Sharon and Gary began another grueling journey, through the dark alleyways of the state’s medical-legal establishment: They sued for malpractice. Had it happened earlier he might not have lost his leg. The Rushfords began to ask themselves why that step had taken so long. In October, doctors finally put Gary on coumadin, a blood thinner. ![]() In September, Gary fell on his stump, went in for treatment and discovered he had a another blood clot, running from the stump across the abdomen to his left leg and up to his inferior vena cava, the major artery to the heart and lungs. The news was devastating, but it got worse: after letting Gary wait for surgery for another 50 hours, the doctor took the knee as well.Ī week later, Gary was discharged – with Sharon stopping on the way home to pick up crutches and a walker at a medical supply store Kaiser‘s insurance didn’t cover them. He told the Rushfords he would have to amputate, below the knee. The doctor cut open the leg to relieve the pressure, but opened only one of the four compartments, which sealed the fate of Gary’s leg. It was successful at first, but then clotted as well. He was scheduled for bypass surgery the next day. Gary began to suffer ‘rest pain,’ a sign of tissue death. After a second thrombolysis procedure, also successful, Gary was sent home on a half-dose of blood thinners, and re-clotted again. It was a success, but the doctor inexplicably gave Gary no blood thinners, so another clot developed. During an angiogram at that meeting, an anesthesiologist suggested a thrombolysis procedure. He had a blood clot in his artery.Įven then the doctors sent him home, scheduling a consultation a week later. Doctors checked for a pulse on Gary’s right foot, and found none. On Father’s Day of 1998 – four months after he first felt tingling – it drove him to the ER. The podiatrist looked at the foot only, said Gary was fine, and referred Gary to a physical therapist, thinking the difficulty might stem from a hypothetical back problem.īy now the pain was radiating up to his buttocks and lower back. The doctor, without seeing Gary, sent him to a podiatrist. He had a history of phlebitis and they thought his problem might have something to do with a blood flow problem. Gary and Sharon asked his doctor if she thought he should be examined. ![]() ![]() The doctor’s suggested cure: Vicodin and Motrin. The third call to the doctor came in May, when the pain had crawled to his thigh and was hurting badly whenever he exerted it. Another call to the doctor led to another suggestion that he take painkillers. It progressed to his heel, so he called the doctor, who offered painkillers.Ī month later the pain was up to his calf and hurt whenever he worked out. One day at his gym, Gary felt tingling in his foot. Gary is "a typical guy from Montana," Sharon says, very active, "into hang gliding, camping, hiking, anything and everything outdoorsy." At 50, he and his wife, Sharon, had built a successful contracting business in San Jose. Gary’s crippling brush with medical malpractice began in February 1998. The result: Gary Rushford lost his leg above the knee. Instead of ordering a minor medical test, which would have discerned the problem, they kept sending him home. Yet for months doctor after doctor downplayed the pain, disregarded the injury’s progress, and pooh-poohed Gary’s insistence that something could be seriously wrong. It moved with all the deliberate relentlessness of a python closing in on a cornered rabbit, and it was every bit as predictable. ![]() The pain began in Gary Rushford’s foot and slowly slithered up to his heel, then his calf and then his thigh.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |