Mary Frances can you answer this please.
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Mary Frances can you answer this please.
| Thu, 07-22-2004 - 10:46pm |
Hi thank you for you reply. My sister did have blood work done in the hospital for her liver and kidneys, both showed critical. Also autopsy showed extremly enlarged liver. Thats the reason I thought dilaudid would have contributed, because it says do not take with kidney or liver problems, I wonder why you can take it with that. I thought it was because your body cant absorb and excrete the drug the way it should. One poster said that when she was in a hypo coma she was found moaning. Im just really confused about why she would have moaned for 10 hours. Also to note the autopsy found a fluid build up in her lungs, in your opinion do you know how this could be. Im also really confused about why she couldnt get to a phone, are you numb when this happens? Also to note the pathologist during the autopsy only tested blood for drugs and alcohol and did no tests at all for diabetes, we found this odd.
Your opinion is appreciated.
Your opinion is appreciated.

It sounds to me that your sister was in multi organ failure, liver, heart and kidneys. I also suspect that your sister was over weight. I am not sure that your sister was a type 1 diabetic either. Just because your sister was on insulin doesn't make her a type 1 diabetic. She could have been a type 2 diabetic who has worn out her pancreas and therefore no longer could make insulin.
Who told you that your sister's lab work was normal? Your grandmother? Perhaps your sister was given the truth about her lab work and she chose to tell her grandmother that it was normal so as not to worry her. This happens all the time with diabetics and others for that matter. How bad was your sister's alcohol problem before she stopped drinking? Had she damaged her liver with her alcohol consumption?
I am not that familiar with the Canadian health care system. But here in the lower 48 it is not uncommon for a physician to give a patient a perscription for a few pain pills and tell the patient to contact their regular physician for follow-up care. This is especially true if the patient enters the health care system through the emergency room. I checked with a pharmacist that I know and he agreed with me that 3 dilaudid taken at the same time would not cause an overdose in an adult and there is nothing to indicate that she took all the meds at one time.
The physicians obviously thought that your sister was stabilized when they discharged her. To think otherwise would be cruel and inhuman and they don't practice that kind of medicine in North America. I am not saying that there was or wasn't medical malpractice because there is no way of knowing that from what you have been able to post here. To determine that requires an expert to look at the care your sister received before she went to the hospital, at the hospital and what were the recommendations for follow-up care. Did your sister for example contact the hospital/doctors after she went home? If she didn't have a regular physician was an attempt made to find one for her. In the Canadian system patients do have a primary care physician assigned to them. Sometimes these physicians are terribly overworked and specialists aren't as readily available as in the US. But even here were have to wait to be seen by specialists.
The moaning that your sister's neighbors heard was because she had fallen and couldn't get up as she lay dying on her floor. I am sorry to say this in such a harsh fashion. One has to wonder why in the world her neighbors didn't intervene when this went on for so long. (It certainly brings all of us up short and makes us think about what we should be doing for our neighbors in a similar situation.)
Here in the United States a patient who dies at home without medical care can become a coroner's case. An autopsy will be done and then an inquest can be held. I don't know if you have that same system in Canada. When an inquest is held an investigation into the circumstances of a death is performed. This is a semi-judical proceeding with witneses and testimony and a verdict is reached as to what caused the person's death. If such a process is available it will be able to answer a lot of your questions but no one may ever be able to answer them all unfortunately.
I am so sorry you are having to go through this. It would break my heart if something similar happened to my sister.
A very gentle hug,Mary Frances
cl-maryfrances40
Co-CL Diabetes Board
Edited 7/23/2004 10:37 pm ET ET by cl-maryfrances40