Errors abound but scrutiny sparse in military hospitals

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/06/errors-abound-scrutiny-sparse-military-hospitals

Errors abound but scrutiny sparse in military hospitals
By Sharon LaFraniere and Andrew W. Lehren
The New York Times
© June 29, 2014

FORT SILL, Okla.

Jessica Zeppa, five months pregnant, the wife of a soldier, showed up four times at Reynolds Army Community Hospital here in pain, weak, barely able to swallow and fighting a fever. The last time, she declared that she was not leaving until she could get warm.

Without reviewing her file, nurses sent her home anyway, in a wheelchair, with an appointment to see an oral surgeon to extract her wisdom teeth.

Zeppa returned the next day, in an ambulance.

She was airlifted to a civilian hospital, where despite relentless efforts to save her and her baby, she suffered a miscarriage and died Oct. 22, 2010, of complications from severe sepsis, a bodywide infection. Medical experts hired by her family said later that because she was young and otherwise healthy, she most likely would have survived had the medical staff at Reynolds properly diagnosed and treated her.