Clinic Closed. I Lost My Medical Team! The Struggle to Find Doctors When on Life Support 

Thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate all your insight and support.

Thank you for all your support. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. I appreciate your support.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for all your kind words and support. I really appreciate that.

Thank you for sharing. I am sorry your doctor retired, but I am glad you were given notice. Each state has its own procedures and rules. So there may be a state which has a law regarding this, but as far as I know, there is no law which requires a clinic or doctor to notify patients ahead of time of a doctor's departure. It is courtesy to do so to give patients time to find new providers. There are legal implications which can arise when a doctor does not warn a patient of the termination of the relationship such as a patient suing for medical abandonment. Medical abandonment occurs when a patient feels a doctor-patient relationship was terminated improperly. Medical abandonment falls under malpractice. Most legal experts advise giving patients a 30-day notice about the termination of a doctor-patient relationship to give the patient time to find a new provider. It is generally thought 30 days is enough time for a patient to establish care with a new provider. (Most medical abandonment cases are dismissed if a notice of 30 days or more is given to the patient to find a new provider.) However, this is not a law, just a safeguard to prevent a medical malpractice lawsuit.

@@LifewithaVent I'm not sorry he retired. He's a great doctor, but he had wanted to do this for a long time.

Thank you for sharing some of your story with me. I am so sorry this happened to you. I am glad the hospital was able to properly diagnose you. Thank you for your well wishes. All my best to you.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing some of your story with me. I hope all goes well getting a great care team. Thank you for your well wishes.

I am glad you have gotten notifications from doctors about the doctor retiring or closing the practice. The clinic closing without giving notice probably was patient abandonment.

I am so sorry to hear this. How frustrating. I hope you are able to find a new primary care provider.

The office sent out a letter which I just received. It is a very strangely worded letter. I will paraphrase what it says. It states the clinic is making changes. It lists five doctors and says they will be moving on from the clinic. The clinic thanks them for their service and wishes them the best of luck. The doctor who will be staying in the area and who will be moving to a clinic in the same hospital system, for that doctor it says the doctor will continue seeing patients until June 30. On July 1, the doctor will be moving to the following clinic. It then gives the information for the clinic. It states if you need your medical records to please contact the medical records department at the following number. It does not say anything about any of the other doctors. It also does not say the clinic is closing. If I would not have called and found out the clinic is closed, I would have assumed from reading the letter the doctors who are not mentioned in the letter are still practicing at the clinic.

@@LifewithaVentI feel like they should send digital and paper communications for something this important. I know that medical clinics and other healthcare places don’t really follow logic though because I too have chronic complex conditions. But I think it should be a rule that they are 1) clearer with their plans when explaining them. 2) send digital & paper communications so that if the letter gets lost in transit or something like that, you still get the information.

Sorry if my comment was a little repetitive. My brain fog is so bad today.

@@HannahMcNabb-k4v Those are excellent suggestions.

Thanks so much. I appreciate all your support.

Thank you for your support.

Are the hiccups a frequent occurrence or do they only happen once in a while? If they only happen once in a while, doing anything which changes the breathing pattern (such as laughing, holding one's breath, scaring someone, etc.) will help get rid of the hiccups. If it is a frequent issue, it may require an evaluation by a medical provider. There are medicines which can help with frequent, persistent hiccups.

Thank you for your support.

Hello. Thank you for sharing. I have never gone to the emergency room for issues with my trach. I am sorry you have had to wait so long. I cannot imagine everything you have gone through. I would guess the hospital did not have a specialist available who was familiar with trach tubes. I would guess you had to wait until the appropriate specialist was able to see you. And unfortunately, that was a day or two. Other people with trach tubes have expressed this same experience (i.e., waiting a day or two to see a doctor in the emergency room). Do you have a respiratory therapist or a nurse you can call when you have issues with your trach tube? I have a respiratory therapist with my medical equipment company. She can usually trouble-shoot issues which arise or if needed, call ahead to the emergency room and let them know what care is needed. Since specialists are not always available, many times a respiratory therapist can assist with trach tube issues in the emergency department. A woman I know who has a daughter with a trach often requests to see the respiratory therapist in the emergency department if there are issues with her daughter's trach. This often saves a lot of time because the respiratory therapist can usually figure out the issue and suggest the care needed to the emergency department doctor. Usually, emergency room doctors listen to and take the advice of respiratory therapists.

@LifewithaVent thanks for replying. It's pretty hard to get assistance in my area since I live in a very small town and the hospital here always ends up sending me somewhere else. I have to drive mostly an hour for my Dr visits and to a hospital to get better ER assistance. I can't even call an RT or nurse to do homecare. Only person that comes home is the one that checks that my Vent is working properly and that's pretty much it 😭 wish it was alot easier

@@DiabloFTW Thank you for sharing. I am so sorry it is so challenging to get care.

Oxygen is two molecules of oxygen bonded together. A ventilator is a machine which uses pressure to force air into the lungs.