[elisabeth]

My pressure wound was surgically debrided just under two weeks ago and the doctors nicked a blood vessel. That doesn't bother me because I know it was a risk associated with the surgery. What does bother me is the nurse who was attending to me afterwards didn't even BOTHER to look at my wound. Sure, she took my blood pressure occasionally but she didn't do anything when I said that the wound was hurting (I have sensation in my toes and my butt, the wound is on my left ischium).

I called out for another nurse because I did not trust the one attending to me, and she discovered that the VAC dressing put on my wound just after the surgery was basically just sucking out blood, and that the bottom sheet was absolutely drenched in blood. That nurse called the nurse in charge who in turn called a doctor, they then took out the wound VAC and blood started gushing out. I said that I had mentioned to the other nurse that I had been feeling dizzy earlier, and totally calm I informed them that I felt a little dizzy again. They did my blood pressure only to discover that it was 45/0. So then the intern doctor called a bunch of specialists and it took about 30 minutes to stem the haemorrhaging and bring my blood pressure back up. I could not understand why I was so calm the whole way throughout.

Only a couple of days ago I was talking to a girlfriend of mine who is also a nurse and she told me that the heart loses its ability to fill with blood when the systolic BP hits the 40 mark, and that the reason I was so calm was that I would have been in shock.

I feel like a cat with nine lives, and I know it might sound weird but after finding out just how close I came to the unthinkable I feel pretty darned ecstatic and lucky. The medical team working on me I did a wonderful job, but I'm still pretty darned angry at the nurse who ignored me when I said I was in pain and feeling a little dizzy.

So I decided to come here and try to encourage everyone to talk about crazy surgery tales they have experienced, and if they felt cheated, angry, ecstatic or whatever. I'm also interested in how different countries deal with emergencies like someone haemorrhaging on a ward.

PS. I wasn't sure whether to put this thread in the Health Issues or General section. I ended up choosing the General section because while my surgery story stems from a pressure sore, I'm sure the tales of others will be of different things and therefore not fit into any of the categories in the Health Issues section. So I hope no one minds me posting this here!

This post has been edited by elisabeth: 15 April 2007 - 01:43 PM

[Joed]

My paralysis was caused by surgery. I had undergone a tethered cord surgery (12 hrs), and although my doctor was able to get movement from my leg in the recovery room immediately after I came to, an hour later there was nothing. They suspect a spinal cord stroke, but they're not really sure.

Here's the horror part: when I awoke in recovery, I couldn't breathe. I mean nothing was getting through to my lungs. I remember the nurse explaining that I just had a tube down my throat and was having difficulty breathing. Well, I've had 18 surgeries, and so I'm no stranger to being intubated....no surprises there....but this was quite different. There was absolutely no air at all....I couldn't even make a squeak.

Anyway, she starts to walk away, and me, fighting for my very life, pulled myself up with the bedrails, grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her back to me. I tried to communicate my distress to her through my eyes....I was terrified....it felt like I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie or something. I pulled my face in very close to hers and shook my head 'no'.

That's all I remember. Either I passed out from lack of oxygen, or she knocked me out with something....I don't know. I was so traumatized by this that I couldn't even speak of it to my doctor or family for three days. (I still get quite emotional just thinking about it.) And only then because they had already slated me for yet another surgery five days after my first (another 12 hrs), and I needed someone to be aware of what had happened. My surgeon promised me that he would stay by my side this time until I came out of the anesthesia to make sure I could breathe, which he did.

Anyway, it keeps nagging at me that this incident may have caused the spinal stroke, or something equally damaging to my cord. After that much cord surgery, I'm sure it wasn't helpful to sit upright and wrestle that nurse down...possibly causing hemmoraging, then a loss of blood supply to the cord. But my surgeon assures me that this wouldn't have caused it....my gut tells me differently.

I've never posted about this here before, because I didn't want to cause any undue worry for those here who are about to undergo surgery....I'm sure something like this happening isn't all that common.

Still, I'd like to be alone in a room with that nurse and a taser.....just once.

[ParaforGod]

I had 15 surgeries in all. After one of the surgeries I had a nurse who was mean to me while I was in the Critical Care Unit. I remember it being after I first came to. It was all I could do to open my eyes and because I was on the vent. she would tie my hands down, but thats not the mean part. The nurses button was on the hand control for the TV and she would lie it down in the bed and I wouldn't know where it was. I was lying flat and wasn't in the shape to raise the bed. she would walk by I would hit the side of my bedrail she then would tell me she wasn't going to talk to me until I pushed the nurses button and then walk off without placing the button where I could reach or find it. I remember coming back from one of the surgeries and asking for my family and she would tell me they had left and gone home which was over an hour away. I knew my family wouldn't all leave me by myself in the shape I was in. My daughter then 18yrs. old would be in the unit and if this nurse was on duty for my room she would tie my hands down and my daughter would tell her I wanted to write. This nurse would tell her it was a waste of time because I didn't know what I was doing. My daughter would tell her yes I did and insist. Then she would let me write. The doctor told me I had to go back to surgery. I was so critical but had no choice, but I refused. The doctor let me write and I wrote I'll sue. This was right after the nurse had told me my family had gone home. I refused the surgery because I thought if she is this mean to me how will they treat me in surgery. My blood pressure and pulse shot up real high so they went to the waiting room and got my family. I begged them to transfer me. They couldn't because of the condition I was in. I wrote and told my family to watch her when she thought they weren't around. They called down the person in charge and told them if I was complaining about the rest of the staff they would know it was me, but because she was the only one she wasn't to go back into my room. The nurse kept telling them I didn't know what I was talking about and my family told her point blank she was to stay out of my room. She didn't come back and everything was fine. She thought why bother she is going to die. Well Im alive and have been back to the unit since I came home from rehab. When I spoke to her she just dropped her head.