Tyson Horton Story Part IV -- Mom open to reconnecting with senior surgeon

Over the past three weeks we have shared the heartbreaking journey of Tyson Horton and his family through medical errors and a legal system that doesn't get it.  A legal system run by lawyers that not only fails patients and families, but also physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.  The legal system and its caretakers -- lawyers -- literally played games with a young boy whose liver was killed by medical errors and needing a life-saving transplant from his mom.  These lawyers had the money to take care of this family, had paid other families appropriate amounts for past wrong-deeds, but, instead decided to play games with Tyson's future.    

In this e-newsletter, we are going to provide a slightly deeper look at the responses of the two surgeons at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) involved in Tyson's care and how these two different approaches impacted Tyson's mom, Lori.  In short, Lori is open to re-connecting with the senior surgeon and seeing what healing and closure can happen for both of them.  We hope Sorry Works! readers share this e-newsletter with contacts in Oregon. 

During the fateful surgery, there was a senior surgeon and fellow or surgical resident involved in the medical errors that led to the wrong cuts to Tyson's liver that led to uncontrollable bleeding.  The fellow was apparently doing the cutting under supervision of the senior surgeon. 

As retold by Lori, the senior surgeon met with Lori and her husband four hours after the operation began.  Lori said the surgeon brought them to a private room, sat down, looked them in the eyes, and told the truth in a very humble, contrite manner.  The senior surgeon held nothing back, and was willing to talk more but was encouraged by Lori to get back to the operating room to re-join the efforts to save Tyson's life.  The senior surgeon still had Lori's trust.  

A day or two after the error-ridden operation, the senior surgeon, the fellow, and the OHSU leadership team met with Lori and her husband.  Again, the senior surgeon continued with transparency and his humble nature, even hand drawing diagrams for the Horton family showing how the operation went wrong.  The fellow sat mostly silent.  Lori believes the fellow was told by OHSU lawyers to remain silent.  

The day after that meeting, Tyson and Lori were medivacked to Stanford for life-saving medical care, including the transplant from Lori.  Communication from OHSU --- and its doctors -- dropped off.  An OHSU risk manager did visit the family at Stanford but only to deliver the bad news that the family would be on their own past $3M in uncovered medical expenses, even though -- unknown to the Horton family at the time --OHSU had paid more than $3M to other patient injured by OHSU medical errors.  From Lori's perspective, the doctors went completely quiet while the legal games began. 

During the trial, Lori and the fellow/surgical resident sat next each other. The fellow spoke nothing of the reason they were in court and she and Lori only made uncomfortable small talk. After the trial, Lori heard rumors that the fellow left the OHSU program.

Several years ago (after the trial concluded), Lori tried to reach back out to the senior surgeon, but has received no reply or communication.  Lori wonders if the surgeon thinks about Tyson and his family after all these years.  Lori has able to forgive the surgeon because of his humble, caring nature and would welcome a chance to reconnect with him and for him to see Tyson, now as a 13-year-old boy.  There are many healthcare, insurance, and legal folks who read this e-newsletter and surely some (if not many) have connections in Oregon.  We encourage you to share this e-newsletter and see if the Horton family and the senior surgeon can be reconnected.  

Conversely, Lori struggles with forgiving the fellow/surgical resident.  The fellow had multiple opportunities -- including sitting next to Lori in the courtroom for several days -- to say something, anything, but the fellow apparently let her ethics be dictated by attorneys.  Lori said that her journey towards forgiveness and healing would have been less difficult if she’d had the chance to have that one-on-one conversation with the fellow, regardless of what the lawyers had to say about it. 

This story bookends the disclosure movement...some physicians act in an ethical manner and try to communicate with patients/families, while other MDs say nothing and let the lawyers hijack their relationship with patients and families.  However, even the senior surgeon eventually let the lawyers take over and has not stayed in touch with the Horton family.  

Lastly, Lori wanted to share that there were two OHSU doctors who absolutely shined: the adult liver specialist who was brought in to save Tyson's life, and Tyson's cancer doctor.  Both of them stayed in touch with the family and showed empathy throughout the ordeal.  

Earlier this year, Sorry Works! published a study on what is being taught about disclosure & apology in medical schools.  One of the interesting findings in this paper was that medical students surveyed in the study wanted to learn about what happens after "sorry" and how cases can be resolved with disclosure (and without protracted litigation).  Here is the link for the open-access version of the paper.  The Tyson Horton story highlights this need...doctors need to know what happens during disclosure and be leaders in the process, not followers.

Please share this e-newsletter with colleagues and friends.

Thank you,

- Doug

Doug Wojcieszak, MA, MS
Founder and President
Sorry Works, a 501c3 patient safety organization
618-559-8168 (direct dial)
doug@sorryworks.net