Johns Hopkins' Doctor Destroys Patient's Heart and Then
The Hospital Destroys His Medical Records to Cover-up Negligence
Jim was a high school mathematics teacher and a cross country and track coach. He trained with his athletes daily and competed in 5,000 and 10,000 meter road races with them. At the age of 46, he began a daily regiment of indoor rowing. This ultimately led to his becoming the director of the indoor boathouse and head instructor. Competing against rowers from 55 countries, he earned World Rankings in 3 events. Jim was in excellent physical condition as the result of his 27-year personal fitness program. Jim expected to remain active and working as a teacher for another 20 years. Both he and his wife, Joan, had planned to travel extensively during this phase of their lives.
Now all of this has been taken away from Jim and Joan by four physicians and the medical personnel of a Johns Hopkins Hospital.
On a Sunday afternoon, while landscaping the garden, Jim experienced the symptoms of kidney stones and was taken to the ER of a Johns Hopkins Hospital by his wife, Joan. At the hospital, the ER physician evaluated Jim's symptoms and performed a CT scan, which confirmed the presence of kidney stones. While he was in the ER, the physician also performed an EKG, which was normal and documented. He was discharged with instruction to drink a lot of fluid and strain his urine for the kidney stones.
On Tuesday morning he returned to the ER at the Johns Hopkins Hospital with the constant level of pain from the kidney stones. Once again, the ER physician confirmed the presence of kidney stones with a CT scan. The physician told Jim that he would now be seen by a urologist to determine what to do next.
While being treated for pain in the ER and awaiting the urologist, he experienced crushing pain in the center of his chest and radiating across the left side of his chest and down his left arm. Joan immediately alerted the nurse. The ER nurse took a quick look at him and ran to get a physician. The physician and a medical technician came and performed an EKG. After taking a quick glance at the EKG, the physician told them that the EKG was normal. Joan then asked him what was causing all of this pain, which she felt were the classic symptoms of a heart attack. He responded that it was radiating from the kidney stone area. Joan then pointed out the oxygen saturation level on the monitor was at 72% on room air. The physician responded to her concerns by giving Jim oxygen in a nasal canula. The appropriate standard of care for an oxygen saturation level of 88% or lower is an oxygen mask not a nasal canula - not to mention, to seek the cause of oxygen desaturation and to treat it immediately. Oxygen desaturation together with crushing chest pain would logically indicate a heart attack. Instead, these symptoms were left untreated.
Later that afternoon, a urologist finally came to examine Jim and determine his treatment for kidney stones. Joan shared the details of the chest pain with the urologist. He listened but did nothing in response to the facts of the chest pain episode. For several hours Jim received high doses of morphine and Toradol, in the presence of his wife. This is part of the information "missing" from Jim's records. His chest pain continued and then became masked by all of the drugs and he became drowsy and fell asleep, while still clutching his chest. The urologist ordered Jim to be admitted to the Short-stay Unit and be prepared for kidney stone surgery the next day. That evening, in the Short-stay Unit, the nurse observed and charted his oxygen saturation level, now on 2-liters of oxygen, and declining to 83%. She contacted the urologist by telephone to share her concerns, but he did nothing to change the oxygen, administer any other treatment or especially to perform any other tests to determine the cause of the low oxygen saturation level. In fact, there is no indication in the records that he ever bothered to respond to her serious concerns at all.
On Wednesday, Jim was inappropriately prepared for kidney stone surgery, including an EKG being performed. The anesthesiologist read the results of the EKG, which were seriously abnormal and indicated that he had very recently had an acute heart attack. Disregarding the results of the EKG and not discussing the results with the urologist, the anesthesiologist cleared Jim for surgery. At sometime following the surgery, a cardiologist reviewed the EKG and wrote a report which clearly stated a cardiac consult and further testing must be conducted. That report was never shared with Jim or his wife and no action whatsoever was taken to prevent further harm to Jim's heart.
Thursday Jim was discharged from the hospital without any orders to have a cardiac consult or further tests because the urologist failed to inform Jim that he had had a heart attack. Consequently, Jim received NO TREATMENT whatsoever for the heart attack he sustained while a patient in this Johns Hopkins Hospital.
For the next 2 months, Jim's health declined as he struggled to continue working. Finally, on Christmas Day, he again experienced the crushing chest pains, just like the ones in the ER at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Joan immediately took him to St. Agnes Hospital because they have a chest pain unit in their ER. The ER physician treated Jim for the symptoms of a heart attack, which was confirmed with an EKG and blood tests. When the physician asked him if he had ever experienced a chest pain like this before, he shared the cardiac episode in the ER at the Johns Hopkins Hospital 2 months earlier. When the physician received the faxed records from Johns Hopkins, he told Jim and Joan that he had had a heart attack when he was in the ER at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also could not believe that the Johns Hopkins physician did nothing to treat his heart attack. The ER physician also noted that there were only EKGs for Sunday and Wednesday, but none for Tuesday. Therefore, one of them was "missing" from the records at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Jim's left ventricle was now seriously damaged over 2 months from failure to properly treat his heart attack at the Johns Hopkins Hospital where it first occurred.
After being transferred to Union Memorial Hospital, the cardiologist performed a cardiac catheterization and determined that Jim had five blocked arteries and needed to have coronary bypass surgery immediately. This could have and should have been done 2 months earlier at Johns Hopkins Hospital and with immediate treatment his heart muscle could have been saved. A well-known phrase among cardiologists is "Time is Muscle." They failed to act and now it was too late. The time they wasted, even after they realized what they had done, nearly killed him. The first open-heart surgery was followed with numerous medical complications and hospitalizations over the next three months. As a result of the complications, Jim had to have his second open-heart surgery to re-do three bypasses. During the operation, his aorta burst and he had to have more than 8 units of blood transfused. The next day he was opened again because he had hemorrhaged from the previous surgery. All of these surgical complications were due to his already damaged heart muscle and weakened physical condition. As the result of the misdiagnosed heart attack and the negligence of the four physicians and the medical personnel of a Johns Hopkins Hospital, Jim has had 3 open-heart surgeries in a period of four months. In addition, his left ventricle is damaged so severely that he is 100% permanently disabled and will eventually need a heart transplant.
Johns Hopkins has gone to great lengths to cover up this medical catastrophe that occurred in their hospital. They have done the unthinkable to avoid all financial responsibility to Jim and Joan. They have gone so far as to:
* deny the presence of this culprit cardiologist in the ER of their hospital that day
(yet, Jim and Joan were able to describe him in meticulous detail, and this early
physical ID is documented),
* destroy 3 hours of medical records (EKG, oxygen saturation, and strong pain
medications which masked the severe chest pain) collected during his heart
attack to further distance themselves from this horrible medical error and
responsibility to Jim and Joan,
* lie to the Maryland Attorney General's Office and the Office of Health Care
Quality of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene about their
apparent negligence during the investigations related to the complaints Jim filed
with their respective offices (to our knowledge, NO formal investigation of this
catastrophic case was ever performed by the above parties or anyone else),
* hire a thug to stalk and harass them whenever they walked through their
community in an effort to intimidate them to not pursue this matter any further.
Consider that when medical injuries occur, it is not unusual for hospitals to have investigators test the credibility of the injured party by means of surveillance whenever litigation is involved. Investigators begin with surveillance early in the process and continue until they either obtained the result they seek or not.
In Jim's case, there never was any question on either side regarding the devastating extent of damage to his heart. The medical records bare this out clearly. His disability absolutely prevents him from working or doing anything else.
Yet, after 3 years, Joan began to notice a van prominently parked in their cul-de-sac with an occupant inside. This continued for several weeks - day after day, at various times of the day, and for several hours a day. It became obvious to all of the neighbors as well. After a week or so, this van began to follow Jim and Joan when they walked their dog. He would follow behind them, wherever they went. Joan finally decided to identify this person and determine his business with them. First, she collected his license plate number and description of the van. Secondly, she approached the van to speak to the occupant, but instead found him hiding under a blanket in the back seat. Lastly, she filed a report with the police and learned the person's identity, address, etc. --- and that he was working for Johns Hopkins Hospital. THIS IS ALL DOCUMENTED. This guy who pursued them incessantly was not an insurance investigator. He was a thug hired by the hospital to intimidate them into dropping their litigation. Had he not been stopped, this thug would have pressured an already disabled man into another deadly heart attack.
With the damage to Jim's heart, including an ejection fraction of 25-30%, the quality and quantity of his life has been significantly decreased. They were forced to sell their home, use all of their savings and live in subsistence. This is a far cry from the way their life use to be.
Jim and Joan's lives today are dramatically different from what used to be. Once middle class, they now live in poverty unable to meet the staggering demands of medical, pharmacy and insurance expenses. They cannot afford the best and latest of medical care, which he deserves.
Their high-energy active lives before their encounter with this Johns Hopkins Hospital and its' doctors no longer exists. They can no longer enjoy activities such as biking, hiking, horseback riding, rowing and kayaking which encompassed their lives. In fact, all of their present and future plans for life have been carelessly stolen from them by these criminals in white coats. Now they have only to wonder how they will get along from one day to the next. Their future has been made bleak and uncertain.
How has the destruction of this couple's life together been accomplished? It is our opinion that it has been accomplished through a tightly woven system of organized crime in medicine - an impenetrable wall of silence. We come to them sick and broken and entrust them with our healing; but all too often they simply kill and maim and then merely cover it up to avoid responsibility while preserving their "reputation." Scarcely anyone ever notices or questions them. How are any of us to trust such a system?
To date, this case remains in limbo even though it has been certified highly meritorious by three physicians who are cardiologists. Also, there has been a great effort put forth to suppress this case from ever seeing the light of day. The "powers that be" appear to control many venues of our society which has made it difficult to get our story out. However, we feel the public has the right to know about the real and personal dangers that exist for them and their loved ones. They have been told by those who know that "they are in the battle of their lives with Goliath."
Contact Jim and Joan at: Factfinders27@aol.com
These pictures were taken the same year
Jim BEFORE his Johns Hopkins Experience
Jim AFTER his Johns Hopkins Experience
