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Dear Walt,
I am an American and am on engineering assignment in Canada. My wife had Laproscopic Cholecystectomy in Toronto, Ontario, about 5 weeks ago. The bile tube was accidentally cut at 1cm away from her liver (actually, a different doctor described it as where the bile tube exits the liver in a "Y" formation down to a single tube ... the cut was 1cm away from the "Y" on the single tube). The doctor, unknowing of his mistake, sutured her up and sent her home the same day following surgery.
Two days later, we went to the emergency room because she was in severe pain (which she was complaining about immediately following the surgery also), she had high fever and had not eaten since her surgery. The third day (after surgery), they put her on intravenious fluids, demoral and atibiotics and performed an xray, the fourth day an ultrasound, the fifth another ultrasound and a gastroscopy, the sixth day, emergency surgery by a different surgeon than the one who originally performed the gall bladder removal surgery (she was in very bad shape by this time). By the time she had this second surgery (six days later), she had a steady temperature of 38.5 c / 101.3 F and her abdomen was swollen with appx. 2 liters of fluid (bile).
Following the second surgery, my wife had a pinrose tube draining into a cholestomy bag and a T-tube draining into another following her second surgery. The pinrose tube came out after 30 days. The t-tube started leaking a higher amount of bile into it's cholestomy bag following this. A nurse irrigated the tubing going to the t-tube drain hose with 10ccs of saline solution (per doctor's orders) and suddenly, a high flow of bile stopped and hasn't restarted in 4 days. Since, her temperature has been steadily rising, her pain increasing, however she is able to deficate normally. Tomorrow (January 12th, 2000) we are scheduled to have an xray of the t-tube area where the small intestines were spliced into the bile tube at the liver.
Of course I am distressing over my 28 year old wife who was very fit and healthy and is now 23 lbs. lighter and looks like she just got out of a concentration camp. We have a 3 month old baby that she can not lift or take care of normally.
My Questions:
1. Would most doctors in the states order an MRI (catscan) instead of an xray, since the patient (my wife) is possibly leaking bile fluid internally again. Would this make a big difference in being able to tell what is going on in the area of the T-tube location?
2. What are the long-term consequences and/or worst-case-scenario of complications she could suffer in the future?
3. What would be sound advice on any possible physical restrictions she might have in the future. I mean, can she excercise normally, eat normally, give birth to children normally, drink in moderation, etc.
4. If the Canadian health care system (in Toronto) will not allow my wife to have a catscan (because of limited number of machines in Canada), should I take her to Buffalo and get this done at my own expense? Would this be overkill or would I be doing the safe thing?
5. I really want to know ... how negligent is the doctor who performed the initial Laproscopic Cholecystectomy? Is this something that sometimes just happens to any surgeon on a random basis, or is this a gross error on his part? Shouldn't he have realized his mistake before pulling out and sewing her up? I understand he has had other errors as well, but most of his surgerys are a success (a surgical recovery ward nurse told me this).
Thanks for providing answers to my questions, if possible. I am very worried about my wife's condition and she is very distressed about it.
Scott
In Reply to: My wife's gall bladder removal surgery was a failure ... posted by Scott on January 12, 2000 at 00:44:37:
Dr. Stoll will advise on the medical facts.
I would advise that you get yourself a GOOD attorney, who will look into your circumstance forthwith and Force the Hospital to do what is right within 24 hours, in order to protect your wife and child from further hardships. Your wife needs you, you need your wife and most important, your child needs its mother for love and breast feeding.
Ask family and friends and co workers, if they can recommend a good malpractice attorney, who is willing to receive payment from your obvious court settlement award or out of court settelment.
I would not be surprised if it is determined that your wife may not have even needed the surgery in the first place.
Your attorney will advise you as to your next steps..
You asked Dr. Stoll what is the worst case scenario...
You know the answer to that, and I will not speak it..
Talk to an attorney tommorrow, before things get any worse for your wife and family.
You can bet, right now, the Doctors in your Hospital are ONLY concerned with covering each others own buns, and pretending eveything is normal and no big deal.
Right now your wife is the least of their concerns.
They will not do the right thing unless you FORCE them to.
At least contact 2 or 3 attorneys and please ask their opinions !
The singer Julie Andrews, from "The Sound Of Music" had her vocal chords ripped apart in surgery.. She is now suing the Hospital !!
If they screwed up the surgery of one of the most famous people in the USA, who could afford the best Dr. that money can buy, your wifes DR. most certainly, could have screwed up as well...
Protect yourself and your family.. the Hospital has no true obligation to do so, at least not in reality...
They are ONLY protecting themselves at this point.
Any further testing and pampering of your wife, peformed by them, is only an admission of guilt in their eyes and they will do as little as possible to bring any further attention to your wifes case history...
The hospital Doctors and staff will now hear, see and speak no evil....
SR
In Reply to: Re: My wife's gall bladder removal surgery was a failure ... posted by SR- on January 12, 2000 at 01:53:30:
You can bet, right now, the Doctors in your Hospital are ONLY concerned with covering each others own buns, and pretending eveything is normal and no big deal.
Why do a lot of you, including the good defrocked doctor put down medical people on a continuous basis? Does the good doctor have u all brainwashed concerning this? The majority of doctors are great, and they dont cover one anothers' buns...geez grow up people, Dr Stoll isnt God!
In Reply to: Re: My wife's gall bladder removal surgery was a failure ... posted by Annie on January 12, 2000 at 08:40:51:
Annie
Dr. Stoll has NOT brain washed me.. I haven't been on the forum long enough yet, ha ha...
I speak from first hand experience.
Drs. Belong to subconcious, holier than thou, can do no wrong, gangs.
They wear gang attire, have gang lingo and gang membership rules and regulations.
I am surpised that, part of the med school graduation requirement isn,t getting a tattoo.
Perhaps it would read, on their buns of course.....
"Do no wrong & for gangs sake, admit no wrong"
Drs. do of course cover each others buns.. come on, get real and wake up !
Maybe you are a DR. ? or supported one through school or are now collecting alimony from his fees.....
Under any circumstances:
If DRs are OK, as you say.....
WHY THEN ARE SO MANY PEOPLE SUFFERING ????????????????????.
SR
In Reply to: Re: My wife's gall bladder removal surgery was a failure ... posted by Annie on January 12, 2000 at 08:40:51:
>Why do a lot of you, including the good defrocked doctor put down medical people on a continuous basis?<
Poor service, lack of results, monopoly power that inhibits my ability to seek effective non-AMA treatment such as Physical Therapy.
>The majority of doctors are great<
Great people, probably. Great at acute medical problems, usually.
>and they dont cover one anothers' buns<
I don't know about that. I can't imagine my PCP, who's a heck of a nice guy and probably as smart as they come, ratting out some other doctor. He's the junior doc in his office and is probably still paying off his student loans.
>...geez grow up people, Dr Stoll isnt God! <
True. I disagree with him on several issues but agree on many others.
In Reply to: My wife's gall bladder removal surgery was a failure ... posted by Scott on January 12, 2000 at 00:44:37:
Hi, Scott.
First, listen to SR for most of what she says.
Second, I am not the person you should be asking most of your questions of. I will do my best with those for which I think I have something to offer. There are plenty of conventional medical websites who would be competent to answer your questions IF THEY WILL. Even on the website the FIRST thing in the present (new) Hippocratic Oath is dominant: "Be kind, gentle to and supportive of your colleagues." In other words: CYA and theirs!
Forty years ago the first thing in the Hippocratic Oath was: "First, do no harm!" NOW, that admonition is not in the Oath anywhere. What do you think THAT indicates?
Get a good lawyer and YOU INSIST on an independent professional opinion at once. It may take a lawyer too long to do this for you---so far as your wife's life is concerned.
Just last month the associated press sent around the fact that US hospitals are not required to make public the many mistakes made by physicians at their hospitals. This came right after it was made public that the 8th most commonn cause of deaths in the USA is mistakes by doctors only in the hospital. The hospital is the place where these mistakes are most easily documented. When ALL medical care is considered, it is the 4th most common cause of death in the USA. This policy is a travesty but the AMA is strongly opposed to changing it. What IS this but "covering each other's butts"?
THE REAL SHAME IS THAT HOW TO AVOID THE SURGERY AND PREVENT ANY NEW PROBLEMS IN THIS AREA HAS BEEN KNOWN FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS. Some of this information is even now, finally, finding itself being reported in conventional medical journals. For instance, docs like me have said that sugar was a major factor in most gall bladder problems (for 40 years). Just last year the conventional medical journals published their first acknowledgement of that fact.
Even with all that, it will likely be another generation until most surgeons tell their patients about this option: "To a hammer, everything looks like a nail!"
Since I learned to recommend the Gall Bladder Flush, to patients facing surgery, I have had only one who opted for the surgery anyhow and SHE was not willing to do the flush. SO, for more than 20 years, no one has needed the surgery if they just did that. Almost free, perfectly safe and any health food store would have the protocol. Till then, I was sending an average of 5 people a year to the surgeon. SO, about 100 people still have their Gall Bladders who would not have if I had not learned that.
Is it any wonder that my colleagues did not like me?
SO, for some answers:
#3. If she survives there should be no restrictions.
#4. If you cannot IMMEDIATELY get an independent surgical consultant to see her, that is EXACTLY what I would do. BE SURE TO GET A COPY OF EVERY PAGE OF HER MEDICAL RECORDS, ASSOCIATED WITH THIS CASE, TO TAKE WITH HER!!!!
I do not see an obvious place to put this tidbit but here it is anyhow:
She is at least going to have a lot of adhesions (scarring of the surfaces of all her abdominal organs) from this. They are permanent and are notorious for following bile leakage and leakage of gastric contents into the peritoneal space (both are extremely irritating and that irritation is what causes most adhesions). These will likely cause her abdominal symptoms for the rest of her life. Look up abdominal adhesions in your medical encyclopedia.
Let us know how she does and what you learn. Perhaps some of the responders to your note will gain something from this exchange.
Walt
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