In cases like this where there are no long-lasting, documented, easy-to-see-and-prove PHYSICAL damages, I don't know that an actual lawsuit would even make it very far.
It sounds as if the standard of care was NOT met SEVERAL times over the course of your recovery.
First, it should not take HOURS to get a blood transfusion when you've lost 40% of your blood volume. (Only exception I can think of would be if they simply did not have the blood available and had to secure it from an outside source.)
Second, you don't mention them checking your hematocrit when you went to the ER. Did they do this, or did they rely solely on a vaginal exam to tell you that things were fine?
Third, leaving part of the placenta inside your uterus is obviously not within the accepted standard of care. It happens sometimes, and it can be dealt with, but someone has to actually LOOK for the problem. Preferably in a timely fashion BEFORE a month or more passes. Talk about asking for septic shock...
Stories like yours remind me of last summer when my Dad was about half way through chemo for colon cancer. He started having severe chest pain and could not catch his breath. He managed to dial 911, but could not speak to them. The ambulance arrived, paramedics loaded him up, and rushed him to the nearest ER.
Unfortunately, he lives in a teeny town and the nearest ER is not much to speak of. The ER doc insisted my dad was having a panic attack, did absolutely NO testing whatsoever (no blood work, no x-ray, no heart monitoring, NOTHING) because by the time my Dad actually arrived at the hospital, he was feeling much better.
They sent him home with Xanex.
Well, thankfully my Dad's wife is a nurse. None of this sounded quite right to her (she was out of cell phone range during the whole thing, and didn't find out about any of it til several hours later once he was home). She called my Dad's oncologist to explain everything that had happened.
The oncologist told her to bring him IMMEDIATELY to the ER in the closest decent sized town (this is where he was doing chemo). He didn't want to alarm her, but chances were great that what was going on was actually a pulmonary embolism.
They got to the ER where they were greeted as if my Dad was on death's door (keep in mind he was feeling fine at this point). Within 30 minutes, they found out that he had SEVEN blood clots in his lungs, and the severe pain he'd been in earlier was likely the result of one or more of them shifting/moving.
Pulmonary embolism is DEADLY. He was incredibly lucky to be alive. He was immediately started on blood thinners, stayed in ICU for 24 hours, then in the hospital for monitoring for another 3 days. Went home on injectable blood thinners for a while.
The ER doc at the teeny hospital never even mentioned the possibility of pulmonary embolism, despite the fact that being on chemo raises the risk of PE significantly, he presented with every classic symptom of PE in the book, etc. My father could have died from this doc's missed diagnosis.
HAD he died, you can bet your butt I'd have sued.
But he didn't. And so we wrote letters instead. Sent one to the doctor, and one to every person we could think of that might care or want to know about the situation (hospital adminstration, risk management, medical licensing board for the state, etc). If nothing else, I hope that doctor never misses the signs of PE in a chemo patient EVER again. The next person might not be so fortunate.
I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that.
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