Emory Healthcare Atlanta loses track of cancer patient who dies in 4 days without seeing a doctor ???

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Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) June 11, 2011 -- Atlanta Georgia, Emory Healthcare cancer treatment:
EMORY CANCER
PATIENT INFORMATION SITE: www.EmoryCancer.com

This story is about Cancer care @ Emory Healthcare in Georgia...
This is a MUST READ for anyone seeking treatment for Cancer

Darla B. Schafer
Submitted by: Jack Schafer

I drove my wife Darla to the Emergency Room at Emory on a Thursday May 5th, at 3:30PM, with what appeared to be the flu. Her own private physician was unavailable, so an Emergency room was a good 2nd choice, and Darla was seen within 15 minutes of arriving. Three tests later, and less than 2 hours in, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, that had gone into her liver.... but how could that be ???
... she's been in great health except the flu this week. She's never drank or smoked, and has a REALLY healthy life-style, maybe the tests were wrong ???

She was immediately admitted, and the ER Physician assured us that Emory had one of the best Oncology programs in the world. They would immediately start running tests. make sure she was comfortable, and we'd have a plan of action and information so that we could move forward and seek the best outcome. Thank God, at least we're at Emory... she had wanted to stop at either of the 2 hospitals that we passed to get here, but I had at least made the best decision on this one !

Beautiful room, great nursing staff, and they visited with us one by one, and assured us that as soon as our Oncologist arrived, they would be there to do everything that was ordered to help us move forward with some answers and solution. They were very re-assuring, so we watched TV, ate some dinner, and waited for the Oncologist.

Around 8:30 that evening, we were visited by the staff an OBGYN physician, who made it clear that he was not a oncologist, but would actually phone the head of Oncology and get us some answers as quickly as possible... for sure, we'd be visited an Oncologist in the morning, so we slept there together that night...

Friday - May 6th - 9AM, Yes... that assigned OBGYN stopped in to visit with us again, and said the Oncologist that he wanted on this case was in surgery all day, but would be in as soon as that surgery was completed. Darla and I remained in good spirits, knowing that there was a course of action, tests, and Emory experts getting involved later that day. No-one showed up that day, or that evening, and we slept there together that night.

Saturday -May 7th - 10AM, the OBGYN came to visit and briefly told us that the (apparently only one) Oncologist in the hospital had to go out of town until Sunday evening, and that he – and OBGYN was assigned to handle the treatment until the Oncologist returned. He mentioned that he "had never been the assigned physician for a cancer patient, but had been told by the Oncologist to just keep her comfortable until he could return… Darla was feeling much worse today, and was bloating in the stomach area… but without tests, or orders from a doctor, nothing could be done to make her more comfortable. So, we slept there together that night.

Sunday - May 8th Darla was progressively getting worse, and the nurses offered Morphine which made her nauseous, and from online Internet information (our only source…) we did not want conflicting drugs in her system that would interfere with "all of the tests and diagnosis that would be performed", so she wanted the morphine discontinued, and would simply take Advil for pain and discomfort until we saw the oncologist.

Sunday evening - Darla continued to feel worse, but we were waiting for that oncologist... and decided that if nothing happened by morning, we would transfer to another hospital.- we would wait until morning and see what the oncologist had to say. We both drifted off to sleep arund 11 PM...
She awoke at 2AM in excruciating pain... she couldn't swallow her advil, so the nurse crushed it into some Jello so she could get it down. .
By 3am she drifted off to sleep, and I went back to my couch and did the same…

May 9th Monday - I was unable to wake Darla at 8AM, she was having difficulty breathing, and remained asleep with eyes half open, fixed pupils and dilated...

Finally at 9:30 AM, the Oncologist came to the room, walked 2 steps inside the room, glanced at Darla and introduced himself to me. I extended my hand, but he did not shake with me... From 2 steps inside the door he said "there was nothing that could be done. He would order Hospice care, and they would be in touch with us later that day." Then he walked out. I went to the parking area and caught up to him on the way to his car so I could at least ask some questions. He never broke stride, simply glanced as if simply glanced as me as if I was violating his space, and told me again: “I told you Hospice will contact you later today”.

Darla never woke… she struggled on with each breath. Ho

Darla Schafer     Emory Cancer     Emory Healthcare     Emory Hospital     Emory Oncology     Emory patient dies     Emory Trust     Jack Schafer