Legal justice lies in hands of the slick, rich(1)

Opinion
By Alfredo Santana.

After several failed attempts to hire a lawyer who specializes in medical malpractice in relation to my brother’s painful death at Cedars Sinai Medical Center two years ago, I began to realize that justice is in the hands of institutions with deep pocket accounts, and slick defense lawyers.

My brother Ernesto, who passed away on Nov. 2, 2007, after he spend 13 days in the intensive care unit, deserves to have his case studied, and filed in a court for what I think amounts to negligence, and incompetence from his medical team. They couldn’t figure out how to treat a patient with a special condition with which Ernesto lived.

The condition, called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, makes bones brittle, due to lack of calcium caused by a genetic mutation in the DNA. It’s a rare condition, and those who are born with it experience multiple fractures during their lives. When Ernesto suffered his car accident on Oct.16, 2007, he fractured his two legs. The fact that the driver of the Access Paratransit minivan did not install a chest belt on him made the injuries worse.

To appease his broken legs’ pain, Ernesto received several heavy doses of morphine, a drug that is known to cause lungs disease. Ernesto spent at least three days and three nights in the hospital before a specialist surgeon decided to approve his reconstructive legs surgery. During the preliminary studies, Ernesto was administered a test to measure his lungs’ breathing strength.

Unfortunately, Ernesto’s lungs were so weak, that he could not blow two out of three plastic balls out of the bottom of a small device that measures the strength, and ability of the lungs to breath and exhale. Morphine, and the stress caused by the injury, made one lung to collapse. Ernesto had an already reduced rib cage, and the drug worsened his ability to intake oxygen.

I believe the doctors misjudged Ernesto’s ability to overcome the surgery successfully, given the weakness of his lungs. During the surgery, the medical staff rushed to connect a mechanical breather, hoses attached to his nostrils, one running down his esophagus into one lung, the other to the stomach, to literally keep him alive.

After the surgery, my brother remained all the time hooked up to the artificial mechanical breather. At least two attempts to remove the devices out of his chest were made by various resident doctors and nurses, to no avail. They said Ernesto became agitated, and that it was impossible to do it. All the while he was administered intravenous liquids.

I called one law practice, the offices of Michels Watkins, who claim to have some of the best malpractice lawyers in town. Based in Beverly Hills, Michel Watkins seemed to ring a professional, serious possibility. But as soon as I explained the details, and the special condition of my brother, the paralegal who took my data told me she would call me back during the next day, or next week. It’s been several months already, and nobody has returned my request. Another slick law firm that claims to be of help, but does the opposite?