Age: 80.0
Sex: M
Vaccine: FLU3
Symptoms: Pneumonia, Psychotic disorder, Pyrexia, Speech disorder, Tremor
Clinical narrative: This patient was admitted to the hospital on 11/01/00 and died on 11/12/00. The patient was examined and given a flu shot on 11/01/00, he had shortness of breath and sore legs, so the doctor wanted to do a CXR, R-Tibia X-ray, and a EKG. His diagnosis was osteoporosis. The patient was taken to the ER on 11/01/00 at 10 PM because he had terrible tremors, fever, weakness, and nausea. The patient was immediately admitted to the hospital and he told the doctor of his flu shot the doctor said he had a mild heart attack, had a high fever, and there appeared to be an infection in his lungs. The patient had two previous bouts with pneumonia treated with antibiotics an no lung problems since then. The patient was put in the ICU on a respirator. Saw an infectious disease doctor who focused on his right leg because she thought there might be an infection but there was no sign of infection. The patient was eventually put in telemetry on the 8th floor. He had a monitor that would show signs of a heart attack at the nurses station. His fever was still high and the wife was told they would watch her husband to make sure the fever goes down but there were no cold blankets, no ice packs. He was on a nose device for oxygen. The wife and friends observed a lack of activity in looking in on the patient. By Sat. there was no news as to the infection or the fever. On Sat. night the patient spent time with his wife had two visitors who thought he was bloated, he was weak, when he went to the bathroom. Prior to his trip to the bathroom the wife noticed that he did not have his oxygen nose piece in. It was carefully wrapped and hanging in the back of the patient's bed. The patient said they took it off. That evening when the wife left she asked for the nurses to help and look in on her husband because he was weak and could fall and hurt himself. That evening about 8:30 PM the wife received a phone call her husband took a turn for the worse and was being put back on a respirator and back into ICU. When she arrived she was not able to see her husband until 10:30 PM, three nurses assured her that he had been in the bathroom and had an attack, while they were with him. A female resident told the wife she had to put a tube down his throat because he could not breathe. The next three days were critical (the doctor said the next 24 hours). The patient was very weak, his kidney were slowing. By Thursday he improved and the respirator was removed. They were going to test him, he was put in a chair and strapped; he swallowed soft items; he was at first disoriented (ICU psychosis) as the nurses and doctors put it. He then wanted water and said his throat hurt. He was moved back to Telemetry on Friday afternoon was alert and talking. The doctors were told again of the patient's recent flu shot before his attack and the doctors could not believe it. They were more concerned with the patient lungs than his heart. The doctor told the wife that the patient had congestive heart failure and sometimes a bigger attack occurs after a small one. The family never knew of his congestive heart failure. To the family's knowledge he was not ordered to curtail some heavy activities.  The patient was put on an ice blanket because the fever was up. The wife requested for his move back up to the 8th floor that her husband be put across from the nurses station and not at the end of the hall, the doctor noted that.  The wife asked why he was being taken off from the monitor so fast. The patient was still weak, he could not move his arms, his speech was weak. About 9 PM on Saturday the patient's sugar was high 300+. He needed insulin, and his wife requested that they make sure he sipped some ensure or he would bottom out. The wife was worried about her husband at this point a nurse had said he was "very sick" so she requested to speak with the doctor in the morning (Sunday) and reminded the nurses he had a living will on file. The patient told his wife she'd better go it was getting late and that was the last time she saw her husband alive. She received a call at approximately 3 AM that he had taken a turn for the worse, same night, same staff, same floor as the previous week. The wife reminded the nurse of the living will. When she arrived at the door of her husbands room she found 25 people in the room with paddles, pumps, respirators, electronic shocks. She screamed at the same resident from the previous week that she should have know better, that they had talked. She asked why they had put her husband through that when she talked about this very thing with the nurses around 10 PM that night. The resident said oh you didn't want us to do it, she then turned around went back into the room and told everyone to stop. The resident told the wife that her husband was not breathing and they did everything to revive him. The wife stated that this is not what her husband wanted and asked everyone in the room how would they feel if it was their son or husband. The husband was dead and the wife had several questions.