whoa whoa whoa. Malpractice? Come onyou said it was potentially deadly though, and that stuff is hard to find sometimes.
-
pinkyangel — 21 years ago(March 15, 2005 10:30 PM)
I thought I read that she had asthma. If she did, that's an underlying medical condition. Having this underlying respiratory condition would make it more difficult to diagnose pneumonia. It also said on MSNBC that it was double pneumonia, which is more difficult to treat. Also, since she had sepsis, that means the infection invaded her bloodstream, which means she had to have been sick for a while (she may not have even realized how sick she was). More people (of all ages) die from this illness than most of you realize, especially in the winter. You just don't read about it in the news.
Also, none of us will really ever know the whole truth. Even those who claim to be a friend or associate. Medical records are confidential. Most people do not discuss their entire medical record with anyone other than their spouse (if that).
I am not trying to minimize her death. I too thb68ink it is very sad. My prayers are with Ms. DeHuff and her family. -
SomeTrendyName — 21 years ago(March 15, 2005 10:53 PM)
Whats sad in a society is when we treat a celebrities death as such a tragedy and talk about their death more than the thousands of other incidents that could occur on that day, the media over expose their death to try to inspire all this sympothy, like when christopher reeves died he was so over exposed, granted these are all tragedys and it is sad when someone dies yet the media neglects everything else that happens that day say 5000 people died of aids yesterday and robert deniro died who would make front page news, deniro would its because we fell more for a celebrity why that is i'll never know, and for some of the other people who said th5b4at dying that young can't happen, and couldn't happen it does from disease and all sorts of things can you get any more naive and just ignore the problem by saying it can't happen you can't deny this stuff,whats even more tragic is looking at some of these kids 4,5,6,7,8,9,10 whatever in sick kids hospitals who have been sick for an immense amount of time living with aids from thier parents or bone diseases I have known a couple of these people that you can sympathize more with I believe, but hey shes a celebrity so she deserves it, and she won't be remebered for her crappy scene in that terrible movie she will be remembered as a celebrity who was overexposed in the media from her death.
You can do something, You can do nothing Or you can do the right thing. -
Thomas_J — 21 years ago(March 16, 2005 11:42 AM)
Now hold on a minute here peopleI think you're missing a key factor here.
b68I think that many of you are forgetting something that is unable to be fully controlled, regardless of the doctor(s) abilities or state of mind. It really matters not if they were seasoned and highly skilled or a first year med student. A good person, bad person, caring, negligent, mindful, wealthy, poor, short, tall, thin, thick, red, black yellow, white or even green with purple stripes and a tail. Whether an A student, C student (Even a D- is a passing grade too.) Nor a hospital's facilities, resources, staff, location, Hell, even if the Doctor is shooting-up his patient's pain meds. (well that may matter a little bit)
But the point I am trying to make, in spite of getting somewhat wordy is;
When it's your time, it's your time! When your number is up, there's nothing you or others can do. Some people survived being in the Twin Towers on 9/11, most did not. Some should have been there, yet oddly were held up, stayed home that dayetc. People live through plane crashes, others don't. Why? Iit was their time. When you gotta go, you go.
Her death is very tragic indeed, regardless of her job. Acting was just her job, at the end of the day, she was a pretty young woman, and I'm sure that her family and friends loved her and will miss her, and certainly they are the ones suffering now. It's a great loss for many people, especially her family and friends, fans too. As for anyone who losses someone. It's horrible and not really fair (I feel) As it is when any younger person passes. And more sad the younger the person. If the hospital and doctors conspired to intentionally harm her and deliberately refuse treatment, then maybe they should be charged. Or if the illness was something that was soooo obvious that Helen Keller could have diagnosed the problem blindfolded, then too possibly some action should be taken. However this sounds a like a tough one and apparently easy to miss?
Lawyers and lawsuits are killing many fine people, professions, and institutions in this great country of ours. We should not be so quick to go to court (it's really NOT a fun place to be.) Death happens! To all of us and the people we know and love eventually.
I'm sorry to see that it came early for this seemly nice, talented, and well loved young woman. I did not know her.
My thoughts and prayers go out to her family and ESPECIALLY her husband (I'd be a basket case if my wife left me too soon.) I'm sorry for their loss. And I wish them much strength and courage as they go through this difficult time. I hope they have lots of support and can pull together.
I urge everyone to remember her and the things they loved/liked/enjoyed about her.
Sincerely,
TA. -
XtremeDiva_Furi — 21 years ago(March 28, 2005 03:20 PM)
Not that I'm not sad by her death because I really am, but thousands of people die in hospitals EVERY DAY! You people are only making a big deal about how they should be sued for malpractice because she was famous. What about all the normal people who die because of malpractice? Who fights for them? No one. They could become world class doctors and be able to cure anything and no one cares that they die, but let someone famous die and see how important it becomes. Proof that our society is too stuck on famous people to care about other things.
-
seaofblossoms — 21 years ago(March 28, 2005 11:39 PM)
I think the main reason why everyone is so cut-up about Nicole's death is not because she had a common disease like pneumonia, that, yes, I realize, people DO still occasionally die from, but that she apparently KNEW that she was sick enough to warrant hospital treatment and went, not just once, but TWICE for diagnosis and treatment, and didn't get it.
If she had been DIAGNOSED and ADMITTED and been given IV antibiotics, and STILL DIED, this would be a different thing altogether. Despite all the best treatments out there, sometimes, we still lose our loved ones to relatively common illnesses. But not because they lacked for treatment!
Nicole was not even given (evidently) the most rudimentary of tests, which at the very LEAST would have alerted her doctors that something was seriously wrong, nevermind the treatment that MIGHT have made the difference between her living and dying. She may have died in spite of all the treatment in the world, but we'll never know that because she was NEVER TREATED for the illness she had until it was too late.
A complete CBC can test for white blood cell counts. Elevated white cell counts show an infection of some kind in the body, and pneumonia can be diagnosed this way along with a chest x-ray (which is usually pretty damn conclusive on its own). If she had symptoms typical of pneumonia (fever, shortness of breath, chest pain, congestion) they should have ordered these tests right away. Or at least at the second hospital visit, if not the first. If, by the second visit, she was already succumbing to sepsis, a CBC would have shown MASSIVE white cell counts, and she would have/should have been admitted IMMEDIATELY. Any doctor worth his/her salt would NEVER let a potentially septic patient out the door, unless they were incompetent.
DID THEY DO THESE TESTS??
I can't see how, and still let her leave with a glib "take some Tylenol or Ibuprofen" and be satisfied that she would recover. She went back a second time, because she was getting worse, and likely she knew it. And STILL was shown the door!
If there were some other underlying medical problem in addition to the pneumonia, it would be part of her chart when they first took her medical history, and if it was asthma or some heart problem, that should have made her physicians even MORE inclined to admit her, not less. Did they do an adequate history workup? Her charts should indicate whether they did or not.
I do think there was negligence. And it IS a tragedy, not just because a young person died, but because she died needlessly, and it could have been prevented.
My deepest condolences to her family and friends. -
D-Hirschi — 20 years ago(April 11, 2005 12:36 PM)
Okay, STOP IT!!! You certainly have absolutly no idea what you are talking about, pneumonia is not just one illness, but there can be hunderts of causes that lead to pneumonia. And pneumonia is one of the illnesses that causes more dead than you can imagine, it's not so harmless as you think it is, and obviously you also habe absolutly no idea about diagnosis. Even if you immediatly diagnose a pneumonia you still don't know what the cause of the pneumonia is. If it's bacterial inf16d0ection, the bacteri could still have resitance against antibiotics, if its a viral infection you can do nothing about it
And something else: Sueing doctors for every step they make only leads to them being uncertain, which can easily delay treatment and lead to more dead But, it's not my problem, if you want to destroy your healthcare even more, just dont complain about it, when you need treatment. -
jordybug2jee — 20 years ago(April 21, 2005 09:20 AM)
the REAL STORY: Nicole passed away as a result of a double pneumonia complicated by asthma and sepsis. Normally it would take a older person far quicker than it did Nicole. She put up a fight, but the sepsis is a form of blood poisining that once takes hold is very difficult to combat.
know your fact first.
lost in space -
Dannyboyo — 20 years ago(June 01, 2005 08:16 AM)
For those who think they know everthing there is to pneumonia but really don't (as that seems to be the case), go to any of the links that I would be posting shortly. For those who would like to learn more about pneumonia, you too could find the soon-to-be created links to be informative as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumonia
http://my.webmd.com/hw/health_guide_atoz/hw63870.asp
Now there is another site. However it
could
be a haggle to navigate since it isn't as precise as the first two. But here it is anyway.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/submenus/sub_pneumonia.htm
With that said, I would like to throw in my two cents. Yes, I think the first two hospitals should be sued. Along with whomever did the diagnosis of her condition
should
(even though most likely they won't) be charge with negligent homicide.
However, I also feel that the hospitals shouldn't be held accountable since most likely the possibility of the involoved hospitals were stretch to their limits with patients and probably were understaffed as well. Another possibility is that the hospitals was also underfunded.Great. Another forum to waste my life on YEA!!
-
Shan-12 — 20 years ago(September 02, 2005 06:23 AM)
I'm a doctor and it's impossible to say without more facts as to what happened but - if she's as sick as it sounds when she went to a hospital, along with respiratory symptoms - well she should have at least had a physical examination. This should have included listening to her chest with a stethescope. If the pneumonia was as widespread and extensive as it has been described (I'm 5b4thinking it must have been because it lead to her death), it would have made sounds been very obvious to anyone to heard it through a stethescope, doctor or not. (Doctors of course would then know how to interpret the finding).
That should have lead to an Xray which should have shown very obvious pneumonia and then she should have been started on intravenous antibiotics straight away. No guarantees but if this had been done at the very first visit to the first hospital - her chances would have been much better.
Like I said, there's no absolute guarantees and it's impossible to say without all the facts but - the description of events sounds like the first two hospitals didn't even listen to her chest because if the reports were accurate that they sent her home just with paracetamol and even basic examination we learn in medical school all the world over would have lead to further basic steps which I'm sure probably would have at least gotten a diagnosis.
If the pneumonia had been as extensive as described (once again I think so because she died) - you would have heard sounds (the medical term is crepitations) which will make you at least suspicious enough to order an X-ray - and that would have been very obvious and antibiotics should have followed soon after. I've seen several cases of much less severe cases where the chain of events was what I described and we found and treated it.
Of course I would111c be interested to find out more facts about the case before I could say what happened and should have happened with certainty but it was a tragic event nevertheless. -
EndorasBox — 17 years ago(October 27, 2008 01:52 AM)
If she was sick enough to die from it, she should've been in the hospital, no question. She also had asthma. I have asthma and had pneumonia and I recovered because I was given proper care. She should never have died from this.
