Sadie Cole

My wife Sadie was 36 years old when she went to the hospital to have her tubes tied.  I was told it was minor surgery and I would be bringing her home in an hour.  It turns out, Sadie had monitors on during the surgery but nobody was paying attention to her blood pressure which had dropped dangerously and damagingly low.  Now she is in a coma.  And has been in this persistent vegetative state since July 1998.

This should not have happened.  Two summers ago the same anesthesiologist was negligent in another case; yet another woman in a coma.  The Department of Health has concluded that he suffers “from a psychiatric or neurological illness that disables him.”  But if everyone had paid attention, this physician would never have been allowed to practice unsupervised.  Earlier in his career, he had passed out during surgery.  He moved to another state, and practiced with supervision.  And then he returned to CT.  Didn’t the hospital check?  Didn’t the practice he joined look into his background?  Surely nurses and other physicians had noticed he had problems.

Yet no one spoke up.  Five percent of the doctors are responsible for over 50 percent of malpractice payouts.  CT’s Medical Examining Board ranks 40thin the country in getting rid of bad doctors.  Their silence is profoundly dangerous.

My family found out tragically that the medical profession is silent about its own problems.  And they are silent when a tragedy happens to us.  This is a broken system.

I go see my wife everyday and our children visit her often.  We hope that someday she will wake up.