"This claim is being filed against San Bernardino County and one of its own (Arrowhead Regional Medical Center). It's in regards to the time David L. Larcyn spent there as a patient in August of 2009 after being in a major motorcycle accident. The U.S. Attorney General, San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos, California Medical Board, CA Department of Public Health, CA State Bar Association, professional Medical Malpractice Attorneys and more have been contacted regarding the matter and were of no assistance. Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, some of their Doctors, Nurses, PAs and other staff are completely at fault for so many major issues! Medical Malpractice, Negligence and invasion of patients’ rights for sure! Unfortunately, not only with Mr. Larcyn, but other patients as well. Due to injuries, hardships, depression and having difficulty dealing with the whole issue, David did not receive the help he needed to get justice. This claim is in demand of a response!
Injuries were as follows.... a left tibial fracture, left fibular fracture, left femur fracture, sacral fracture, a ruptured diaphragm, a diaphragmatic hernia, left pneumothorax, left pneumonia, anemia, anxiety, hypertension, collapsed lung (possibly due to poor insert of chest tube), enlarged heart, diabetes type 2, left lower extremity deep vein thrombosis in which a IVC filter was inserted and so much more. He had been put on 19 different medications.
Dave was discharged on 9/2/09 and taken to Casa Colina Rehabilitation Center for Rehab. He was in constant pain daily, had swelling and burning in his pelvic, entire left leg, thigh in duration. He was supposed to be non-weight bearing for three months according to ARMC records. We aren't sure if they were informed. They did do an x-ray showing a fracture to the femoral shaft, but did no further treatment and still continued him on therapy. They then sent him to Pomona Valley Hospital (medical records show strange doings) where they did an x-ray and diagnosed severe com minuted femur fracture and sent him back to Casa Colina with no further treatment besides pain medication. Why did ARMC not repair this fracture when they did the surgery on the Femoral Neck? Why did no other facility want to touch David? Is this because they were aware of the investigating going on? Also, the DVT was found on a follow up visit to ARMC after a week of Rehab. It wasn't found on the first ultrasound, but on the second. Is all of this just a coincidence? I don't think so. All follow up appointments with his regular physician were continuing, the symptoms where still going on and he was finally referred to Garey Orthopedics Medical Group where a Dr. Patel performed a Left Femur Reosteosynthesis Iliac Crest Bone Graft procedure on 8/18/10. Still the pain has continued! On 3/22/12, X-Rays were done by Grove Diagnostic Images and considerable distal tibial periosteal reaction and underlying osteomyelitis was to be considered. A left leg callus resection procedure was scheduled to be performed on 6/26/12 but unfortunately, it did not happen. He could not afford the co-payment that was to be paid beforehand.
First of all, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, at the time, was not equipped to handle major chest or other trauma and in David's case, was severe! Second, the nurses were seen pinching David to wake him. There are pictures of the bruises and witnesses. Going through medical records, ARMC has tried to cover up many issues and in some instances are very obvious. In regards to his Femur Fracture, X-rays are missing and there are two different dictations of the Femur surgery by the First Assistant. We are in belief that they caused more damage to his Mid-Femoral Shaft fracture during repair of the Left femoral neck. Also, by putting surgery off for so many days, or as ARMC noted (taking a timeout) possibly caused his DVT. Knowing that David had such severe trauma and blood loss, they never should have allowed the Intern to attempt local anesthesia, let alone two attempts that were unsuccessful. This also could have caused the DVT. Was his collapsed lung possibly caused by the insert/removal of the chest tube? He also knows that something had gone wrong when they removed it because he remembers the physician telling the Intern what he had done by not putting pressure on the whole and fluid was gushing out. This caused major pain. Oh and let's not forget to mention the letter dated 9/2/09 that ARMC had mailed to David regarding his medical information that had been faxed to the wrong number on 8/28/09. It also stated that they were in the process of investigating the incident, but never did follow up or send any other document stating the outcome. This is invading patients’ rights!
Let's take a look back at the issues regarding Arrowhead Regional Medical Center...
1 Poor patient care/treatment
2 ARMC not equipped to handle major chest and or other major trauma
3 Catastrophic Malpractice Cover-ups
4 Too many patients to care for and very limited resources
5 Mismanagement, Malpractice, Patient Abuse and Fraud
6 Botched surgeries and Cover-ups
7 Most care was being handled by the Interns and Nurse Practitioners
8 Use of Alcohol and Cocaine by members of Medical Qualifications Unit
9 Non-emergency surgeries impossible unless you were a Hospital Administrator or County Administrator
10 Orthopedic Surgery- If you need an elective surgery... Odds were it wasn't going to happen at ARMC. (Sounds like David's Femur situation)
11 There were complaints and no investigations regarding them.
12 Medication was given to patients to paralyze them
13 Cover-ups on Medical Records
14 Affected patients were not even aware nor contacted about what was going on
15 County officials getting fare treatment
16 The worst of ALL!!!! The amount of pornographic photos being passed around by ARMC staff. Whether it was on their personal camera phones, via text and or even on the county computers, this is outrageously disturbing! Though this is extremely uncalled for, what makes it worse is the fact that they are of patients with uncommon diseases of the genitalia and various abnormalities. How do we know that David's Rights weren't ripped apart by these actions? Could one or more of those photos be of Mr. Larcyn? We both got sick to our stomachs when we heard about this and he is sickened by it every day.
As of April 1st of this year, David has switched physicians and is finally getting the correct treatment he has been longing for after all these years. On 4/16/03 his Orthopedic diagnosed him having Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. He saw the Podiatrist on June 10th regarding his foot/great toe. In which, I forgot to mention that the fracture of David's Great Toe was never repaired by ARMC. He was seen for the left leg callus resection procedure and just had an Osteotomy on the left tibia for the removal of that callus on 8/9/13. Today, he is recovering and in a lot of pain. He also has been told that he has arthritis in the hip, a couple of the screws are loose and he will definitely need other surgeries in the future. He still has the DVT and will be on blood thinners the remainder of his life. Some more bad news came about on his most recent visit with the Oncologist this week (8/19/13). He has been diagnosed with Polycythemia Vera. This too is life threatening!
Unfortunately, this has taken so much from David and he will continue to suffer from it the rest of his life. All of the pain and suffering he has gone through. What he will continue to go through. Finding out more and more information every week is horrible and to think, there are so many involved that don't have a clue as to what went on in ARMC during 2009. Please assist him in this matter. He deserves so much out of it! Actually, all of the mistreated patients do.
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