Hal Backer's Medical Tragedy at Jefferson Hospital

My medical conditions began in 2006. I had terrible pain in my face which I came to find out was a disorder called Trigeminal Neuralgia. After numerous years and unsuccessful attempts at treating this disorder with drugs, I consulted with many neurologists, including Dr. David Andrews at Jefferson Hospital for neurosciences in Philadelphia. Dr. Andrews completed an evaluation and determined that I was a good candidate for a surgery called microvascular decompression. He operated on or about April 17^th, 2006 and as a result did in fact cure that particular disease.

However, while home recovering for two weeks,I was unaware that I was leaking spinal fluid from the surgical site. I went back for my two week follow-up with Dr. Andrews and made him aware that my neck always seemed wet and my pillow was damp when I woke up not knowing if the wetness was from my mouth. When Dr. Andrews examined the site of the wound he said it wasn’t sweat but a CSF leak, or a cerebral spinal fluid leak. His doctor’s notes read;

“Mr. Backer returns for his postoperative check. He is pain-free. The caudal portion of the wound reveals a small what appears to be a CSF leak. This was sterilely prepped and resutured in the office. I will see him back in one week’s time for a wound check”. –May 4, 2006

Following that office visit on Thursday, my head pain was worse than ever which the doctor had attributed to the post-op surgery and would get better at any time. On Saturday morning, May 6^th, 2006 (less than 40 hours after my visit with Dr. Andrews), I collapsed in my bedroom with excruciating and unrelenting head pain. The pain was so bad I couldn’t walk or talk. Only screams came out from the top of my lungs as if I was being murdered. Fortunately my wife was home and rushed to my side; however, I was unable to communicate. I couldn’t express my pain and her adrenaline took over and she helped me down the stairs and rushed me to a local hospital. When we arrived at the hospital she was unable to tell the attending doctors what was wrong with me, but spoke of my medical concerns with the CSF leak over the last few days. The doctors assumed that I had contracted bacterial meningitis and as such began treating me for it with antibiotics. After reducing some of the pain, they completed a spinal tap. This revealed the extremely elevated white cell count, confirming the meningitis.

There was no doubt at that point from the doctors or anyone else who attended to me that morning that I would have died had my wife not been home to get me to the hospital.

I spent the next week in the hospital receiving numerous drugs for bacterial meningitis and then was sent home with a pick line and a 2 week supply of more antibiotics. We were told by the attending doctors at the hospital that if there were any future complications that we were to go back to Jefferson to see Dr. Andrews and not to return to there hospital for treatment.

It was at that moment when we realized that something had gone terribly wrong at Jefferson.

We were told by numerous doctors and nurses that a patient who has an open wound to his brain and spine for 2 weeks should have been admitted back to Jefferson after the initial doctor’s visit with Dr. Andrews. The doctors own office notes indicate a presence of an active cerebral spinal fluid leak and all he did was put a single stitch in my head and send me home, SEALING MY FATE!

Based on these medical records alone, prosecutors over the years have declared that had I died that morning in my bedroom, Dr. David Andrews would have been charged with negligent homicide.

As a result of this tragedy, I was admitted 7 more times to Jefferson Hospital. I had water on the brain, or hydrocephalus, for nearly a month that went untreated. They surgically implanted a shunt in my brain to relieve the pressure. Even after the shunt was put in, I continued to have severe and unrelenting head pain or global headaches. I was in and out of the hospital a number of times describing the excruciating pain and all Dr. Andrews continued to do was adjust the shunt. None of these hospitalizations and adjustments seemed to make any difference in the level of pain I was experiencing. At one point I saw him in his office with my wife at my side and I was holding my head in unbearable pain.

I screamed at Dr. Andrews, “I can’t take the pain anymore. You have done everything but kill me! Please do something!”

Dr. Andrews looked at me in a state of confusion. He responded, “You don’t have a fever and you don’t appear to have an infection where the shunt was put in so I don’t really know what to do for you!”

At that point seeing the anger and pain in mine and my wife’s faces, he said he could tap the shunt and take a fluid sample and, he did just that. He gave me a prescription to get blood work done. The next morning I went to Quest in Abington at approximately 6:30am. While I was in the chair having my blood drawn, my phone rang twice. I didn’t answer either call and left the facility and went to McDonalds to get some coffee and something to eat. When I retrieved the messages and the first one was from Dr. Andrews. The only message was that it was urgent and that I needed to call him right away. Following that call the Dr. Andrew’s nurse called. Her message stated that it was urgent that I get to the hospital for emergency surgery to remove the shunt because it was infected. By the time I had returned home, there were 4 or 5 more messages all pleading with me to call the hospital right away to come have the operation. I called the hospital and spoke to the doctor’s nurse who explained the severity of the operation. She asked if I had eaten anything yet and I said, “Yes.” She said that it didn’t matter and asked how soon I could be down to Jefferson. I told her it would take me about 2 hours to get myself there at which point she said that the admitting staff would be notified that I was coming and they would have a bed ready for me. I would go in for surgery shortly after arriving.

I arrived at the hospital with my oldest daughter and wife. My daughter walked me down the street off of

9^th street

while my wife parked the car. I sat in a chair in front of one of the receptionists and was so sick and dizzy with pain that I rolled off the chair and onto the floor. The two women registering patients had no idea who I was or why I was there. I lay on the floor in a fetal position, screaming and holding my head, while my daughter and wife started arguing with the staff for assistance. Numerous calls were made upstairs to locate Dr. Andrews and/or someone from his staff. Finally, an intern came down and she and my wife argued back and forth while I lay on the floor in excruciating pain. She told my wife they had no bed upstairs to put me in and would not give me any pain medication because I was not assigned a bed. After more hollering and screaming, the doctor finally wrote my wife a prescription for pain medication. While I lay there screaming, she had to walk around the building to the pharmacy and fill a prescription for pain medication. Shortly after this, the nurse came down with a wheel chair and within forty-five minutes got me into surgery. I ended up lying on the hospital floor for nearly forty-five minutes with no medication and no hospital help after I was specifically told to come down immediately for emergency surgery and the staff would know of my arrival.

After my last surgery in late July of 2006, I was released from Jefferson Hospital and never went back again. In the months following this horror, I attempted to see several neurologists concerning my relentless head pain. After reviewing my medical files and listening to my story, each neurologist said they were sorry about what happened to me and indicated that there was nothing they felt like they could do for me. As time went on, the pain never got better and since got progressively worse. There have been numerous hospitalizations, more than a dozen MRI’s/cat-scans of the brain, blood tests, consultations and various drug trials to treat migraine headaches. I have taken at one time or another various narcotics for pain all of which fall short.

It’s been four and a half years since this tragedy and I can no longer work as a self-employed contractor. My arms and legs are constantly shaking, I have lost my short term memory and in just the last 6 months from April until November I have lost 40 pounds. Besides not having a way to make a living anymore, we now have to sell our home.

I don’t know how much time I have left, but this story needs to be told so that other patients of Jefferson Hospital don’t fall victim to the careless, reckless, and callous acts perpetrated by Dr. Andrews, his staff and the administration who supports him. If anyone should doubt any of these facts they only need to call me, email me, and write me and I will present my complete medical history not only from Jefferson Hospital, but from Abington and my own family doctor.

FACTS DON’T LIE!

Written by Hal Backer

267-312-6602

hbacker@comcast.net