See if she can hire a lawyer for an estimate. He can get past jury
verdicts, etc.
I have a friend who had a total knee replacement [TKR} mid-June of
this year. She is in her mid-80s; she recovered just fine from the
surgery but the ditzes at the hospital and the short term rehab place
she went to ignored her when she said her heels were sore. She
developed pressure ulcers [bedsores] and she developed nasty ones on
both heels. A relative, who is an RN herself kept complaining to the
nursing staff at both the hospital and the rehab place about them but
they did not do anything to alleviate them and by the time she went
home they were really very extensive. She has spent over 3K on
medication and special bandages alone plus debridement and other
things she has had to spend money on.
The rehab facility is ready to settle rather than go to trial and have
asked her to come up with a figure to represent pain and suffering.
The reason I got into all this is that I am a former medical librarian
and my friend thought it would be easy for me to find info.
Yeah, right--I know that medical librarianship and legal librarianship
are as different as night and day. I do not have access to any legal
databases, I did a quick google and found a little but I need to be
able to give her some good examples [more of amounts for severity of
individual cases, rather than actual amounty]. She has been unable to
wear anything on her feet but special orthopaedic shoes since coming
home. She was scheduled for the second TKR in mid-sept but the
orthopod won't touch her until the sores are completely hidden.
She does not want millions of dollars but it has been a terrible
summer for her considering that she had hoped to be past two major
surgeries by now and does not even know then the 2d can be scheduled.
Any suggestions where I might search are greatly appreciated. I can
tell her how to estimate the actual costs but haven't a clue about the
others.
thanks, jamanda
