UMN pays ex-coach Mike Sherels $1M for near-fatal treatment at campus hospital

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Go Gophers!!
 




Great guy, great addition to the University, and he gets treated like this where he has to be paid 1 million dollars to recover for probably a life time issue. Hopefully it will cover his expenses as I haven't a clue what happen.
 


Ok. He had most of his colon removed due to this condition and can’t eat solid food, and can’t get enough nutrition from a liquid diet. Everyone, everyone who has had this procedure is in the same predicament. I have two friends with the same issue. There is no current medical prognosis that is different.

You can mock me all you want, but I have personal experience with this.

I have great respect and great compassion for Mike. It is very sad.
 

I'm a bit lost here...

But Sherels had an allergic reaction after he was tested for blood in his stool


How does testing blood in stool ... mean you have a reaction?

Did they give him something at that point. I didn't think a stool test needed anything, invasive done.
 

Ok. He had most of his colon removed due to this condition and can’t eat solid food, and can’t get enough nutrition from a liquid diet. Everyone, everyone who has had this procedure is in the same predicament. I have two friends with the same issue. There is no current medical prognosis that is different.

You can mock me all you want, but I have personal experience with this.

I have great respect and great compassion for Mike. It is very sad.

This is correct on Mike.

The gophers take a lot of crap for not bringing Mike back on staff, but he literally can't coach again.

The whole thing sucks. It goes under "life is not fair!"
 

Ok. He had most of his colon removed due to this condition and can’t eat solid food, and can’t get enough nutrition from a liquid diet. Everyone, everyone who has had this procedure is in the same predicament. I have two friends with the same issue. There is no current medical prognosis that is different.

You can mock me all you want, but I have personal experience with this.

I have great respect and great compassion for Mike. It is very sad.

Don’t think anyone’s mocking you that I can see. He has Short Gut Syndrome- awful condition in which, as you wrote, he can’t absorb enough nutrients from anything he takes enterally. You can take total parenteral nutrition through central venous lines but that stuff takes its toll on your liver. Sad indeed.


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I feel sad for him and his family. Say a prayer for him.
 

STrib: Former Gophers football captain, coach settles for $1 million for treatment at University of Minnesota hospital

Two-time Gophers football captain and linebackers coach Mike Sherels reached a $1 million settlement with the University of Minnesota Medical Center Fairview for treatment in 2016 that left him in a coma fighting for his life.

Sherels, 34, and his wife, Emily, signed the settlement with the Board of Regents on May 23. The U revealed the settlement on Wednesday in response to a data practices request. There appears to be no lawsuit filed in state or federal court detailing allegations of wrongdoing by the hospital.

In 2003, Sherels was a walk-on linebacker for the Gophers from Rochester John Marshall High School. He won numerous off-the-field awards for sportsmanship and was the only Gophers football walk-on to be named captain twice. Under former coaches Jerry Kill and Tracy Claeys, Sherels coached the linebackers. He left the U after Claeys was fired in January 2017.

Sherels’ harrowing medical journey began in late July 2016 when he sought treatment for blood in his stool. Tests ruled out common gastrointestinal disorders, but doctors were unable to locate the source of the bleeding. His extensive blood loss and drops in hemoglobin led to a series of transfusions.

One night, he passed out on his way to the bathroom because of low hemoglobin levels. As he awoke, doctors were preparing the heart defibrillator. An angiogram revealed the source of the bleeding at the entrance to his large intestine, where doctors found and repaired an abnormal cluster of blood vessels.

A week later, he went home, but experienced excruciating pain in his stomach. He and his wife were in the car on their way back to the U but detoured to Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville because it was closer.

In the hospital, he was vomiting and sweating and his abdomen became firm. A scan revealed a gastrointestinal perforation.

He also had an allergic reaction to medication that was causing blood clots to form in his intestines. Sherels was rushed to the U in an ambulance for emergency surgery.

A surgeon removed all of his small intestine, the right side of his colon and part of his transverse colon. He spent five days in a coma and on a ventilator. Doctors told his wife that his chances for survival were slim and that even if he did survive, his quality of life would be difficult.

But Sherels survived.

http://www.startribune.com/former-g...t-university-of-minnesota-hospital/560716992/

Go Gophers!!
 

Poor man. That is the worst thing to have to go through.
 

Terrible.

Quite obviously, the hospital F'ed something up. The settlement most certainly requires Sherels and family to sign a NDA and forgo any lawsuits alleging malpractice.

His medical requirements will be taken care of for the rest of his life, and the money (making up for potential lost wages from coaching) will be nice for him and his family. I'm glad he survived and seems to be able to have some quality of life.
 



Great guy, great addition to the University, and he gets treated like this where he has to be paid 1 million dollars to recover for probably a life time issue. Hopefully it will cover his expenses as I haven't a clue what happen.

His entire intestines, other than a portion of colon, were removed. He basically can't process and extract nutrients from food. He must have to take shots every day to get the nutrients his body needs to survive.

I would say that is a life time issue.


What I would at least hope is, somehow they have rigged him up to where he can at least physically consume and pass real food. IE get the pleasure of eating real food. Even if it does nothing for him. But my guess is that his ability to do that is limited at best.

Probably the best he can hope for in his lifetime is if they can get him new intestines from a donor, and see if they can "install" that, without his body fighting/rejecting the new organs. Or maybe medical technology will advance to the point where they can "grow" new intestine from his own (stem?) cells. I'm really making stuff up right now, but who knows? Granted, when you start walking down paths like that, you inevitably go down the ethics of cloning.
 
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I do wonder what the medical mistake was. I am sure there is probably some NDA, but it sounds like a horrible medical experience that's cause remains unclear, but I would like to know where the mistakes were made.
 

I thought I heard he has since started law school. Anyone know if that's true? If so, hopefully it's a sign he's recovered, or at least able to manage it.
 

Does the article say what the U did incorrectly? I'm not saying they didn't do anything wrong, I just am not seeing any discussion of the issue. It's sad nonetheless, I'm just curious.
 

Just a horrible situation all the way around but hopefully the money is able to help Mike and his family out as they continue to cope with all this.
 

Does the article say what the U did incorrectly? I'm not saying they didn't do anything wrong, I just am not seeing any discussion of the issue. It's sad nonetheless, I'm just curious.

I think the point is that we will never know, and that's how the hospital wants it. My guess is an NDA and forgoing any lawsuits will, they hope, prevent any kind of malpractice details from getting out into the public.
 

Does the article say what the U did incorrectly? I'm not saying they didn't do anything wrong, I just am not seeing any discussion of the issue. It's sad nonetheless, I'm just curious.

I think the point is that we will never know, and that's how the hospital wants it. My guess is an NDA and forgoing any lawsuits will, they hope, prevent any kind of malpractice details from getting out into the public.

The truth is they may not have actually done anything wrong. Juries are quite sympathetic to people that have things that affect the quality of life down the road. It may have been that any reasonable hospital would have done the exact same things in the exact same order and he would have ended up the same. All it takes is saying "they should have seen this" and getting the jury to buy into that to lose a lot more than a million. Additionally, since he was employed by the U at the time this started, part (or all) of the settlement may be based on things in his contract (buyout, not renewing when sick, etc.) more so than malpractice.

It also could be that a million dollar settlement was "cheaper" than the damaged reputation, extra court costs, etc. of going to trial. I'm sure they have an actuary that runs the numbers and determines a settlement on any potential case.

But yes, we likely will never know unless there is some finding from an internal audit that becomes public.

In the end, I wish him the absolute best. Like everyone else on here, I hope there's some cure soon for him and everyone else with this condition.
 

The truth is they may not have actually done anything wrong. Juries are quite sympathetic to people that have things that affect the quality of life down the road. It may have been that any reasonable hospital would have done the exact same things in the exact same order and he would have ended up the same. All it takes is saying "they should have seen this" and getting the jury to buy into that to lose a lot more than a million. Additionally, since he was employed by the U at the time this started, part (or all) of the settlement may be based on things in his contract (buyout, not renewing when sick, etc.) more so than malpractice.

It also could be that a million dollar settlement was "cheaper" than the damaged reputation, extra court costs, etc. of going to trial. I'm sure they have an actuary that runs the numbers and determines a settlement on any potential case.

But yes, we likely will never know unless there is some finding from an internal audit that becomes public.

In the end, I wish him the absolute best. Like everyone else on here, I hope there's some cure soon for him and everyone else with this condition.

^^^

Per the known facts he underwent a “procedure” to resolve an area of abnormal/bleeding blood vessels which set off a cascade off negative consequences involving intestinal perforation, likely infection, apparent medication adverse affects, vascular obstruction culminating in the death of most of his digestive tract.

Unfortunately even the simplest procedures can lead to catastrophe. Oftentimes settling out of court can be seen as an admission that perhaps something in the care and follow up record wasn’t up to snuff but sometimes the hospital or accused don’t want to take a chance at trial where juries can award enormous damages. There is a cottage industry of competing expert physician witnesses that will be all too happy to provide a favorable angle, either way, at trial.

Ultimately Mike and his family have a lot to overcome now and in the future. It really is a terrible series of events. Good luck Mike.
 




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