By: Heather Graf
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - A Smyrna woman is suing the Middle Tennessee Medical Center after she says the hospital staff gave her the wrong type of blood during a routine surgery.
Patricia Frazier,48, was admitted to the hospital on April 19th to undergo a hysterectomy.
"I went in on that Friday for my initial blood work, and then on Monday morning I went in for my surgery," she recalls.
A few hours later, during recovery, her doctor told her the surgery went well, but there was a minor complication. He told her the hospital staff would be coming in to talk to her about it.
"They told me they gave me two pints of blood, and the first one was right, but the second one was the wrong type," Frazier said. "They told me don't worry about it, they would give me four more pints of blood to flush out the one pint they gave me wrong, and that would fix the problem."
Frazier says their solution didn't work.
"That Sunday morning, I woke up and felt like someone was pounding on my head, and I told my daughter something wasn't right and to take me back to the hospital," she says. "And that's when I started having seizures."
Two months later, her health problems haven't gone away.
"I was hearing ringing in my ears, voices, seizures. It was just awful," she said.
On Wednesday, she filed a lawsuit against the hospital, alleging medical malpractice and seeking nearly three million dollars in damages for past and future medical expenses in addition to lost earnings.
"Now something very bad happened with Mrs. Frazier with her blood, but what concerns me is, is there another side to that coin out there somewhere? Someone else who ended up with her blood? That I can't answer," said Frazier's attorney, Robert Whitaker.
He says they don't fault her surgeon at all - in fact, Whitaker says, the surgeon saved her life.
"There's no doubt he did, and on behalf of my client, we certainly want to commend him and thank him for saving her," he said.
Frazier says she still doesn't know exactly how the alleged mix-up happened. She hopes the lawsuit will prevent this from happening to anyone else.
"Maybe someone was overworked and tired. I don't have the slightest idea," she said. "But it just doesn't make any sense."
Because the lawsuit was just filed on Wednesday, the Middle Tennessee Medical Center has not yet been served with papers. For that reason, a hospital spokesman told News Channel 5 they could not comment on the case at this time.
A local hematologist unrelated to this particular case says that receiving a transfusion with the wrong blood type can result in dangerous health complications and even death.
email: hgraf@newschannel5.com
Patricia Frazier,48, was admitted to the hospital on April 19th to undergo a hysterectomy. She is suing the Middle Tennessee Medical Center after she says the hospital staff gave her the wrong type of blood during a routine surgery.
