The American healthcare system is a fucking joke. As an American who never ever needed it before becoming injured, but still had to pay insurance all the time it’s… beyond frustrating.
First let’s talk about Mark.
mark and I were roommates back in 2010, went to college together and what not, good times. He was a good guy, bit obese and very content with himself and his life and everything. We weren’t best friends by any means, but we could go for years without talking and pick up like nothing had happened. Mark got me the job at MRI and we worked together for a few years there, while working there I started running a DND campaign, he joined and it was a lot of fun. He started his own DND campaign that I joined into, creating Lyle the Magnificent and again lots of fun. He later switched to a Legend of the Five Rings campaign which me and several others joined in on sundays.
Due to my upcoming move (back in 2024) i put my games on hold and was in the process of dealing with not having a computer and what not. We drifted a bit, we’d check up every so often and what not.
Through mark I met ashley. She was ‘dating’ his younger brother back when we lived together. Years and years later we (ashley and I) met up when Mark’s brother and her were married. Nothing happened and only after she got divorced did she approach me and what not.
Her daughter, Serena (who now goes by Dakota) is mark’s niece. There was some tension b/c of mark’s brother feeling a way about her divorcing him and then getting with me. Mark however didn’t really care for his brother, but when it boils down to it, it is his brother. So we mutually decided not to discuss those things, and I told Mark’s Brother (zach) if he had something to say to me he’s more than welcome to do so.
He did not. Dakota entered my life at 4 years old, and I have been the primary father figure for her for the last 10 years. He showed up for weekends, sometimes. If he had a problem he would cry to his mom or Ashley through text to talk to me for him. Pathetic but whatever not the point.
I reached out to mark in May, a few months after everything when things were settling down, because I heard through the grapevine that he was in the hospital. Spoke through discord, b/c no one talks on the phone anymore.
Going through our discord chat, i reached out to him on discord on 5/1/24. He had been in the hospital for 2 weeks and got out the 2nd. They sent him home b/c they couldn’t figure out what was wrong but he was able to hold down food so they sent him home. On 5/10/24 a former co-worker from MRI reached out to me about mark being in the hospital. He may have had a stroke, had critically low blood pressure. We talked a bit on discord, they said possibly kidney failure and other things, extreme dehydration, inexplicable vomiting.
Our last message was on 5/17/24. We were discussing the sunday dnd game and if he could make it back, he wasn’t sure. I was letting him know I’d handle the players and that I would inform them, that he was unavailable for the foreseeable future, only that he was in the hospital.
On May 29th they sent him home. They couldn’t find anything ‘wrong’ so they wanted him out of the ICU. He died 4 hours later.
The hospital ‘investigated’ everything, said they were not at fault. Refused to do an autopsy, the family had to pay out of pocket to get one done themselves, of course they couldn’t afford that, so they had to do a go fund me. We donated what we could.
Enough people were outraged at this that the go fund me was met pretty quickly.
The report that came back, put the blame squarely on the hospital and staff.
Here’s a few pieces of that, it goes into way more detail but it’s not necessary for people who don’t know him to know this info.
“The medical management provided to Mr. Mark during his hospitalization at Hospital deviated significantly from the accepted standard of care, ultimately leading
to his premature and inappropriate discharge, which resulted in his untimely demise. A
thorough review of his clinical course reveals a failure in both diagnostic diligence and
therapeutic judgment, with critical missteps contributing to a preventable fatal outcome.”
“One of the most glaring deviations from the standard of care was the failure to adequately
investigate the possibility of an underlying bowel obstruction. Mr. Mark’s persistent
gastrointestinal distress, marked by prolonged vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain,
should have prompted urgent and repeated imaging studies, including an abdominal CT scan
with contrast or an abdominal X-ray with obstruction series. Given his predisposing factors,
including a large periumbilical hernia and a history of prior hospitalizations with
gastrointestinal symptoms, an obstructive process should have been at the forefront of the
differential diagnosis. The medical team’s reliance on inconclusive imaging, without a follow-
up reassessment when symptoms persisted, represented a critical lapse in clinical judgment.
Tragically, the postmortem examination confirmed that Mr. Mark succumbed to a small
bowel obstruction with ischemic, necrotic bowel, a condition that, if diagnosed in a timely
manner, could have been surgically addressed, thereby preventing his death.”
“In conclusion, the care provided to Mr. Mark was markedly deficient and fell below the expected medical standard in multiple respects. The failure to pursue additional imaging and surgical evaluation, the mismanagement of his persistent gastrointestinal symptoms, the
inadequate monitoring of his worsening fluid balance, and the premature discharge all
contributed to a preventable and tragic outcome. Had Mr. Mark received the appropriate
diagnostic workup and timely intervention, including definitive imaging to rule out
obstruction and proper inpatient management to ensure clinical stability, his death would
likely have been averted. The inappropriate discharge, in particular, was a critical error that
directly contributed to his demise. This case represents a clear deviation from the standard
of care, underscoring the importance of rigorous clinical assessment, timely escalation of
care, and prudent discharge decision-making to prevent fatal oversights in patient
management. “
The family is suing the hospital. I have no further information as I’m not considered part of the family, and Ashley is only on the edge of it due to her daughter.
I planned on writing about my own experiences with the American Healthcare System, but it’ll just make more more angry.
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