To Sue or Not to Sue?

When all was said and done, our insurance covered Daniel's hospital stay in New York (a bill of over $100,000) but only part of the surgeon's costs. The costs not covered totaled about $15,000. Dr. Kothbauer never billed us for what our insurance would not pay - an extremely generous gesture on his part. But over the 8 months prior to our trip to New York, we had accumulated thousands of dollars in medical bills - our insurance covered about 80 to 90% - we were expected to pay the rest, including deductibles. A fund had been set up at a bank here in McMinnville to help us with medical costs. Various anonymous doners contributed several thousand dollars to help defray these costs. How thankful we were for this!

It took only a few weeks upon returning from New York for Wes and I to start grappling with the issues of why things went so wrong at Emanuel Hospital. First, there was the wrong pathology, which led Dr. Wehby to make the decision to take out a portion of Daniel's backbones. This led to a progression of scoliosis that continued from bad to worse. Next the doctors there tried very hard to push us into a treatment regimen for Daniel according to the pathology (that was wrong) - and had we submitted to the recommended treatment, today Daniel would be mildly retarded at best and severely deformed. I praise God that He gave us the wisdom to decline this treatment despite the strong opposition we received from his doctors. Next there was the issue of Daniel's tumor being inoperable, when in fact, there were surgeons (albeit not many) in the US who had been successfully operating on spinal cord tumors for years, even cancerous ones. Why had the doctors at Emanuel not made more of an effort to help us find the help Daniel needed, even when we asked them repeatedly to look into other options?

We consulted a lawyer. The lawyer thought we had more than enough reason to sue, and records from the doctors were subpoened. But during our visits with him, we learned in cases like ours, it's all about damages. How much damage had Daniel sustained, and how did the doctors' mistakes affect the quality of his life? Daniel would have been required t0 testify and so would we. Looking at the big picture, we realized that God had saved and delivered Daniel from so much. Ultimately, we decided not to go forward with a lawsuit, because we did not wish to spend the next several years focusing on the negative. And we didn't want Daniel focusing on all the bad things that had happened to him. Sure we all were injured and wronged, but at the same time, God had protected him in miraculous ways.

In fact, I have often wondered this: If the original pathology had shown his tumor to be slow-growing, then Dr. Wehby would have attempted to remove it. But because the pathology was wrong, she did not. 8 months later, Daniel's tumor was removed by a surgeon that had extensive experience in removing spinal cord tumors, and high-tech monitoring devices to detect changes in nerve function. Daniel made it through an extremely risky, dangerous surgery with only minimal damage. After his surgery in New York, we met a girl who had a spinal cord tumor, and her parents. Her tumor was removed a few years before Daniel's by a surgeon at Doernbecher. She went into the surgery fully able to walk. She came out of surgery and could no longer walk.

Daniel had been so fortunate. Although we decided not to sue, we did file complaints with the hospital and the Oregon medical board. The hardest part for us to deal with had been the trauma of thinking our son had only a few months to live. This took a toll on our health and emotional well-being. But over time, God healed our emotions and our "post-traumatic stress" (I use the term loosely).

We had no idea at this time, just how much more of an adventure we were in for. Daniel did very well for about a year. But his issues eventually resurfaced, and we had many more very scary moments with him. I will continue with his story in later posts.