She Didn’t Have to Die

Friday, Dec 14, 2012, Leigh’s last Picture

I saw an article yesterday about a young California girl who died very much like Leigh died – a bacterial infection misdiagnosed. This young girl was sent home from school after throwing up. Her mom took her to an urgent care facility where she was diagnosed with flu and sent home with nausea medicine and cough syrup. Over the next few days her condition deteriorated – she was fatigued and was having trouble breathing. Her mom took her back to the urgent care facility, but it was too late. She went into septic shock due to a severe bacterial infection in her blood. Within a few hours she was dead. It wasn’t until after her death that the cause of her death was learned.  Ironically, this young girl died on December 17th, the fifth anniversary of Leigh’s death.

Leigh’s case was very similar. She had flu-like symptoms for a few days. When she became much weaker on a Friday night and was vomiting and having trouble breathing, she was taken to the emergency room at the Watauga Hospital in Boone. After ruling out flu and with a chest x-ray showing her lungs to be clear, it was wrongly assumed that Leigh had acute bronchitis. She was sent home with medications to treat bronchitis. Within 24 hours she went into septic shock and she was gone before the weekend was over. Unfortunately, I have read of other cases like these two in the past few years.

The medical profession has made tremendous progress over the past 25-50 years with vast improvements in knowledge and technology. We’ve especially made great strides against the killer cancer. We can detect cancer earlier now and have significantly improved the chances of living longer and fuller lives with cancer, even in many cases beating it outright. I have the greatest respect for those who are committed to saving lives. As a former member of the medical profession (Special Forces combat medic), I know the pressures and stresses they face. Doctors are human – they do make mistakes. But with the technology we have now in hospitals, the diagnostic tools especially, it’s awfully hard to forgive mistakes that take someone who didn’t have to die. Leigh was “Wonder Woman” to everyone who knew her. Can you imagine Wonder Woman so weak from an illness that she couldn’t walk unassisted? That was Leigh on that Friday night. After clearing her to go home, the doctor suggested to Chris that he take her out in a wheelchair. But the doctor didn’t order a simple blood test that might have identified the bacteria that was destroying her lungs as she fought for every breath. And the doctor didn’t admit to the hospital  this strong woman who was struggling so. As with the California girl, the doctors did not know what killed Leigh until they analyzed her blood after she had died.

To illustrate how fast and how hard Leigh went down, the picture accompanying this post was taken early Friday evening on 14 December. She wasn’t feeling well then, but as was typical for her, she gutted it out to entertain at a dinner honoring Watauga County Schools’ Pakistani guests. Five or six hours later she was so sick she could barely walk.

I know this post is a downer. I hate that and I’m sorry, but sometimes I just have to vent. I try hard around my friends to show that I can still live, love and laugh. But the grief is only an instant away – sometimes a memory, a song, a vision of a woman running – the reminder that a large portion of my heart has been ripped out.

If there’s a lesson here,  I guess it would be trust your doctor but ask questions and demand answers – especially in flu season when emergency rooms are crowded and you feel that you or your loved one is not getting the attention you think appropriate.