BigGreenMat said:
It has nothing to do with being incompetent. Do you know how similar symptoms of just about everything is and how hard a diagnosis can be let alone figuring out how to treat somone? It isn't a cookie-cutter business. Stuff goes either unnoticed or isn't noticeable and just because you notice it doesn't mean you can do jack about it. About the only thing we have any control over to some degree is bacterial infections. The rest we pretty much leave up to the body to take care of. People die of pneumonia. It happens. There isn't much you can do other than hope a person gets better.
I think - if she had pneumonia - clue #1 to the doctors would've been her spitting up mucus like a dock worker. You know, at least listen to her lungs or something. I've dealt with the big P enough times in my life to know that while it has "common" symptoms, it's easily recognizable.
But she shouldn't have gone to the ER, if your arm isn't severed, you're not likely to get any attention for a few hours. A normal, everyday doctor would've taken better care of her.
I also agree that the hospital needs to be chastized harshly for this. People can die of a lot of things; its whether or not it's easily prevented, and in the case of pneumonia, an otherwise healthy person should NOT have to die from it.
