From: elvira zuniga elviezuniga2003@yahoo.com
Subject: Another victim of misdiagnosis
I'm so sorry for your tragic loss. Who would think that in this day, and in a hospital at that, that an appendicitis could not be diagnosed even by personnel with some degree of medical training. But then, I personally think that all this "greatness" of St. Luke's is carrying it overboard. There may be or have been a few really great doctors but it's a mistake to lump everyone in that hospital facility with that degree of excellence.
4 years ago, my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. He was entered into this clinical trial that was being undertaken by one of the oncologists of that hospital. To make a long story short, when he started to have fevers in the afternoon, the diagnosis went from fevers due to his cancer to tuberculosis to malaria (and he hadn't been anywhere locally or anywhere in countries that may still have malaria) and God knows what else. His number of doctors grew and now included an infectious diseases doctor. Despite this and the many medicines that were given, his condition did not improve. He slowly deteriorated till he died. Shortly before his death, in our frustration we called on his initial cardiologist-internal medicine doctor. He thought my dad had pneumonia. A pulmunologist , who wasn't one of his doctors in his roster of attendings was called in to verify the diagnosis. X-rays, which none of the doctors thought of, were taken. They confirmed the diagnosis. But by then, it was too late and no amount of antibiotics could fight the pneumonia. This confirmed what many have said that cancer victims do not die of cancer but from other things. Most of the time, I hardly saw those very expensive consultants/specialists. But there were a lot of interns and residents who kept writing things on his chart but which apparently wasn't really being read.
Elvira Zuniga
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