Liver Kidney & Internal: Lipsen Bryan MD Bryan C Lipsen MD Bryan Charles Lipsen MD Houston Texas

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2twlyl9d3cb779v/John%20Puente%20Link.

John Puente 

Better Off Dead: My Daddy's Final Fourteen Months

On August 7, 2006, my father was scheduled for a lumbar laminectomy at L2 thru L5. It was a hot August morning when we arrived at Houston's Renaissance Hospital. At 7:00 a.m., I said goodbye as he headed for the operating room. Hoping for the best, I could never have imagined the worst, but that's exactly what transpired in the eight hours to come.

At the end of those eight long hours, the physician reported that the surgery had gone well, but in reality the operation had gone haywire. The surgery had been prolonged, causing volume depletion with significant blood loss. He suffered respiratory failure and altered mental status. His blood pressure dropped as his heart rate increased. He required reintubation and two pressors for support. Meanwhile, he developed renal insufficiency, and that combined with paraplegia proved the most devastating consequence for Daddy.

After a consultation, Dr. Lipsen ordered Heparin to treat what he believed to be a massive pulmonary embolism and the resulting hypotension and shock. Still unstable and intubated, Daddy developed an infection. Thirty-nine blood transfusions and one month later, he lost over sixty pounds.

The Heparin required the testing of his blood levels every four hours. I reviewed his results myself and noticed a lab warning to the hospital that my father's PTT levels very high time after time, but the Heparin treatment continued until August 19. Daddy was suffering terrible pain, but his blood pressure restricted medication for pain relief. With good reason, he became depressed and feared for his life.

The physician’s orders and nurses’ notes indicate that a CT scanwas performed on August 14. Dr. Moorehead reviewed the results. He stated that Daddy had developed a hematoma, but there therewas no evidence of a blood clot for which the Heparin had been ordered. However, Dr. Moorehead failed to notify Daddy or my mother of his conclusions. Expert witnesses unilaterally agree that prescribing Heparin to a patient immediately after major spine surgery was a deviation from normal standards of care and had created tremendous risks for my father.

And so my family watched as Daddy bled from his wound, blood products floating in his Foley bag. Blood pooled under his skin. His stomach swelled as if he were pregnant. At one point, he was misdiagnosed with cancer. It was sickening to watch, the entire ordeal so exhausting and unbelievable that I couldn’t imagine how my father must have felt. In essence, Daddy died. We learned to love the sick and fragile ghost who took his place. His wound open, I saw his spine rotting, the smell horrifying as I helplessly watched the man I loved wasting away.

He endured four hospitals and countless complications before finally being released to go home during the first week of December 2006. Again and again, I heard my father’s cries. My heart broke as he shared his fears, worries and overwhelming desire to end his life and with it his unbearable emotional and physical pain.

On October 11, 2007, John Puente’s wish came true, but for me, fear became reality. Not only was my Daddy gone, but his death was altogether avoidable. His life meant nothing to the doctors whose actions caused the slow and agonizing death of the man I would otherwise today still call Daddy to a smiling face full of life. But that life had been stolen. And it wasn't fair.

When I arrived at my parents' house, everyone was gathered around my father, weeping with remorse for a life lost to the failure of simple standard medical protocol. I held Daddy's lifeless body in my arms, still warm to the touch. He weighed a mere 118 pounds. When he funeral director wheeled Daddy out of the house, I followed. Daddy, covered with a thin white sheet, was dead, but my heart refused to accept it. I actually asked the funeral director to uncover Daddy's face because I imagined he couldn’t breathe. During the fourteen months preceding his dead, I had watched my protector slip away into a fragile and sick human being, so far removed from the loving and hardworking man I once knew.

On Oct 11, 2007, lying in a fetal position on Daddy's hospital bed, I felt a profound loss of security and confidence in the world. Now I, too, was sick and wanted to die. Death seemed so much easier than the endless pain that had become my life. I wanted Daddy back, alive and well, just as he would have been had the doctors followed normal procedure. I felt helpless and confused. "Why?Why my Daddy?"

Seven years later, I'm still searching for answers. How could this happen in America? How could the Medical Board fail to protect patients from unethical doctors? As I tried to answer those questions, I discovered shocking stories of malpractice from around the world. Not only my heart was breaking for a senseless and avoidable death. No, I wasn’t alone. John Puente was but one name amongst thousands and thousands who suffer at hands of inept doctors. The Internet allows me to reach out to all those who suffer as I do.

Together, we share the tragic facts of our loved ones' deaths. I monitor the doctors who "treated" my father and caused the complications that led to his death. I hope that one day the Medical Board will finally hold those doctors accountable. I pray they receive a punishment commensurate with their crimes, for my father's death was the result of criminal negligence. Those doctors killed my father with no more conscience than a psychopathic murderer, but at least the psychopathic murder pays for his crimeswith life in prison or worse.

As it turns out, the crime began long before my father's surgery. "A former Beaumont physician and office manager have been charged with health care fraud violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales today," the newspaper reported. "John Q. A. Webb, Jr., 74, of Houston, and KariMannino, 30, of Woodville, were indicted by a federal grand jury on Dec. 5, 2013, and charged in a 43-count indictment with health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, distribution of controlled substances, and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances."

John Q.A. Webb referred my father to Webb's brother-in-law, none other than Dr. Moorehead. Webb also referred patients toMerrimon Baker, who has since lost his medical license. Yet Dr.Moorehead and my father's other treating physicians, Bryan Charles Lipsen, still walk free. They're alive and financially secure. Their families still greet them when they come home from work. In the morning, they're still alive. The sun still shines for them and the prison cell they deserve is nowhere on their minds.

Meanwhile, my heart still believes my Daddy will walk through the door, the sun shining as we greet the man we lost so long ago and, worst of all, who would do just that had his doctors merely followed standard protocol. Nothing can heal my heart or reverse the suffering my father endured. But to see justice served upon the doctors who killed my father would give me back a little trust in the world. I might once again believe that truth prevails over lies in America, and that John Puente's life meant as much as any man's and that the taking of it deserves no lesser punishment than the taking of any other life. I want to believe all of those things, but I'm still waiting, just as my heart still awaits the return of the father I've lost.

“Slipped Away” by AVRIL LAVIGNE

I miss you, miss you so bad
I don't forget you, oh it's so sad
I hope you can hear me
I remember it clearly

The day you slipped away
Was the day I found it won't be the same

I didn't get around to kiss you
Goodbye on the hand
I wish that I could see you again
I know that I can't

I hope you can hear me cause I remember it clearly

The day you slipped away
Was the day I found it won't be the same

R.I.P. Our Hero until we meet again I will carry you in my Heart, cherishing the memories we have.