Roberto Llanas: A Case Study

Quickly solving for the correct diagnosis

.Every year there are millions of people who receive an incorrect or untimely diagnosis from their physician(s). A prime example of this comes out of the city of Dallas, Texas. On May 8, 2013, Roberto Llanas, Sr. and Cristalh Mendoza took their son, six-year-old Roberto Carlos Llanas, Jr. to the emergency room at Children’s Medical Center after he ran into a pole and fell on concrete, causing blunt force trauma to his back. When he arrived at the emergency room, he was pale, writhing in pain, and complaining of back and abdominal pain. These are classic signs of internal trauma. His physician, Dr. Abbie Leigh Smith, ordered enemas,which masked the child’s symptoms of internal trauma, prescribed

The child’s presenting history, physical symptoms, and laboratory findings should have indicated that appropriate, standard CT imaging of the abdomen, emergency surgical consultation and immediate hospitalization, due to his critical condition, were paramount. Due to the misdiagnosis of constipation, four hours after discharge, Roberto Carlos Llanas, Jr. was dead. “Had Roberto been properly diagnosed and treated when he first went to the ER at Children’s Medical Center, in all likelihood he could have been treated appropriately for internal trauma and lived to have a normal life. His life is gone, and that of his family has been destroyed,” Weisbrod said. “Roberto’s doctor and nurses simply were not thorough or paying attention to