Wife has severe medical issues…patient advocate?

TL;DR, is there a health advocate that can help my wife so she doesn't have to spend her entire day dealing with doctors?

Without going into too much detail, my wife has mitochondrial disease, which has created many different health issues for her. She has a plethora of specialists, medicines, etc, including a central port for IV infusions.

She recently, on top of everything else she goes through, tore cartilage in her knee and needed arthroscopic surgery. She went through all the pre testing requirements, got letters/approvals from all key specialists, and at 3 PM today was told to come in tomorrow at 9:15 AM. Hooray.

At 5:05 PM, the surgeons office calls her and tells her it's off, that the anesthesiologist called one of her specialists and she would need to go to a trauma center for surgery.

We are LIVID. Besides the fact that we went thorough all of the above, our lives were adjusted for work, travel, etc., my wife stopped her food intake last night because they only wanted clear liquid after 9 AM, etc. That is an absolute joke and completely disregards an already sick patients' life.

She's exhausted. I'm exhausted for her. How do we get someone on our side who can effectively fight for the patient?

submitted by /u/mistahjoe
[comments]