People always ask me why I wanted to be a legal nurse consultant. The following scenarios I experienced in my nursing career are a few of the reasons why I chose to pursue legal nurse consulting. I wanted to assist attorneys and their clients in interpreting what occurred from the eyes of an experienced qualified medical professional.  It is my job to interpret, investigate, research and inform the attorney of the medical aspects of the case, ensuring that standards of care were met in every situation. As you read the scenarios below, you will understand that these were some of the most helpless moments of my nursing career.

A 27 year old single professional female was driving to meet some friends for dinner one evening, at dusk.  She was in a one car rollover accident with horrendous facial trauma, including missing an eye and almost her entire nose.  The policemen and her family were questioning why the airbag did not release. The airbag would have saved her entire face, millions of dollars of medical bills and her irreversible brain damage.

A homeless man is left to die on the lawn in front of the hospital with discharge papers in his pocket from the hospitals emergency room not even an hour earlier. Some pedestrians called 911 when they noticed the man lying on the ground unconscious. The paramedics refused to take the unconscious patient back to the hospital that discharged him. The man was unresponsive, struggling to breathe and had a very slow weak heart beat. He was clearly in critical condition. Upon arrival to another emergency room, the patient was found to have severe electrolyte imbalances. The doctors and nurses spent the next 24 hours trying to save this man, but were unsuccessful. He had a sister in another state that would never be able to understand the complexity of events that had occurred leading to her brother's death.

I also wanted to share how I have seen the other side of legal issues in the medical field.

Two underage teenagers drove from Houston to Austin to party with some friends. They were intoxicated, under-aged for drinking and under the influence of various drugs. One of the teens ended up in the ICU after a head-on collision with a tree. His kidney was damaged from a sharp blow to his abdomen, which could have been prevented if he were wearing his seat belt.  When his mother arrived from Houston, she came into his hospital room and was updated by the doctors and nurses. Shortly after talking with the nurses, she started making statements about suing the doctors for leaving the "dead kidney in her son" and for suing the auto maker for seatbelt failure, because she was sure her son was wearing one. She continued to talk about lawsuits even though she was repeatedly told that if a kidney is damaged and is no longer functioning, it is generally NOT taken out by any surgeon unless bleeding or other complications had occurred, which in this case, there were none.

These types of scenarios, which I would see in my workplace, made me interested in the laws that protect the consumers of healthcare, as well as the physicians, healthcare providers and facilities. I had an intense interest in this Legal Nurse Consulting specialty of nursing and I believed I was an entrepreneur and would be able to start my own business, but it was scary. Then my doctors told me I would not return to nursing due to a foot injury which left me with permanent disabilities and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I knew I could be a Legal Nurse Consultant and still fulfill my need to help and care for others.

Special thanks to Heiko Ehrenberg Photography for all photographs on LENC LLC website.