California

John Enzenaur
El Sobrante, CA

Two days before Christmas, 39-year-old John Enzenauer was not feeling well and went to the emergency room. They found he had internal bleeding, a bladder infection, and the flu, but sent him home anyway. He was told to come back after the holiday. When he was not feeling better on December 24, he returned to the ER and was again dismissed after 8 hours. He came back to the ER on December 26 and was finally admitted. Failure to diagnose led to a blood infection and septic shock.

He died on December 27 from pneumonia. His treatable condition was evident from a blood culture test administered by the hospital and faxed to the ER during this period, but no one ever called the family with this information and the results of that test were never placed in his chart. Four different antibiotics could have completely cured him.

Jessie Geyer
Antioch, CA

Jessie Geyer of California was just barely 7 years when she became a victim of medical malpractice. After awaking on October 29, 2003 with a high fever and unable to walk, Jessie’s mother Michelle took her to their family pediatrician, who advised her to rush Jessie to the nearby hospital emergency room. The attending doctor at the hospital examined Jessie and diagnosed her with the flu, telling Michelle Geyer that Jessie’s blood culture had come back clean. The Geyers went home, but after Michelle tucked Jessie into bed on Halloween night, she went into septic shock and died.

It turned out the cause of Jessie’s death was a common bacterial infection that could easily have been treated. Yet the hospital, it was later discovered, failed to take a simple blood culture that would have revealed the cause of Jessie’s fever and leg pain.

Even more disturbing, the attending doctor who treated Jessie lied and told her family the culture had been performed, and Jessie was free to go home. Jessie’s parents, Michelle and Mark Geyer, searched for a year to find a lawyer who would take their case because California’s medical malpractice caps make pursuing and investigating medical malpractice cases prohibitively expensive.

“We didn’t have a cause of death. I couldn’t get an answer from the doctors, I asked them, I tried. I had to get the medical records. I called an attorney, and that’s when I found out about the MICRA law. And I made it my crusade to try and change it, and get the word out… Because Jessie isn’t worth – she doesn’t get anything more than $250,000. Because she’s dead,” said Michelle Geyer.

The Geyers are now awaiting trial.

Watch/Listen to Michelle Geyer’s testimony to Congress