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By CECE TODD; Times Leader Staff Writer
Friday, June 06, 1997 Page: 3A
An attorney investigating the death of Teresa Linn DeVine-Carey says the
medical records he has reviewed so far give conflicting reasons why the young
mother died after giving birth to twins in Nesbitt Memorial Hospital.
Based on those records, DeVine-Carey’s death was foreseeable and
preventable, said Kingston attorney Martin Meyer, who is representing her
family. But he strongly cautions that statement is based solely on information
he has received so far, and he is continuing what could become a long search
for answers.
“I can’t put all the pieces together yet,” Meyer said. “We do not have all
the reports in our possession.”
DeVine-Carey, 34, of North Pennsylvania Avenue, Wilkes-Barre, was
pronounced dead May 10, hours after delivering a girl and boy. Her death
prompted questions about the quality of care at the Kingston hospital, which
has an obstetrics department, but does not have an intensive care unit.
Her physician, Dr. Mark Polin, has said DeVine-Carey had a high-risk
pregnancy and a complicated birth that led to surgery. She died during
surgery.
In a recently published letter, Dr. George Cimochowski said DeVine-Carey
was in a state of cardiac arrest when he was paged to Nesbitt to assist. “The
reason for calling me was because the woman had congenital heart surgery many
years before.”
Cimochowski, the chief of cardiac surgery at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital,
said the public should not lose faith in Nesbitt, where there had not been a
maternal death in 30 years.
On Thursday, attorney Meyer sent his own letter to the editor in response
to Cimochowski’s remarks. He criticized what he called the doctor’s
unauthorized release of information, calling it an “offensive violation of the
Carey family’s right to privacy.”
Cimochowski could not be reached for comment. Jim Roberts, spokesman for
Wyoming Valley Health Care System, the operator of Nesbitt and General
hospitals, would not answer questions about Cimochowski’s actions or
DeVine-Carey’s death.
“We are legally and ethically bound to protect the patient’s
confidentiality,” Roberts said. “It is not our policy to address these
questions.”
Meyer’s letter states that by “diverting attention to sterilized statistics
… one cleverly avoids the most significant questions surrounding Teresa’s
death, that is why did she die when her complications were clearly
foreseeable, and why wasn’t her death avoidable?”
DeVine-Carey’s death certificate lists cardiac arrest as the immediate
cause of death and postpartum hemorrhage as the condition leading to her
death, Meyer said. The certificate was signed by the attending physician, Dr.
Polin, who could not be reached for comment Thursday night.
Other medical records seem to contradict the death certificate. Meyer
quoted one document: “At the time of this dictation, I feel comfortable ruling
out acute blood loss as the (cause) of this patient’s (ultimate death).”
He declined to identify the document and its author.
Postpartum hemorrhage can be predicted well before delivery, and a woman
with multiple fetuses is especially prone to hemorrhage, according to the
medical text, ” Williams Obstetrics, 17th Edition.” Someone anonymously sent
The Times Leader pages from the medical book with references to postpartum
hemorrhage highlighted.
“The diagnosis of postpartum hemorrhage should be obvious,” the book
states. “… It should be possible to save the life of almost every woman with
postpartum hemorrhage …
“To obtain this objective, however, requires assiduous attention to all
women immediately postpartum, an effective blood bank, and alert action by an
experienced obstetric team.”
Meyer would not comment on whether the family plans legal action against
the hospital or doctors involved. “It all depends on what we learn,” he said.
“We’re not going to jump to any conclusions.”