Senator Kennedy Airlifted To Help For … A Seizure??
Posted by WhiteCoat on May 17, 2008
Edward Kennedy was transported a short distance from his home in Hyannis Port, MA to Cape Cod Hospital after apparently having a seizure, which was initially apparently thought to be a stroke.
Cape Cod Hospital has reportedly been named a Top 100 Hospital in five of the last nine years and is also supposedly has the busiest Emergency Department in all of New England.
Despite this, Senator Kennedy was then flown from Cape Cod Hospital to Massachusetts General Hospital which is 72.8 miles away.
Mass General isn’t even on the Top 100 list.
So when Senator Kennedy was at a Top 100 Hospital …
that has neurosurgeons “with the highest level of expertise and training” …
for treatment of a seizure (one of those “obscure” diagnoses that occurs in 6% of the US population at sometime during their lives) …
he got flown by helicopter somewhere else.
When a “Top 100 Hospital” can’t work up a patient with a seizure, either there is more than meets the eye to Senator Kennedy’s condition, or our healthcare system is in more trouble than I thought.
May 17, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Pure speculation on my part: seizure secondary to a metabolic disturbance?
May 17, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Or there are major problems with the “Top 100″ list.
Since not a single hospital in the Houston Medical Center is in the “Top 100″ but several other rather obscure Texas hospitals are, I suspect it’s in the list.
The intent of the post was to bust on the Top 100 lists - and maybe Cape Cod Hospital just a little.
I guess I have to lather on more sarcasm next time.
May 17, 2008 at 3:03 pm
When a “Top 100 Hospital” can’t work up a patient with a seizure, either there is more than meets the eye to Senator Kennedy’s condition, or our healthcare system is in more trouble than I thought.
Dr. WhiteCoat, I think you might be forgetting that EMTALA doesn’t apply to Senator Kennedy, who has the best insurance policy around, so Cape Cod Hospital was free to dump him.
May 17, 2008 at 3:37 pm
It must have been sips and chips night at the Mass
May 17, 2008 at 4:17 pm
This is probably a better list. MGH is #4 in the nation for Neurology/Neurosurgery.
May 17, 2008 at 7:51 pm
The first thing I thought was ‘Teddy decided to stop drinking.’
As a fmr epilepsy nurse, I know that sometimes even very large hospitals used to transfer patients to my old unit for diagnostic 24-hour video EEG monitoring, which isn’t a service available everywhere…
May 17, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Maybe Ted was flying the helicopter and thought that he was going to a bar, where he could persuade someone to provide him with the proper beverages to maintain his therapeutic level of alcohol.
May 17, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Maybe his PCP does not have privileges at Cape Cod Hospital, but does at Mass General?
You’re right. Teddy’s doc is Larry Ronan at MGH.
So why the helicopter for a seizure? The “Golden Rule” I guess.
May 18, 2008 at 7:41 am
You got it ! Top 100 means nothing with the statisical adjustment tools that low life hospitals use to get these awards. If you treat the elderly, drug addicts and alcoholics here on Cape Cod that makes for a lot of adjustment. Then they boast to hit up local philanthropist. Mismanage the donations and fall short 17 million plus in seven months. I recommend the local discussion that follows the article about CCH in the Cape Cod Times May 15th. Over paid management that rose to the top on the “Peter Principle”. Staff extremely skilled in postmortem care—now that’s an adjustment. The locals with any brains know to head for the bridge when skilled care is needed. CCH is a joke in Boston!!
May 18, 2008 at 8:06 am
I wonder if he’s on an ETOH drip yet?
May 18, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Hey , the picture you show is of my hospital in Madisonville KY. It’s a big hospital in a tiny little town. I am sure that we did not transport Sen. Kennedy.
I grew up in MA and would rather be at Mass General than at Cape Cod Hospital.
Small world. I just did a picture search for “medical helicopter” and that one is the first picture that popped up. Besides, I’m sure that you guys probably would have been able to handle working up a seizure, anyway. No need to transport - especially by air.
May 18, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Man’s Greatest Hospital is viewed as a Mecca of sorts by those in the greater metropolitan Boston area. When it comes to VIPs, everybody goes there.
Sure, their specialists are some of the best in the country, but for a typical ER visit, they are crowded, slow, and disorganized.
May 19, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Teddy probably passed out early and didn’t get his 5:30 AM eye opener in…the DT’s are a bitch from what I hear. CCH may be a top “100 hospital” on some asinine list, but I wouldn’t want to be seen there for anything much more than a bad sunburn.
May 19, 2008 at 4:16 pm
What’s interesting to me is that I was discharged after a “seizure” from MGH after 6 hours of observation. Why is Mr. Kennedy still there????
May 19, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Mass General Hospital is one of the most reputable hospitals in the world. If you polled people who live in Massachusetts whether they would rather be treated at Mass General or at Cape Cod Hospital, I’m guessing 90% would say Mass General.
Judging from the other comments, I bet you’re right.
What does that say about the “Top 100 Hospital” rankings?
May 19, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Whenever someone famous has a new onset seizure - everyone gets SO worked up. I mean, most people with a single isolated new seizure I see get a CT, labs and then discharged for an outpatient EEG! I guess when you are famous things are a little different. Maybe is is all these “VIPs” that are driving our cost of health care up!
May 19, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Whenever someone famous has a new onset seizure - everyone gets SO worked up. I mean, most people with a single isolated new seizure I see get a CT, labs and then discharged for an outpatient EEG! I guess when you are famous things are a little different. –TK
Well, TK, maybe this is something different from “a single isolated new seizure,” but they’re just calling it that to the public. It was funny to watch the ABC doctor work reeeeeally really hard not to mention alcohol abuse as a possible cause of Senator Kennedy’s hospitalization. He had to know that’s what everyone’s thinking.
May 20, 2008 at 11:46 am
Actually, he has a . I’m going to go out on a limb and say MGH is a more appropriate place to seek care for things like that than Cape Cod Hospital.
May 20, 2008 at 11:47 am
Turns out that Teddy has a glioma…check out boston.com for the latest. He probably got a CT in the Hyannis ED and then on finding the tumor was sent up to MGH for a consult with his docs. His God-like status in MA got to use the Boston MedFlight chopper instead of having to take the bridge like everyone else. Poor guy.
May 20, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Found out why they need the helocopter to transport Sen. Kenedy. The Helicopter is using Alcohol for fuel. The exhaust fume somehow help control the seizure when delivered through a non-rebreather mask
May 21, 2008 at 8:04 am
[...] Whitecoat noted the other day, Kennedy was indeed transferred from from Cape Cod Hospital, where he was initally [...]
May 21, 2008 at 10:21 am
Even if they found the mass on a head CT at Cape Cod, that does NOT justify an inpatient admit at MGH. They shoulda referred him for follow-up with an oncologist at one of MGH’s outpatient clinics.
May 21, 2008 at 11:03 am
FROM THIS MORNINGS CAPE COD TIMES————The senator was in a comatose state when he arrived to Cape Cod Hospital after suffering two seizures, said Dr. Patrick Murray, the hospital’s chief of neuro surgery who was there Saturday. The emergency department staff and Dr. Robert Zarcum resuscitated Kennedy “and probably saved his life” before Kennedy was air lifted to MGH,Murray said.———————
They were bagging him while the gurney was getting ready to board the chopper. I don’t know that less than 2 hours after 2 seizures is considered a prolonged postictal state or a reasonable expectation. You would think he would of gotten a reasonable amount of time to wake up before they tubed him. Perhaps they went with the snow and go protocol. Gee,now the Senator plans to participate in the sailing race this weekend and appears not to be too compromised–which is good. I doubt they saw the tumor at the CCH with CT–probably MRI at MGH found it, because CCH would be bragging, after all they saved his life you know.
May 21, 2008 at 11:18 am
OH—I forgot, now that CCH saved the senator’s life the donations should start pouring in!!
May 21, 2008 at 5:42 pm
EMTALA—HIPAA—law for some
I wonder when the Kennedy family had time to give Dr. Murray over at CCH permission to report the senator’s “comatose” status to the Cape Cod Times
May 22, 2008 at 6:41 pm
alivewhy?,
The HIPAA requirements may have been met. The Senator probably has a full time publicity agent (probably with a different title) who may be authorized to release this information. I would expect this person to be in the hospital directing press releases.
The EMTALA requirements are for appropriate screening and “stabilization.” The patient needs to be stabilized to the point appropriate for transport. The treatments that would have been performed in the ICU may be continued in the helicopter on the way to MGH.
May 27, 2008 at 3:05 pm
it might have been for security reasons that they transferred him to Mass. Mass is used by the government often, and probably has the level of security desired by the the family. no only physical security, but also information as well. Mass has always enjoyed an excellent reputation through the decades, and has lead the way in medical research, and patient care. i feel deeply for the senator and the family at this time. i too berate myself for the poor taste comments i made when i heard of his seizure, because of drinking history. we can never assume–this is a prime example of such—patients ask me all the time why we do ct scans, when so often they come back negative. now, the senator will be an example of why we do them.