Talking Pictures: Advanced Review HBO's BLEED OUT (Premieres 12/17)

Host Paul Booth reviews HBO Documentary Films BLEED OUT. 

In 2009, Steve Burrows’ mother, Judie, an active and independent retired teacher, fell while riding her bike and was rushed to the hospital for hip surgery. After months of painful recovery, she fell again. Then, after eight days in the hospital and a second hip surgery, in which she lost approximately half her blood, the 69-year-old fell into a coma and suffered permanent brain damage.

Questioning whether his mother received adequate care in surgery and in the hospital’s “e-ICU” unit, in which doctors sometimes monitor patients remotely by camera, Burrows consulted friends and lawyers, eventually deciding, with his family, to sue for medical malpractice.

BLEED OUT is his harrowing, eye-opening account of the ten years that follow – an endless cycle of medical bills, emergency-room visits and insurance-company red tape. Part medical mystery and legal thriller, part investigative journey and meditation on family, this is a revealing, cautionary tale.