My husband is Air Force, so we have Tricare Prime. About a month ago, my son was at a friends house jumping on the trampoline. He came home crying because he said he hit his nose. I took him to his doctor at our local air force base. After looking at him and not even being in the room for 5 minutes, she said that it wasn't broken and gave us antibiotics and nasal spray, saying he had a sinus infection even though he had no mucus or discharge, just horrible swelling, a deformed nose and bruising. The medication didn't do anything at all, so I took him another 3 times this past month trying to tell her that there was something wrong with his nose and it wasn't sinusitis and i thought it was broken. Each time she sluffed us off saying that it'll get better. The other day I was cuddling with him an looked at his profile. He has my nose, so the bridge of it before was straight and had absolutely no slope. This time it was incredibly sloped, it looked like the cartilage was completely crushed right where the cartilage meets the tip of the nose bone in front. I gently touched it and it was smushy, not hard like it was before. He wouldnt' let me touch it and sait it hurt.
I immediately called patient advocate for a second time (the first time they said they'd handle it but I never heard anything) and then I called tricare. I'm now in the process of getting his doctor changed to a civilian doctor but that takes a while knowing the stupid military insurance. I went on my own to a civilian doctor and he immediately said his nose was in fact broken, his septum is deviated, the cartilage is broken and his left nostril has changed shape and has no hole airway because the tissue was smashed into the hole. If you look up his left nostril, it's just pink tissue with a tiny crack where the hole used to be. They need to do a CT scan (waiting for them to get him in) and then I have to go to Denver Children's Hospital (lke an hour and a half away)..
I just talked to them and gave them these details. They told me that they usually have a 5-7 day window to do surgery and fix noses before the injury is too old and is healed. They said that since it happened so long ago (a month) that it'll be a more difficult surgery and they might have to break it or it might not even be fixable once they look at it deeper.
I'm so mad at this. It's not like I neglect my kid and am a hillbilly or something. I took him to this doctor several times and she completely ignored us and was WRONG. Now my son has to pay, we have to pay.
She did the same thing to my younget daughter who had a dermoid cyst on the bridge of her nose/eye bone. She wasn't even a year old and had what looked like a hard marble under her skin. I took her to the same lady several times and she just said it was "nothing" and to let it be until she was older. I again finally got tired and concerned so I took her to a civilian and they said that if I would have left it like the doctor said to do, the dermoid could have grown further into her bone, her sins cavity, her eye and even her brain and could have caused trouble. I never took this further after my daughter's surgery thinking that it was just a mistake or a misdiagnosis and wouldn't happen again. Now that it has happened to my son, I know taht she's a compleye idiot moron and doesn't care about kids or really helping them
Sorry this is so long, but does anyone know what I can do? Do I have legal standing wit this for medical malpractice or something? Can I take her to court for this and make sure she can't sluff off other children with medical issues? What are my rights here? Please help me, I just don't know what to do here. Thanks
Mrsjvb
unfortunately no you cannot sue her. however you can make a formal complaint and escalate this all the way to the top at the base hospital.
jeeper_peeper321
Nope, you cannot sue a military doctor
What you need to do, is have your husband, go to his chain of command, ( start with the 1st Sgt ) and tell them what happened
Document everything, dates of visits, medicine given, treatment given,
Then the results from the civilian doctors
2. Bad doctors can be and are removed from the military.
3. You also might have your husband file an IG complaint against the Doctor
Again, make sure he has everything documented.
The actual medical records they will be able to get themselves, but they need dates, what was said, etc.
J C
First let me say. Im not a doctor nor a lawyer. But I've been an Army brat and a member of the military. So do with what I have to say what you will.
But given your medical coverage is through the military. It will be almost impossible to bring a malpractice suit. What you can do is bring the diagnosis from the civilian doctor to the attention of the doctor in question. Nothing gets the attention of the military as having their superiors having to answer for their military personnel's mistakes.
Good luck to you.
Orignal From: help! medical malpractice with pediatrician? sry so long, pleas help?
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