San Diego Woman Mistreated in San Jose Hospital

Pamela Huff and her family recently arrived in the San Francisco area to visit her sister. After excessive exposure to tree pollen and mold spores her asthma forced her to go south to the San Jose area where she could breathe much easier. Shortly after arriving in the south bay area, she began to suffer from excruciating chest pains and a pulse rate of over 150. This prompted her to call 911 and she was quickly transported to the emergency room at O'Conner Hospital on Forest St. They admitted her and she stayed overnight. The most probably cause for this pain, in their opinion, was angina. They doctor and nursing staff could not be sure of this though and never were able to diagnose the problem. Shortly after she arrived at the emergency her doctor was changed. This new doctor did not want too deal with the problem so she visited Pamela in her room and assured her that all they were going to do was make sure she did not have a heart attack until morning. The doctor then canceled all of the tests that were ordered and released her first thing in the morning. After having this severe pain and no answer as to what caused it, Pamela began to research her symptoms and pleaded with the medical staff to run more tests. This did not happen.

Shortly after her release, she continued to have this chest pain and rapid pulse. With the poor treatment at O'Conner's she went to the other two hospitals in the San Jose area. Neither of these hospitals could find a reason. All they knew was that she did not have heart disease. It was shortly after this that she had another severe attack and was closest to O'Connor Hospital again. The ambulance staff took her to O'Conner's and, at the request of the hospital, she was dropped off in the emergency room lobby. The hospital staff was not wanting to see her again, and made her wait in the lobby with a pulse in the 130's and severe pain in her chest. She had every symptom of a heart attack and they would not perform as much as an EKG on her. They let her sit it out in the lobby area so that it would just go away and they would not have to admit her into the hospital. Over an hour later, they finally took her vital signs and started to get her admitted to the emergency room. She was given a bed in the ER at 5:30 am. After writhing in pain in the hospital bed for hours, the nurse finally appeared to ask a few questions. This was at 8:23 am. The doctor did not show up for a significant time after this. The doctor that was assigned to her admitted that all of her symptoms and even some tests pointed at a blood clot. This clot would likely be in the lungs and this was considered the cause. Since the only test that could accurately be done for this was complex and expensive, the doctor suddenly changed his opinions. He said that it was likely caused by an ulcer and that there was no need to chance such a risky test to try to detect the clot. This doctor made it sound as if people die from this test on a daily basis and since it was a Sunday, they would have to call in all of the people to perform it and it would take hours to get the results. The doctor and nursing staff decided that it was a peptic ulcer and just discharged her immediately. She sat there in disbelief and a pool of tears from the way that she was treated. The following day she was rushed to the emergency room once again for the same problem.

This time she chose to go to Valley Medical Center after the poor treatment that she received at O'Connor. Valley was able to find the problem with the use of a team of 5 doctors. There was a gall stone lodged in her near the chest cavity. After performing a simple ultrasound of the area, they clearly saw the stone. It was missed when she had her gall bladder removed years prior and was now moving around in her body, causing extreme chest pains. Valley was set to operate on her to pull the stone. They admitted her to the hospital overnight and was told later that she would not receive treatment. They would be doing another ultrasound in the morning and they would discharge her. That is exactly what happened. Even after showing her the stone in her chest area, they could not find anything the following day. The stone "magically" disappeared overnight and there was no longer anything wrong with her. She was then released from the hospital immediately.

After another day, Pamela had another asthma attack. Due to the proximity of O'Connor Hospital, she was dropped off there for immediate care. O'Connor's was attempting to refuse her treatment. The ambulance crew was able to get her a bed there and she was left in their "expert" care. After letting her sit there for an hour while she was having a very difficult time breathing, they finally did a chest x-ray and some blood tests. Supposedly, this mother of two had become a drug fiend without her knowledge. Her blood tests came back positive for barbiturates. After interviewing several people that are very close to this woman, there is no way that she could be a drug addict. This woman has never touched an illegal drug. After giving her this news, insulting her integrity, and blatantly falsifying her medical records, they scolded and discharged her. They did no treatment at all. Her breathing was worse than when she arrived. Pamela was forced to walk the mile down the road to Valley Medical Center while suffering from an asthma attack. Valley was able to admit her and give her the breathing treatments she needed so that she was able to breathe once more. Fortunately, Pamela is currently recuperating from this miserable ordeal, but she still has yet to be able to get treatment for the chest pain that began the whole ordeal.