dying of a sprained ankle

Medical malpractice cases are so freaky.

For instance: A 30-year-old sprains her ankle while bowling. She goes to the hospital, gets a boot put on, etc. Over the next week she goes to various follow-up appointments. Eight days after the ankle sprain, she’s found collapsed in the parking lot outside her work, lapsing in and out of consciousness. She’s rushed to the hospital but dies a few hours later. You can die of a sprained ankle?? Apparently so! Specifically, her foot developed a blood clot (possibly due to the injury itself, possibly due to being confined in the boot). The blood clot broke loose and traveled through her bloodstream to her lungs, causing a fatal heart attack. Now all the family members and expert witnesses get to argue about whether any of her medical providers should have done something differently to prevent her DYING from a SPRAINED ANKLE. (Her sister testified as a lay witness for the defendant doctors. oof…family drama)

Of course defendants’ experts say the doctors did nothing wrong, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty they complied with the standard of care, etc. They may even be right; I’m not a doctor, I wouldn’t know. But if so, isn’t that a stunning indictment of modern medicine? A previously healthy 30-year-old dies of an ankle sprain while in the care of multiple doctors and it’s like “welp, sucks, but there’s nothing any of them could or should have done to save her.” Condolences to her husband, three children, and one of her sisters. Maybe not condolences to the other sister who is opposing the family in the lawsuit, idk what the story is there.

Every medmal case is like this. There’s also the case of the woman who died of undiagnosed chickenpox. (Who knew you could die of chickenpox? Well, it does seem more likely than a sprained ankle.) Three lay witnesses said her rash looked like chickenpox, but their testimony was held improper because they were not qualified to opine on medical matters. Meanwhile, the actual ER and hospital physicians who treated her had no idea it was chickenpox up until she died. They had lots of theories, were running various tests, etc. but chickenpox was not even on their radar. Whoops!

Lately, I’ve been thinking of the “daily life activities” thing. This is from an article Dad sent me a couple years back. “Daily life activities” are things you wouldn’t ordinarily consider exercise, but do involve being on your feet, such as showering, washing dishes, and buying groceries at the store. There’s a study that shows regular performance of such activities is correlated with life expectancy. If you’re feeling well enough to be up and about, it’s a good sign.

But also, consider this case recently in the news: On the morning before his death, the patient was feeling better and was able to get up, shower, and eat breakfast. His doctors thought he was turning the corner and planned to discharge him soon. That afternoon, his condition started going downhill. Shortly after midnight, he died of an infection. Bam. Gone. Predictably, the defense experts said that by the time the infection could reasonably have been diagnosed, it was too late to save him.

I dunno, man. Live each day like it matters.