Family Blames OC Hospital After Mother Of 7 Falls Into Coma
ANAHEIM (CBSLA.com) — A beloved wife and mother of seven is clinging to life Tuesday night after a medical emergency put her in a coma.
Lisa Avila, 36, is on life support in the intensive-care unit of Anaheim Regional Medical Center.
The family believes the hospital's lack of proper care has nearly killed her.
Avila, who's currently pregnant, was taken to the emergency room by her husband after she started experiencing abdominal pain.
Doctors gave her an ultrasound and told the couple the baby was fine and nothing was wrong with her. They sent Avila home with a prescription for pain medication.
Avila's aunt Jessica Jule said of the husband's reaction: "He's crying, 'Please don't make my wife leave! Something's wrong with her. She's in pain. She can't even walk.' They wheeled her out in a wheelchair and out to her car and told her she had to go home!"
She waited in the car while her husband went into a pharmacy to pick up the medication the doctors prescribed. When he returned to the car, he found Avila was unconscious and not breathing.
Avila was taken back to Anaheim Regional, where doctors learned she was experiencing a tubal pregnancy, a life-threatening condition in which the fetus implants in a fallopian tube instead of the uterus.
She was bleeding internally from the pregnancy complication and needed five pints of blood.
"For three hours, they would not tell him whether she was dead or alive," Jule said. "Why are we going through this? Why did this hospital put my niece and my family through this?"
On Sunday, Avila fell into a coma.
Anaheim Regional has issued the following statement:
"Patient safety is Anaheim Regional Medical Center's foremost priority, and we are committed to providing the highest quality care to every patient we serve. The physicians, nurses and staff at Anaheim Regional Medical Center care deeply for the health of this patient and our thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family."
Relatives are holding a vigil, now in its fourth day, for Avila at the hospital.
For now, all they can do is wait and hope.
