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10/02/2003 Archived Entry: "HOW TO MANAGE YOUR OWN HEALTH CARE…AND HOW THINGS CAN GO DOWNHILL FAST"

HOW TO MANAGE YOUR OWN HEALTH CARE…AND HOW THINGS CAN GO DOWNHILL FAST

This happened to a daughter-in-law of a friend of mine who is a nurse. It didn’t happen here although it did happen in Kansas.

The daughter-in-law became pregnant after two years of trying. There was excitement in the household.

Last Friday she went for her first sonogram and learned there were twins, the second set in the family.

Alas, there were no heart beats and they were half the size they should have been for their gestational age of 16 weeks.

She was advised to get a second opinion.

Last Monday there was a second sonogram which determined that the fetuses were indeed dead. She was scheduled for a routine D and C the next day…Tuesday.

Tuesday, the husband was in the waiting room for what was to be a 20 minute, low-risk procedure. Two and a half hours later, the doctor arrived for the first time to tell him there had been complications’.

The complications that were created during the D and C were: lacerated vaginal wall, punctured uterus, damaged ovary, nicked artery and some how they sucked a portion of the small bowel into the uterus thinking it was a fetal head. They continued to suck.

They finally discovered it was bowel they were sucking out and they were in deep trouble at this point.

They called in a surgeon who removed her ovary, resected her bowl, and closed all the holes they had punctured in her vaginal wall and sutured the nick in the artery.

This procedure occurred in a free-standing surgical facility (NOT in Salina or our immediate area). The original doctor told the husband not to inform his wife, but that he would tell her. It was six hours before he bothered to let her know what had happened…during which time, she anguished. She was very upset.

Now, because of this, she will have to have a C-section should she get pregnant again, which is more expensive and more dangerous.

She remains in the hospital.

I guess the moral to this story is to check very carefully who you let do your simple procedures as there are none in medicine. Everything has its risks…but this is outrageous.

A lawsuit is pending.

Now we know why malpractice insurance costs are so high.