My Doctor Read the Wrong CT Scan. Now I've Lost Custody of My Kids

In 2018, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). I was a single mother of two daughters—a 4-year-old and a 3-year-old—working full-time as a registered nurse.

I have an amazing neurologist who treated me with empathy and compassion since 2014 when we couldn't work out the reason for my headaches. He made me feel like I was his only patient and cared about my psychological health as well as my MS.

I contracted COVID in 2021, which was frightening as I was vulnerable due to my MS treatment. I was barely ill in the physical sense, but I began passing out frequently, resulting in injuries.

I was unable to get any of the emergency room doctors to order extremity ultrasounds and a chest CT to rule out a blood clot in my lungs. In hindsight, knowing my body as well as I do, there probably were blood clots in my lungs.

In December 2021, a month after contracting COVID the first time, I was symptomatic and struggling to breathe again. My oxygen saturation was 73 percent and my lungs had a pulmonary embolism.

My legs were filled with clots, but I was given blood thinners and discharged from the hospital due to the lack of beds. My oxygen saturation had gone back up to 90 percent, which was the minimum required to be discharged.

By February 2022 I passed out again and fractured my ankle. Around that time, I had an appointment with my neurologist. His first comment, due to the number of blood clots in my lungs, was: "How the hell are you still alive?"

I was still on blood thinners, and I caught COVID again in the Spring of 2022, but thankfully it was very mild. However, in the following January, it felt like everything had changed for the worse.

I underwent an echocardiogram which was normal, but I had even more pulmonary embolisms, despite being on blood thinners. This was the last normal exam I would have. I was slowly gaining weight, but figured that it was peri-menopausal "fluff".

During the last week of June, I was experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath. I got sent to our largest hospital for evaluation in the ER, and I had the misfortune of being treated by a new resident whose attending apparently gave her too much freedom.

She discharged me home after reading the wrong patient's CT report. She refused to recheck the scan as I asked, and instead discharged me home despite me still experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath.

I drove the hour home only to have my CT result show up on my chart. It showed heart failure. As soon as I read the CT report I immediately got in the car and drove to my small local hospital.

The doctor working that night did a full cardiac workup. This delivered the worst COVID complication—cardiomyopathy with an ejection fraction (EF) of 24 percent. Normal is 50-70 percent.

This error delayed my ability to get to a cardiac catheterization laboratory by almost a week due to a lack of beds available.

The MS and pulmonary embolisms disqualified me from having a heart transplant, and I also wouldn't put my kids through that. I no longer have primary custody of my daughters because my time is spent in too many doctor appointments to count.

I am losing both primary custody and the ability to be alone with my girls.

My babies are my everything. Instead of spending precious time together, my heart may as well be ripped from my chest. The emotional toll of coming to terms with the cardiomyopathy and how it affects their lives will leave scars that can not be mended.

I try to spend as much time as I can with my girls, but the incidence of cardiomyopathy post-COVID is real and affects more people than is publicized. If something doesn't feel right, speak up, and advocate for yourself.

Shelley Bokum is a registered nurse with a master of science in nursing.

All views expressed in this article are the author's own.

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