Hi,

Last year my wife got misdiagnosed with gastroenteritis instead of appendicitis at a private hospital while on layover to Geneva(she's a cabin crew), after having 12 hours of pain and vomiting. They released her for flying after 12h. Less than 36 hours later she was on the brink of collapsing in septic shock with acute peritonitis, which led to surgery and more than 3 weeks of hospitalization.
In these 36h she called again an ambulance to get her to the hospital accusing severe abdominal pain but, based on the initial estimation she received from doctor, the ambulance drivers just took her at a pharmacy to get pain medicine and left her there. She got a cab back to the hotel.

The airline is deducting part of the hospitalization costs from my wife's salary, so we want to sue the hospital to recover at least the costs, or even compensation for the unnecessary trauma she's been through.

Please let me know who we can contact for this.

You could try here.

But I would be asking why the employer is deducting charges from your wife's salary Do they not carry insurance for sickness or injury during working time? Especially as their employees are working permanently at an international level.

A lawyer?

I hope your wife is now fully recovered.

It's pretty well known (not on this forum, obviously) that cabin crew on most middle eastern airlines are treated like shit. That, with low wages and almost free fuel is why they're cheap to fly and all the staff grin at you inanely.

They have insurance, but in the contract is written that you support 5% of what is charged.

Then you have your answer, looks like yon need to pay 5% then.

I can sort of see the OP's point if the ambulance just drove her to the pharmacy then abandoned her, then charged for the ambulance call out.

Normally you have to sign a document to say you are refusing to go with the ambulance, so effectively "discharging" yourself from their care. If they did just naff off and leave her when she was evidently so ill, then charged her for the pleasure, he might have a case.

Presumably then the ombudsman will look at their side of the story and compare it with the records and account of the ambulance staff.

The problem is not that we have to pay 5%. The problem is that we have to pay 5% out of more than 3 weeks of hospitalization for peritonitis, instead of paying 5% out of 2-3 days of hospitalization for appendicitis, all because of the incompetence of the doctor who saw her initially and the ambulance drivers who assumed it's no need to take her to the hospital again. Although my wife told them 'are you sure is not appendicitis'?
Not to mention we lost a lot of money cause she could not work/fly for 2 months after that. Plus my flight to Geneva and all spent there on food, transportation and hotel.

And yes, I know I have to address a lawyer, I thought you can help me with some information about some lawyers that handled well these kind of cases

Have a look through this thread, there is an email address which was used by an EF member a couple of years ago.

https://www.englishforum.ch/complain...st-doctor.html

I find the Ambulance drove to a pharmacy part of the story very odd, something is missing from the story, Ambulances drive to emergency entrance of a hospital.

I had peritonitis, I spent 6 days in a hospital in the UK before they operated as they believed it was just abdominal colic. Late diagnosis is not that rare. Being freelance at the time I started working the day after I left hospital, this surprised the Dr when I went for a check up 2 weeks later.

Edit
Swiss hospitals don't accept insurance from non residents as I discovered on 1 February this year, you need top pay 100% in cash or credit card at the time, I have a feeling this may have been an issue for the OP.

My own experience of appendicitis is similar - I was left for a few days with painkillers (also in the UK) before they diagnosed it correctly and operated.

For my mum it was much worse, hers burst and she was in a right mess for months but that was back when Adam was a lad so they'd probably catch it and treat it quicker than that these days.

Sorry for the OP but appendicitis isn't all that easy to diagnose.
I had abdominal pain late one morning, the appendix was removed the same evening though I certainly didn't have very typical symptoms (apart from belly pain, I was just plain hungry) so it looks like I was lucky. The diagnosis had been correct. It was indeed acute appendicitis.

I was only ten, but I still remember the significance of McBurney's point and the check for Rebound tenderness. Neither of these are conclusive of appendicitis but maybe before scans and the like, doctors were more used to checking the abdomen over by these methods.

Mind you, they thought my brother had appendicitis and they operated - but he didn't - so you can't win them all.

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Longbyt

The ambulance drivers looked at the document my wife received from the doctor the day before, that's why they didn't took her to the hospital. One of them even told her he had gastroenteritis before and he knows it hurts.
I know it hurts too, I've had it several times, but the pain drops in time, not increases like she had.

I don't understand how appendicitis is hard to diagnose. I'm not a doctor and the first thing I think about when I hear about sudden abdominal pain which is not dropping, in a young patient with no medical problems, is appendicitis. I've never even had appendicitis, but I've seen it in 5 people in my lifetime.

I think the most unusual thing about it is that they drove her in the ambulance to the pharmacy and left her there. Or did I misunderstand your earlier post?

That's the bit, if what you say is correct, that you might have to question with the hospital or the ombudsman.

Are you sure it was an ambulance? Are you sure it wasn't nothing a taxi?

When a doctor hears about sudden abdominal pain which is not going away in a young patient, with no medical problems, they also think "hmm, could be appendicitis". Then they do some tests. Sometimes the tests are not conclusive, so based on their experience, knowledge and training, they make a judgement call - this is called a diagnosis.

Doctoring is not an exact science. The doctors have to balance the relative risks - they can't open everyone up who has abdominal pain. Sometimes they will, inevitably, get it wrong. And maybe the "victim" deserves compensation. What you can't do is shout "incompetence!", unless there are other factors that make it clear that someone was negligent (rather than mistaken - which is not, in and of itself, negligence).

Here's one source that discusses the difficulties of figuring it out: http://answers.webmd.com/answers/117...e-difficult-to

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Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

The percentage of Appendix operations in which it turns out to have been a wrong diagnosis is quite high, particularly in young women where problems with the reproductive organs can produce similar symptoms.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

One thing I'd keep in mind - professional doctors don't like amateur doctors telling them their job. If you really want to win anything by your complaint, stick to the facts, all the facts, and nothing but the facts.

When Mr HH had abdo pain, the doctors weren't sure it was appendicitis and left the decision up to him whether to operate or not. They told us 1 in 3 suspect-appendicitis cases (i.e. the unsure cases, not the obvious ones) turn out to be not appendicitis.

Good thing he decided for the surgery....turned out to be appendix cancer

Meh. A friend of ours is currently sueing the NHS for a very similar case. Sent home with appendicitis. "Don't worry dear take some ibuprofen."

3 years later she is still recovering from the resulting sepsis of a burst appendix. I know of 2 other such cases (both in CH) of, if not negligence, pretty shitty doctoring.

Yep. And I know of someone who was having a heart attack and was prescribed antacid, whereas aspirin would have prevented half his heart muscle dying and an early death.

1 doctor out of... how many?

Some doctors are crap. Doesn't mean that doctors getting it wrong are guilty of malpractice.