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Schulte, 64, was living an engaged life — staying in touch daily with her daughter, Stephanie Sinclair, a photojournalist, and taking afternoon drives with her husband, Joe. When she suffered an unexpected bout of seizures in August 2012, doctors said she would need only a short hospital stay until the drugs kicked in to remedy things.
Instead, her treatment triggered a cascade of medical mistakes.
A fall from bed broke her hip and wrist — injuries that went undiagnosed for days. A hip replacement became infected, requiring another surgery. A displaced IV pumped a caustic drug into her arm until it ballooned to the size of a melon.
Schulte died as a rare syndrome, thought to be triggered by a reaction to medication, blistered her eyelids and attacked her internal organs. Doctors said it was the type of condition they had only read about in textbooks.
A close examination of Schulte’s care shows that for all the errors contributing to her decline, neither physicians nor hospitals were held accountable for any of them. Little was done to protect other patients from similar mistakes.