'Wrong diagnosis, wrong treatment, wrong hospital'

In this four-part series, the Tribune-Courier takes a closer look at the lives of four local residents who say their experiences at Marshall County Hospital were life-changing.

BENTON – Jim Lockard had never even heard of “Guillain-Barré Syndrome.”

However, after a slight backache turned to near total paralysis in a matter of days, he became well acquainted with the dangerous disorder.

It was a Monday morning, the week of Christmas 2004.

Lockard had arisen for work, much like any other day. A slipped disk in his back was causing aches and pains, but that was nothing unusual, or so he thought.

He was out of the medication which was routinely used to treat the pain, so he made a visit to a neighboring county’s emergency room, hoping to get a prescription.

Two days later, Lockard recalled making another trip to the same ER, this time weakened to the point that he was forced to rely on a walker for assistance.

“They could not hospitalize me at that time because they did not have a neurologist on staff. Medicare would not allow admission because the hospital could not treat me at that time. My condition was worsening, and by the next day, I was paralyzed from the waist down,” Lockard said.

To complicate matters, a winter storm had moved through the area, leaving 14 inches of snow on the ground. Local ambulance services were unable to transport Lockard to Nashville.

It was two days later before an ambulance service from Nashville could make the trip to western Kentucky to transport Lockard.

Once there, a neurologist performed an MRI scan. It was determined at that time that his paralysis had nothing to do with disk problems.

By Monday, a team of neurologists evaluated Lockard’s condition, running a series of tests, “including a pregnancy test,” Lockard said in disbelief.

“They came to the determination that they weren’t exactly sure what the problem was, but knowing I am diabetic, they diagnosed my condition as ‘diabetic neuropathy.’”

Lockard said doctors seemed puzzled by the fact that his symptoms did not match their diagnosis, but nonetheless, they recommended he be admitted into a nearby hospital for extensive rehabilitative therapy.

“That was a huge mistake,” Lockard said. Jim’s wife of 52 years, Jan added, “since he had been diagnosed with diabetic neuropathy, they went on that diagnosis, put him in physical therapy and darn near killed him.”

Lockard told of complications that immediately arose in treatment. “When I would go to physical therapy, it would take very little activity for my blood pressure to drop drastically, causing me to pass out.”

Still having no feeling from the waist down and unable to eat, Lockard was weakening day by day. He said he began to seriously question his diagnosis and treatment.

After spending nearly a month in physical therapy, Lockard told his wife, “find me a nursing home back home, put me in it and forget about me. Just get me out of here. I’d rather go to Collier Funeral Home than be in this place another day.”
And so the two made the decision to explore their options, and that is when they say they found out about the physical therapy program at Marshall County Hospital (MCH).

After being contacted, Lockard said the hospital immediately sent a representative down to see him in Nashville, where a patient assessment was completed and a transfer to MCH was arranged.

“That day was such a huge relief for me. I had just lived through one of the worst experiences of my life,” he told with a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, back home, Jan said something interesting happened when she went to see her local veterinarian, Dr. Bert Johnson.

Bursting with laughter, Lockard said, “After hearing Jan describe my symptoms, Bert was the first one to diagnose me correctly! He told Jan I had “coon dog syndrome,” better known in humans as Guillain-Barré syndrome.”

It is an illness which veterinarians often see in dogs, but study it for similarities in human cases.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the illness is a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system.

The first symptoms of this disorder include varying degrees of weakness or tingling sensations in the legs, and in many instances, weakness and abnormal sensations spread to the arms and upper body in the form of paralysis.

In studies, it has been determined that the symptoms can increase in intensity until certain muscles cannot be used at all and, when severe, the patient can be almost completely paralyzed.

In those cases, the disorder is life threatening as it complicates breathing, blood pressure and heart rate.

Lockard was transferred to MCH, where he began seeing Dr. Bradley Albertson, an internal medical physician.

“After hearing my story,” Lockard recalled, “he too agreed that I did not have diabetic neuropathy, but immediately diagnosed it as being Guillain-Barré syndrome.”

Lockard remembers his first day at MCH very well.

“They were expecting me to arrive by ambulance,” he said. “But my son drove me in his SUV. I had to be loaded in the vehicle with a crane at the hospital in Nashville,” he said with a shake of his head.

“But when I got to MCH, there was no crane, just three burly guys from Marshall County Ambulance Service. Needless to say, they got me in a wheelchair. Things changed for me that very day, for the better.

“By 3 p.m that afternoon,” he recounted with a knowing smile, “a tiny little girl appeared in my room.”

That “little girl,” as Lockard described, was Rebecca Crider, director of physical therapy for MCH.

“She was 5-foot-1 and maybe 100 pounds soaking wet,” he jested. “I remember looking at my wife and saying, ‘they hire little high school girls to work around here.’

“But as I soon found out, she was no high school girl. Rebecca was a six-year graduate from St. Louis University with just about every kind of degree you could want,” Lockard told.

He described Crider as having a “knack for getting in your head.

“I was at a pretty low at that point, but by day three of my physical therapy, she had completely changed my outlook on things.”

Lockard said his mental transformation was accredited to more than just Crider, though, “it was the entire hospital staff. There is a day- and-night difference between the care I got in Nashville and the care that I received here.”

He recalled nights in Nashville where he would push the button for assistance, needing pain medication, but said it was often hours, if ever, that anyone would respond to his call.

“I went five days without a shower down there,” he recalled. “The staff were wonderful, but there just weren’t enough of them.”

On the contrary, Lockard said, “By 7 a.m. at MCH, the room had been cleaned and mopped, and I had been cleaned and mopped too.”

He said that doctors in Nashville advised him that “with extensive physical therapy, he might have the ability to walk in some fashion, in 10 or 11 months.”

But after spending just four months at MCH, Lockard said he was able to walk, needing only a walker for assistance.

He continued on his regiment of physical therapy twice a day, and occupational therapy several times a week.

By October, Lockard said he had gotten rid of the walker and was able to walk with the assistance of a cane. By December, he was fully mobile.

He had even begun participating in routine activities, such as driving.

To date, Lockard said that while he has not completely recovered from his ordeal, he is self sufficient with the help of frequent “tune-ups” he receives at MCH.

Lockard was so pleased with the care he received at the hospital, he went to long-time friend, Reed Conder, and asked if he could address the hospital board at its next regularly scheduled meeting.

“I really wanted to express to that board, how good a job they were doing,” Lockard said. “There is an esprit de corps in that hospital, that is simply uncanny.”

“The people who work at Marshall County Hospital are extremely proud of their facility and the work they do there. It was just as clean as it could be. One woman came in every morning, looking immaculate in appearance, and she would clean my room. The quality of employees at that hospital is just unreal. Two of my nurses had over 30 years experience each. They were as good as having doctors, and they were instrumental in helping me regain my physical abilities. While I was at the other much larger hospital in Nashville, I felt like the people who worked there did not seem to care much about what they were doing, they were just going through the motions. But at MCH, I felt like their employees were empathetic and caring. To get through such an illness has been a miracle and I am so grateful to the staff at Marshall County Hospital for all they have done for me and my family.”

Sincerely,
Jim Lockard