath. Weakness. Massive infection in her abdominal cavity. And wound care.) During most of her stay. She was in a constant state of difficulty breathing. ( which i will reveal later on the cause but it was unknown to us at the time).

During this hospital visit the attending of the SICU told me and my wife. He knew she had a perforated bowel and did not act on it. I have a recording of this but unfortunately in my state since I did not inform him of me doing so. It cannot be used in court. The same attending continuously tried to have my son discharged and my wife moved to a different floor. My wife was incredibly depressed. From her being post partem, being separated from her first born child and the incredible amount of trauma done to her body.

We requested some more time to stay in the SICU so that my son would still be able to visit from the nursery. The surgical unit they wanted to transfer my wife to. Did not allow new borns on the floor. We were assured by a hospital social worker that my sons stay would not be billed to us and he would stay at the hospital until my wife was discharged.

Both surgical and the SICU attending began pressuring me and my wife hard. About moving my wife and discharging our son. At the same time the maternity ward attending told us they felt comfortable managing my wifes case. We felt this would be the best scenario since my son would be able to stay and my wife would be able to bond with our son and heal. Ultimately someone in the hierarchy won the arguement and told us she was being moved to surgical. A nurse recommended to us we contact patient advocacy. After some time they came up with a good compromise. They would discharge my son but they would transfer her to a private room in surgical so I could stay overnights with my son if I wanted too.

My wife was transferred and I went home with our son. I feel its important to mention that during this time. They performed a cardiac ultrasound on my wifes heart. They did not inform us my wife had elevated troponin levels. Nor did they tell us why they performed the echo. They just did it. After they said everything was fine and left.

My wife was then discharged just before July 4th with a pic line and home iv antibiotics. which I administered. After 4 or maybe 5 days my wife was unable to walk and could not breath. Under her PCPs instructions we went back to the same hospital thay delivered our son. There she was admitted for another 3 weeks. They reported to us they believe it was post partum pre-eclampsia and treated her with lasix. After three weeks they discharged her. This happened again two more times. Me bringing my wife back to hospital. Only for her to be admitted. Treated for fluid retention and discharged. No new answers and a continuously issue. The third time. I made a last second decision to go to a different hospital. They took my wifes blood in triage and within that hour immediately rushed her into the er. They told us her tropones were indicating a possible heart attack. They perform several test and confirm my wife was in heart failure and had been so for almost two months. My wife did not suffer a heart attack but they said the damage done to her heart was unknown. The hospital admitted her for a week and she was discharged. At no time did the previous hospital consult a cardiologist even with blood tests indicate rising troponin levels.

This is when things got better. My wife came home. Her health began to improve. She was finally able to bond with our son and be a mother. She had a long way to go to heal but we were finally on the right path.

After some time it was recommended to us we seek out a law firm. We did so and after a couple month they told us today. They felt they would not be able to profit or possibly win the law suit. They recommended us to get a second opinion. At this time we are exploring second opinions and looking to see what our options are. We owe about 21 grand in medical debt.

My question is do you think we have a malpractice lawsuit and if not. What are my best options with managing this new debt?

TL;DR - hospital perforated my wifes bowel during c section. Attending admitted to knowing it happened and transfered her anyway. Hospital never consulted a cardiologist after multiple hospital admits even though she was in heart failure.

(I know its a really long read. I left out a ton of stuff I felt was subjective or wasnt pertinent to the story.)

Location: Massachusetts