Natasha Barnes

She had lousy health insurance. She went to Sinai-Grace Hospital, located in Detroit, MI, with a UTI (Sepsis and Urinary Tract Infections), on May 5, 2010. They prescribed Cipro (an antibiotic) 500 mg to be taken twice a day, every 12 hours for 7 days, and sent her home with an infection (UTI).

She developed severe leg cramps and was vomiting violently. We called Sinai-Grace Clinic, following the discharge directions. Her insurance was not accepted by the hospital clinic and they would not see her. The pain and vomiting stopped. But she became weak, fatigued, but she did not want to return to the ER. She wanted to give Cipro time to work.

On May 15, 2010 she could barely move, very weak. We returned to Sinai-Grace, with the help of an ambulance, who made the decision to take her back to Sinai-Grace. She was 15 hours in the ER before she was moved to ICU. There was blood in her urine from the catheter. I heard the doctors in the ER saying that she should have been prescribed the Cipro for 14 days. Natasha heard them discussing renal failure and had me look it up on the iPhone.

We tried to have her transferred from Sinai, because the hospital nurse(s) told us to get her out of Sinai. One of them no longer works at the hospital. I contacted U Of M Medical facility and Beaumont Hospital to have her transferred because the doctors and interns said that they didn’t know what was causing the infection and she was not getting better. Her kidneys were failing. One said give her morphine, the other doctor said she was not to have morphine. She was given morphine. One said to feed her the other said not to feed her. She was given food by the nutritionist. The nurse was told to give her an enema, two days later she got the enema. The custodian mopped her room with the same mop from other sick patients, while the doctors were examining Natasha.

She was eliminating bodily fluids before they placed the catheter in her. Her kidneys started failing on the second day of confinement.

There was one bag of fluids and one bag of antibiotics. She had not eaten in 12 days, drinking fluids. I asked why they didn’t used the open MRI scanner, which I found out from the CEO that the hospital had, instead of using panel from the portable machine that they attempted to slide beneath her. She couldn’t lift herself at that point. Conversations and treatment were not discussed with us.

Before the respirator, she didn’t have a fever. There was discoloration of her skin and she complained of numbness on her left side and her legs being very hot. I had to bathe her. I pointed out to the nurse the discolorations to her extremities. She started to swell to the point were her legs and thighs were the same size.

They placed her on a respirator the morning of May 19, 2010. She was doing better that night before, she could lift herself using the bar, she was alert, lucid, the readings were good on her monitor. We had good conversations. She told her father and me that she loved us.

After I contacted the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, her treatment changed. There were many more bags of antibiotics and bags to feed her, more monitors. She was seldom left alone by us. She was alert the day before they placed the respirator on her. When they allowed me in the room and she heard my voice she started moving her hands and feet. She was strapped to the bed. They gave her something that knocked her out immediately and that was the last time my daughter moved.

I left her around 12:45 am on May 20, 2010. Ten minutes after I got home we received a phone call to return to the hospital, that Natasha was not doing well. We got to the hospital in minutes and found our daughter dead. Her head had swollen to the size of a basketball and her eyes were the size of golf balls, yellowish. The time of death was listed as 1:06 a.m. The doctor on call, in the final report, said that mortality was imminent, time listed at 22:28. I was sitting next to my child, laying my head next to her with her hands on my face. I had not seen a doctor in her room since that morning. No one told us that our daughter was dying. My husband was home, we would never have left her side. They said that she was sick but would improve with time, because she was young. She died alone.

Her medical records are riddled with lies. Including the conversation I had with the surgeon, who told me there was a 50/50 chance that Natasha would die if she did exploratory surgery. Her weight at the time of death per their report, was over 500 lbs. She gained over 170 lbs, within 4 days. A doctor told me the fluids were in her cells.

The autopsy report is 684 pages. We don’t know when sepsis set in, if the Cipro was the reason she became so weak, why or how she became infected.

Hundreds of thousands of patients die while confined to medical facilities every year from sepsis and septic shock, in the United States and other countries. The statistic, differ. Some numbers count in the millions. Yet very few people know about the risks and dangers from these infections.

A doctor told us to order the autopsy from head to toe and to hire an attorney. The attorney agreed with the hospital report. We were the third case he had against Sinai-Grace. I contacted a specialist in sepsis and septic shock deaths. He reviewed her autopsy report, at no cost and told us to hire a really good attorney. The 10 days she was taking Cipro is the defense of the hospital and that she did not return to the ER.

My defense: awareness, so that know other families will not suffer such an unbearable loss.

Our daughter is a victim.

May 5, 2010, UTI, ER, CIPPRO

May 15, 2010 – May 21, 2010, ER, ICU, Sepsis, Septic Shock, Complete Organ Failure. Dead. Sinai-Grace Hospital -DMC

As many people are killed by this infection as those who die from cancer, HIV and strokes, per year. We learned of it at a cost, immeasurable.

My goal is to create awareness. Natasha had a reason for living and dying. Natasha lived a life, filled with love. She was generous to a fault. She was privileged in that she loved and shared her love, kindness and beautiful laughter with many. We miss her intelligence and wit.

In her short life, she met a Queen, a Governor, and many other great people.

Source: by Joann Barnes (Natasha's mother)