| General Non-Fiction posted May 25, 2024 |
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Even doctors make mistakes
I Guess Nobody's Perfect
by Monica Chaddick
We all like to think that the doctors we go to for our various ailments and illnesses are well trained and properly skilled. No one wants to think that the person's hands in which they are putting their lives is less than able to handle the task they have been given. But unfortunately, these people are human, and not always the best at their job.
Case in point, my mother. She is eighty-nine years old and a colorectal cancer survivor. She is diabetic and has high blood pressure. That's pretty much it. She still lives alone, cooks and cleans for herself, does her own laundry, her own shopping, etcetera. That is, she was this way until November 2023.
In November 2023, just after Thanksgiving, her surgeon (the same one that did the cancer surgery) put her in the hospital for a simple hernia repair. Thus began her journey into the world of messed up medicine.
She went in for the hernia surgery, being told it was a simple procedure, it wouldn't take long, and she would be going home afterwards. We were told that this operation should only take about thirty minutes or so. Two hours later, the nurse comes in and says that my mother is in recovery. About thirty minutes or so later, she returns. This time she tells me that my mother is having a problem waking up from the anesthetic, but she is okay.
Once back in her room, she still couldn't stay awake. Along with not staying awake, she couldn't maintain an adequate oxygen level, either. The nurse said that we needed to keep waking her up and telling her to breathe. We attempted to this for over an hour, with the only result being that she got very angry at us and told us to leave her alone and let her sleep.
The nurse finally came and told us that she had been given heavy doses of pain medication in recovery, and that the pain was caused by the air in her stomach from the surgery, so the pain meds were of no use. Finally, after about five hours of fighting with her to wake up and breathe, they decided they would admit her for the night.
On the way to her new room, a call came through on her cell phone. I answered, and it was her cardiologist. She was only seeing one due to her age, which was a good thing, considering they were calling to discuss her celarance for the hernia surgery. That was my first clue that something was truly wrong. The surgeon had actually performed the surgery without clearance from the cardiologist!
The next morning, I returned and picked up my mother from the hospital. I thought it a bit strange that they were releasing her since she had not yet had a bowel movement or passed gas, because I have always been told that is the after surgery procedure, but I figured maybe they had changed the criteria for release.
Once home, my mother began complaining that evening about her stomach hurting. I figured she needed to have a bowel movement, and told her so. She said she had tried. She took stool softeners (which I didn't think was a great idea, but I'm not a doctor). Nothing happened. Two or three days after being home, she called me in the middle of the night. She had still not had a bowel movement or passed gas, and now she was cramping and hurting so badly that she could hardly walk. I called an ambulance and went to her house. The ambulance transported her to the emergency room, where I was told that she had been treated in the ambulance for A-Fib.
After running numerous tests, the doctors came back and told me that not only did she have A-Fib, but she also had pneumonia. Of course, they once more admitted her. They got both of those issues under control, but there was still no movement in regards to the bowels. I questioned the nurses about that and they said they were giving her something for it. She had a very small bowel movement, and they discharged her after a few days.
Home again, she once more began complaining about stomach pain and cramping. She said she could barely eat without throwing up. She was eating more stool softeners than food, and was still not having any success. Again, after a few days of this, I brought her to the emergency room. Once again, she was admitted. This time with no food or water (what they call NPO).
After a week of NPO, there was still no movement. Finally, the doctor decided that he would have to open her up to correct the problem. According to him, she must have a blockage. This was two days before Christmas. The doctor discovered that there was no actual blockage. Instead, the problem was that the mesh was in backwards and had adhered to her bowel. Along with removing the mesh, part of her bowel had to be removed, as well.
A few days to recover, and home again. This time, the issue wasn't with the bowel movements, but with the incision. She called me saying that her incision was leaking. I went, expecting a little “weeping” from the site. What I was greeted with was a menstrual pad taped to her stomach that was full of blood and pus. Back to the hospital we went. According to the emergency room, the incision wasn't infected and everything was fine. I thought this a bit odd since it was red around it and there was a slight odor.
We went home, and this leakage continued. She called the doctor, who made her an appointment. He also said everything was fine. However, he set her up with wound care. Her first visit at wound care, the doctor barely pushed on her stomach and blood and pus began pouring from the incision site! She dealt with this leakage until March 2024 when it finally healed up.
Since all of this happened, she has developed more and more health issues. She will never regain the quality of life that she had before this botched up surgery.
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