Patient
I lost my dear father suddenly about a month ago on February 19, 2025. He was a patient of the University Of Miami Cardiovascular Division since September of 2024 when he was diagnosed with diastolic heart failure. He was first a patient of Dr. George Degheim, but after not responding well to his medication protocols he was referred to Dr. Omar Weber Pinzon who specializes in heart failure. While both doctors were kind and had good bedside manners, dealing with this department and getting them to monitor my dad closely was a total nightmare. Since his diagnosis I spent hours on the phone almost weekly seeking answers. My dad had fluid retention and was on a lot of meds, including Lasix (furosemide) but he never quite got better. He required close monitoring, and since his diagnosis it always felt like the doctor/ department was just not on top of things. Communication was always poor. My dad got lost in the system and it honestly felt like he was just a number to them. When my father last visited Dr. Pinzon on Feb 4 he wasn't feeling well, yet somehow on his chart it was noted he was improving and he didn't have to return to see the doctor until the next month. That day he was also prescribed an intravenous iron infusion to help him with his anemia. The day my dad got that infusion on Feb 13, he didn't feel well. His blood pressure dropped and he felt terrible afterwards. In the days that followed, no one ever called us to follow up and see how he was doing. This is a patient who had acute heart failure, whose kidney function needed to be closely monitored, whose blood pressure dropped suddenly the day he received that IV and he was also retaining a lot of fluid. In addition, he developed itching which could have been an allergic reaction to the infusion but I was really worried about his kidney function so I called numerous times on Feb 14 asking to speak to the doctor. Medical assistants took my messages and said he would call back. We didn't hear from Dr. Pinzon until Tuesday Feb 18 in the evening--4 DAYS LATER. Apparently dad was supposed to have gotten some bloodwork done but that obviously wasn't made clear to him. Dad never missed an appointment or blood draw. He thought the bloodwork needed to be done after the infusions were finished. The evening we finally spoke Dr. Pinzon directed dad to take higher dosage of the Lasix that night and we were hoping this would help. My dad passed away the next morning. He was 68 years-old. Did my dad had a complex diagnosis and bad prognosis? Yes, absolutely. But I can't help to think that things could have turned out different for him if he received better care and had there been better communication with the patient and the family. His death was a shock and the events of that day have scarred me and my family for life. Another thing I want to point out. Dad suffered from sleep apnea, which is a major contributor to heart failure. He required a CPAP machine to keep him properly oxygenated during his sleep. He was under the care of the UM Sleep Center for that. When he got his heart failure diagnosis one thing I tried to do was to get him in there as soon as possible to make sure his settings and machine was working efficiently. Initially, that department didn't have appointments for over 8 months . Dad was on some waiting list to get a new machine since December. I always mentioned these challenges to the cardiology department--to both doctors that treated my father---and asked if there was anything they could please do. Even though they are part of the same health system, I was always told they were a different department and I had to go through them. They may be, but it is certainly not good medicine to have a patient whose heart is stressed and needs a CPAP machine, and do nothing about it. To me that was as important as the other medications that were being prescribed. I believe those apneaic episodes really contributed to my dad's death.