March 2005 – Speculation on how a young actress died of pneumonia:
From what I gather, she was rushed to the hospital on February 12th, and sent home – probably with a diagnosis of bronchitis to be treated conservatively.The next day, she was worse. This time, she was given antibiotics and sent home. Two days later, she was again rushed to the hospital and tragically died the next day on February 16th.
Possibilities include inappropriately-treated bacterial pneumonia, a pulmonary embolus that was missed, or reactive-airways disease (i.e. asthma) that was exacerbated.
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{ 5 comments }
And I thought all you guys practiced defensive medicine all the time!
A lot of times when you are dealing with “vip” clients/patients, there is the tendency to try and spare them the indignities of going to the e.r. or hospital with the rest of you…
I have sent many a patient to the e.r. for calling me up saying they are “short of breath” or they “can’t walk” only to be bawled out the next day for the day-long wait for a doc who prescribes them motrin or nebulizer and then discharges them to follow-up with their pcp…I used to feel bad about this until reading this article…lesson learned…thanks again kevin…
anon 6:31…lol…I doubt you’ve ever seen a real VIP in your life, let alone treated one! Do you really think those that live and play in the pretend world are so much better than everyone else?
What I find hard to believe, is that you could possibly be a physician! You’re a mental!
This can happen even to the best of us. During residency, I had a very devoted attending family physician with a large practice. The last I saw of him was making rounds one day at the hospital. He had self-treated with antibiotics, until he became acutely worse and presented to the E.D. with pneumonia leading to ARDS and death.
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