Molly Millsop awoke Sept. 6 with a pain in her right arm that she couldn’t explain. The Hudson Health Center doctor who examined Millsop — first diagnosing her with muscle strain and later with anxiety — couldn’t explain it either.
Millsop, an Ohio University freshman journalism student from Vandalia, Ohio, felt so dizzy and feverish that she showed up at Hudson before it opened. Diagnosed with a sore throat and muscle strain, she returned to her Perkins Hall room with a vomit-inhibiting drug.
It didn’t help.
When she returned to Hudson an hour and a half later, Millsop had trouble reaching the top of the steps. Anxious and tearful, Millsop told her doctor she might pass out. The doctor changed her diagnosis to anxiety and offered her Aleve and animal crackers, according to medical records Millsop released to The Post.
Millsop had reason to be anxious. She had a potentially “life-threatening infection” that forced doctors at Ohio State University Medical Center to amputate her right arm later that day, according to her medical records.
Arguing Hudson misdiagnosed his daughter, wasting precious time and exacerbating her trauma, Millsop’s father said last week that he plans to sue Hudson for malpractice. Her doctor declined to comment for this article.
Millsop was eventually diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a rare bacterial infection commonly known as flesh-eating bacteria, that kills about 30 percent of those afflicted.
The infection, which begins with generic symptoms, can be difficult to diagnose, said Paul Auwaerter, clinical director of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
In many cases, the bacteria enter the body through a minor trauma or skin opening, Auwaerter said, adding there is often no identifiable point of entry.
Auwaerter said doctors tend to recognize the infection when patients complain of disproportional pain, which was the case with Millsop. When more prominent indicators appear, such as blue-black skin discoloration, time is of the essence, he added.
“Sometimes you don’t get enough there to really trigger a thought,” he said. “It’s a difficult dynamic because it’s the kind of infection you always hope your patient never gets. But you have to be prepared.”
A fall 2007 report by an independent consultant found Hudson significantly understaffed and warned that doctors who see too many cases risk “missing the extraordinary problem hidden amongst ordinary ones.”
When Hudson opened in 1949 eight physicians served 5,600 students. Today, four physicians and two nurse practitioners serve more than 20,000 students.
Each saw an average of 5,506 patients in 2005 and 2006 — more than 2,000 above the recommended number, according to the report.
From Vandalia, just north of Dayton, Millsop’s father, Scott, drove down to Athens and took his daughter to O’Bleness Memorial Hospital. There, doctors noticed telltale signs of necrotizing fasciitis and had her airlifted to OSU Medical Center in Columbus.
Millsop was officially diagnosed with the rare infection at 8:33 p.m. That night, doctors amputated her arm and removed portions of her shoulder and collarbone.
As word of her infection spread and concerned parents called OU, administrators sent out a campuswide e-mail announcing Millsop’s infection was not contagious.
Scott Millsop said he has spoken to attorneys since his daughter’s amputation and intends to file a medical malpractice suit against Hudson before Sept. 6, the one-year anniversary of her treatment.
“They simply could have sent her to the emergency room,” Millsop said. “She even asked, and they didn’t do it.”Millsop withdrew from OU last September and never returned.
Although Millsop waived her right to privacy, giving The Post permission to examine her medical records and speak to her doctors, OU refused to make Millsop’s doctor available for interview because of the potential lawsuit. Her doctor did not return phone calls.
“All of us at the university feel great compassion for Molly, who has faced such a rare disease,” said Sally Linder, senior director of media relations. “We can appreciate how upsetting the experience of the last months has been for her and her family.”
Although a swift diagnosis may not have saved Molly’s arm, it could have reduced her injuries, Scott Millsop said.
“No one said, had she gotten there sooner there would have been no consequence,” Millsop said. “Had she gotten (to OSU Medical Center) sooner they could have saved her shoulder and had she gotten there much sooner they could have saved her arm — but would have had to remove some tissue.”
Reader Comments
Something needs to be done about Hudson, and I don't think a new roof is the answer.
I never went there my freshman year because I wasn't sick, but last year I got a horrible cold that because of the inept doctors at Hudson turned into a severe upper respiratory infection and then pneumonia because they kept giving me the wrong medicine. Even after I told them I'd been resistant to it since I was a newborn, they continued to tell me I'd be fine and if I took the whole bottle and I wasn't better to come back. Three trips later they got the hint that I needed a different anti-biotic.
They're so overwhelmed they don't listen to their patients who have been waiting for sometimes over 2 hours to be seen and they don't see what's right in front of them. I don't know that a malpractice suit is going to make things better, but it seems that OU only fixes problems once the worst case scenario actually happens.
Good points. One thing I've been thinking about after reading this... If this horror story makes students lose faith in Hudson's ability to diagnos anything worse than pink eye or strep, they may start flooding to O'Bleness, I know I am not going to trust Hudson with what may be a serious illness. If this happens, perhaps the city of Athens will put more serious pressure on OU to change things. ER bills are expensive
I just wanted to point something out before dozens of eager commenters begin to leave comments similar to thexfactor's: something is currently being done about Hudson. In fact, this year, OU's administration, after observing the inadequacy of Hudson, began the process of building a completely new health center. They also plan on reforming the care that they give. They are currently in the planning stages, so keep a lookout. I just wonder if tragic circumstances like the one described in this article could have been avoided if something had been done sooner.
Yeah, they're building a new health center almost as far away for most students as O'Bleness, it's completely inconvenient for any sick student without a car to get there.
Glad to know Hudson will patronize me with animal crackers if I go in with an anxiety attack. Did they pat her on the head, too?
RLeary: Just because they're building a new health center doesn't mean the quality of health care provided will improve. To be honest, why are these doctors working at an underfunded student health center? Are they the bottom of the barrel?
By the way, Gbow2006, the city of Athens has nothing to do with O'Bleness. It's a privately owned hospital. They could care less if students start flooding it's ER. So don't depend on pressure from them.
Ah, the joys of free "universal health care"!
That's exactly what Hudson is: they treat everyone, you can get low-to-no cost treatment and prescriptions, and it's a single-payer system. You just have to wait in line for 2+ hours to get a wrong diagnosis from a totally inept doctor, and when they screw up, none of them get fired and they blame you. (One time, Hudson gave me the wrong prescription. When I called them to bitch, they told me I "should have read the label." Then they said I'd have to start the process over again to get the correct prescription--ie, wait another several hours.)
This is government health care for you. This is exactly what it will be, only worse, because they'll be treating a lot more people. And don't expect doctors to be held accountable when they make massive mistakes like this, since we all know government employees can't be fired: http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/article.cgi?article=174
I hope the Democrats get their way! Then we can all be waiting in line for substandard "free" care.
Herzog, that's only half the story, the Dems aren't proposing an abolishment of the current system. You can still keep your private doctor if you want, but for those who can't afford any healthcare, universal shitty healthcare is better than none.
True.
“They simply could have sent her to the emergency room,” Millsop said.
As if O'Blenness is any better. A year and a half ago I was there three times in a one week period before they finally realized that my "spider bite" was actually MRSA, the "superbug" Staph infection that's been sweeping across the country. Five days without treatment, and then I get quarantined until they could find an antibiotic that would work. Hazmat suits and all.
Bunch'a savages in this town.
I completely agree, a new health "center" does not mean new health "care". It's probably going to be the same few doctors and nurses working in a new building. OU has a tendancy to just make things look better, instead of actually fixing a problem (ex. Baker Center).
I have read these posts and I will say this; until you are on the other side of the desk you will never know what it's like to be a medical professional. The only people getting anally violated on a daily basis are the people paying insurance premiums and the doctors providing care. My mother spent 20 years as a billing clerk for a hospital. Out of her 9 hour work day she spent at least 5 or 6 of those hours on the phone with insurance companies trying to get them to pay for their portion of insurance claims. That $15 or $30 copay you pay at the doctor's office is often times the only money that a doctor's office sees from your insurance company. If private insurance companies had their way you'd pay thousands more for insurance and cover more of your cost through copays and the doctors would be reimbursed less. It's a really shitty system. The government does not decide what my services cost, a group of a private businessmen decide what my services cost. These individuals often have no clue what type of hours, supplies, etc. go into many of the procedures they assign a value to. We also have codes known as ICD9 codes. These are procedural codes that a physician must enter in for insurance companies to reimburse for services. Sounds simple right? Wrong! They constantly change codes every couple of months on purpose to make it harder for a doctor to be reimbursed for services. They also love to play the role of just deciding in the middle of the year, often without warning, that they will no longer reimburse for a certain service. Who pays for that service? Often times it is balanced on the back of the insurance premium payer, ie, the patient, or the doctor is forced to eat the cost. Don't believe me? Ask a physician or a billing person next time you go to the doctor.
Government health care is not much better. Yes medicaid patients are not required to pay for their health care, but they also are denied for many important things such as eye glasses, hearing aids, etc. Also medicaid is a government service and the government sets what a doctor can charge for each service, just like private insurance companies do. So people who have no idea what time, energy, supplies, etc., goes into each procedure is setting the monetary value for your services you provide and by law you cannot charge anymore than that price. If you do, you go to jail or get a stiff fine at the least. You are also required as a medical professional to treat medicaid and medicare patients and forced to eat the cost. Think about that the next time you bitch about the wait at O'Bleness or Hudson. You are getting free health care, your doctor is getting paid shit, and the facility is forced to eat the cost or be fined. I would love to see how many of you who would sing a different tune if a group of people just decided how much your job services would now be worth.
"Jim, great job on putting my car's engine back together, here's $10 bucks."
"But the parts for the job cost me $100 and the labor took 5 hours and that cost me another $400 in missed repair jobs with other customers!"
"Sorry Jim, but that's all I am going to pay and you will like it!"
Maybe I will try this when I pay my tuition next fall? "Sorry Rod, I am only going to pay half my bill, because that's all I think I should pay."
Also you add in malpractice lawsuits. I can do my job perfectly, never put a patient in harm's way, treat them perfectly, and they can get upset or simply angry over their accident they had and take it out on me as a doctor. They might not win the malpractice suit, but my malpractice insurance premiums rise nonetheless. I worry that government health care will just be a medicaid/medicare disaster on a large scale. The doctors will no longer be paid for their 10+ years of medical education and will just be forced to work for peanuts. We will all shell out more taxes and get less quality care. I know I personally don't want to be rich as a doctor. I chose a medical profession that doesn't pay extremely well, but I love helping people. Anyone who became a doctor for the money is ill-informed, selfish, and will get their come-up'ins eventually.
So in short as a medical professional you are getting the shaft just as much as the patient. Let's see how serious you'd take your job if you make less in 3 years salary compared to the amount of student loans you owe. Many physicians live this hell everyday, but they still go to work and they do it to help people. I don't agree with how this case was handled, especially when the patient returned and was passing out from weakness. I would have at least passed the patient on to the emergency room. As for the case necrotizing fasciitis, it is extremely rare and many doctors will never see one case of it in their lifetime. It's like a needle in a stack of needles to detect it.
A new health center isn't going to help the situation much unless we can provide better salaries and reimbursement to bring more doctors on staff and make them quality doctors. Maybe the university should do a loan forgiveness program for students of osteopathic medicine? They could have their med school loans forgiven for 5 years of service to Ohio University's health care system? They have a similar doctors of appalachia program.
So please folks next time you feel angry about waiting for hours at the doctor's office, remember the person on the other side of that door has worked extremely hard for their medical education, they are overworked, underpaid, and see more patients in a day than some doctor's see in a week and instead of bitching. Just say thanks and that you appreciate what they do when you leave. They will greatly appreciate it. The bad guy is not the guy in the white coat. The bad guy is the insurance company controlling the doctor's salary and your insurance premiums.
Southeastern, I'm glad I took the time to read your comment.
All the same, I can't get over the creeping shuddering horrifying feeling that someone woke up one morning with pain in their arm and by the end of the day, that arm was gone.
What an unnecessary rant, Southeastern. I'm sure most would agree that the health care/health insurance system is screwed up, but you can't lay the blame of misdiagnoses on insurance companies. If they worked so hard in school to get their degrees it shouldn't be that difficult. And again I question why they're working in such underfunded, overworked conditions. If they were really quality doctors who are just screwed by the system why not leave for a private practice?
Quite a necessary rant, I assure you. As for me saying it's an excuse for her diagnosis, I see that nowhere in my post.
"I don't agree with how this case was handled, especially when the patient returned and was passing out from weakness. I would have at least passed the patient on to the emergency room. As for the case necrotizing fasciitis, it is extremely rare and many doctors will never see one case of it in their lifetime. It's like a needle in a stack of needles to detect it."
I said I didn't agree with how she handled the diagnosis. The first time when the patient was sent home with a strain was a very good diagnosis. At this time the pain in the patients arm could have been anything from a subcutaneous bruise from softball, a strain, the beginning of the flu, a swollen lymph node, sleeping on your arm wrong, flesh eating virus, cancer, etc. you get my point. As I said and many other people will agree this disease is so rare that many people will never see it and the signs are so minute that most doctors do miss this diagnosis. When this girl went to Hudson the 1st time she probably wasn't showing any symptoms that could have triggered any doctor (except the overly paranoid type that patients bitch at for running and extreme amount of useless tests that cost a fortune. Sort of like the episode of Grey's Anatomy where Izzy punishes poor Cheech Marin?). I said I did agree with her 1st diagnosis, but when the patient came back almost passing out and hysterical and in tears, then I would have sent her for a very stringent exam at a larger medical facility. This is where the doctor on call screwed up. I agree that she screwed up and I am sure the doctor even agrees he/she screwed up.
Mmakebeliever by saying this, "ou can't lay the blame of misdiagnoses on insurance companies. If they worked so hard in school to get their degrees it shouldn't be that difficult." you obviously make it sound like anyone who goes to school should know everything about their field. I doubt this is so for any profession. Pick up a medical dictionary sometime and just look through some of the disorders and diseases, you will notice how slight they vary in symptoms. Medicine is probably 80% detective work, 15% patient care and compassion, and 5% providing treatment of drugs. Your statement is extremely short-sighted and disrespectful to anyone holding a medical degree, let alone anyone holding any type of degree of formal education. If it was so easy to become a medical professional we wouldn't have such stringent weed out courses in undergrad, extremely hard medical entrance exams (MCAT), large work experiences in labs and hospitals in undergrad and post grad, extremely hellacious externships, rotations, etc.
Most doctor's are overworked, it's pretty common knowledge, and when people say their job is easy it's quite offensive. When people don't get an immediate fix to their symptoms they are quite upset, but for many things we don't have a magic bullet so to speak to fix the problem. It's an imperfect system and I wouldn't be the first to apologize for it.
As for your other comment about if they are such great doctor's why are they working such a shitty job. Well there is thing in the real world called job experience, you may have heard of it. You need a pretty substantial resume to land a good job in the medical field. Most people, even the greatest doctors, start out in poor hospitals, overworked and underpaid, because that's all they can get. Your rotations are generally this way and it's something doctors go through. Maybe the doctor's working at Hudson are newer med school graduates or perhaps they are just people who have a passion for serving their local community. Who knows, but this doesn't change the fact they are overworked.
As for this comment, "If they were really quality doctors who are just screwed by the system why not leave for a private practice?" By this statement you are saying only quality doctors work in private practice? I guess you've never been to any top surgical hospitals or research hospitals in the country that employ some of the brightest and best doctors. Private practice is not a judge of how good a doctor is. I can point you to 3 or 4 in the area who are private practice and have the bedside manner of a lamp post. Private practice means a couple things, 1. You now have to practice medicine without a good network of support services such as follow-up, x-ray, lab work, etc. and 2. now instead of just being a doctor you must also run a business which will distract you from your #1 priority which is serving your patients and helping them out. Also your re-imbursement will be low, so good luck there too.
Sorry mmakebeliever, but your post just wreaks of misunderstanding and a notion that a doctor's job is a walk in the park. It isn't like TV. McDreamy isn't always going to save the day, and not everyone drives a porsche and balances surgeries and patients with broom closet backdoors. Sorry.
They could however, send her to the emergency room for better care when they don't know what's presented to them. Does that logic not speak to good health care practices as well? Because, to be honest, if O'Bleness could identify the disease, it wasn't a great medical mystery. And please, don't be foolish enough to think that the quality of medical care here in Southeastern Ohio isn't substandard. Have you ever been to Hudson? Those doctors aren't young and fresh faced straight from medical school. So it still makes me wonder why doctors who are AT LEAST in their mid forties continue to work at such a place. (Don't rant about how long it takes to become a doctor, I'm well aware.) And as I've spent much time in hospitals in my lifetime I'm also well aware that most of the best doctors in the country work at hospitals, but thanks for taking my post out of context.
So while I'd never say that being a doctor is remotely easy, they knew the system when they entered it. If they can't use enough logic to send her to the emergency room and use the excuse of long hours, I have no pity. Nor will I say that the quality of health care at Hudson is anywhere up to par. How ridiculous. Oh, and I can't believe Grey's Anatomy isn't reality! Thanks for pointing that out! You really saved my ass there, because I was going to travel out to see Patrick Dempsey for my next doctor's appointment.
"They could however, send her to the emergency room for better care when they don't know what's presented to them. Does that logic not speak to good health care practices as well? Because, to be honest, if O'Bleness could identify the disease, it wasn't a great medical mystery."
Did you even read the article above? Directly from the article:
"The infection, which begins with generic symptoms, can be difficult to diagnose, said Paul Auwaerter, clinical director of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine."
odds are when she went to hudson she was in this stage so anyone could have missed the problem.
"Auwaerter said doctors tend to recognize the infection when patients complain of disproportional pain, which was the case with Millsop. When more prominent indicators appear, such as blue-black skin discoloration, time is of the essence, he added."
Odds are she was in this stage by the time she got to the emergency room at O'Bleness so they might have been more tipped off to what was going on than the doctor at Hudson
"Millsop was officially diagnosed with the rare infection at 8:33 p.m. That night, doctors amputated her arm and removed portions of her shoulder and collarbone." - It never said how long she was at O'Bleness or Ohio State before she was diagnosed either so it could have been hours at each place so odds are she was showing full blown symptoms at OSU and hence she was diagnosed.
"if O'Bleness could identify the disease, it wasn't a great medical mystery." So by saying this then you make any previous point of her going to the emergency room null and void because if she had presented with the original symptoms at O'Bleness instead of Hudson odds are she would have just been sent back home with the same original diagnosis.
"I'm also well aware that most of the best doctors in the country work at hospitals, but thanks for taking my post out of context." - I didn't take your post out of context, you simply made the point that obviously no good doctor would work in a hospital ever, especially not in this area because they would be in private practice. Mmm hmmm.
I will agree that medical care in southeast Ohio is not as good as say a large city (you'll find this anywhere it is a rural area) we do have good doctor's here.
I also never said I agreed with how the girl was treated at Hudson. The first time she went there, I can totally understand the diagnosis, but not the second time when the girl went back hysterical and so weak she could hardly stand. It would have been emergency room time for my prognosis at that point. My issue with many of responses is that the doctor was treated like they were an idiot from the get go and everyone assumes such a rare case should be an instant known cause. I am not going to defend the doctor's 2nd diagnosis, but I will defend the doctor's 1st diagnosis.
Tell me Southeasterm, since your mom was a billing clerk, is she one of the people I need to yell at since my grandfather was just billed for a kidney transplant he never had? Because I would think a billing clerk would be at fault for that. But hey, let's give the people who screw up in hospitals a break, it's not like our lives are in their hands or they make ridiculous amounts of money for what they do... who cares if they don't earn every penny of it?
No one is saying that these doctors don't have a hard job, but they don't listen to their patients and the service they issue is horrible. No one should ever have to wait 3 hours to be seen in a half-full clinic, that makes no sense. And building a new building isn't going to make the care of the inept physicians any better.
I've been on Medicaid/Medicare and other low-income government sponsored health care programs most of my life.
Since I've entered college, I've had to reapply three or four times because they've revoked it every chance they can get. First because I was "lying" about my residence: I now "lived" in Athens and not at home. Once they figured out that I was in fact still living at home and they have these things called dorms in college, they then tried to stop my coverage because I was 19. But once they, again, figured out that that's ok as long as I'm in school, they tried to stop my coverage because I had an on campus job, making a couple hundred bucks a month to do laundry and try to pay down student loans.
That time it worked. I'm currently uninsured because I can't afford to not work. I can't even afford Hudson's shitty care because I opted out of student health services at the beginning of the year. I'd planned to pay for it next year, but now I wonder if I'd ever be sick enough to brave what could end up being a worse experience than just riding it out.
The bureaucracy of universal health care seems bad, but honestly, I'm not sure how it could get worse.
Submit a comment to The Post