Family Forum / Parenting / Mothers / April 2008

First i want to say that DW is in what is considered "the best
hospital in the state" complete with university etc.

A few weeks ago when DW was still not waking up from the anastesia the
following happened: I come home to see that a resident from the
hospital left a message about 1/2 hour earlier.

"I think your wifes condition is due to menengitis. We need to do a
spinal tap immediatly to find out and I need your consent."

So I call to give consent. But the Dr (you can call a resident that?)
is gone for the day so they tell me to page him and give him the
message.

Monday 10 am he calls. I ask what took so long. He never answers and
just says. "The situation is this: There are some small risks involved
with this as it is close to the spinal column but if we don't do it
and she got it than she will die - so do you consent" So I consent.
Now this is monday morning

I call monday afternoon - they did not do the test yet
I call tuesday - nothing
I call wednesday a bit upset allready and am told that the resident
cannot do a spinal tap because he never did one before by himself and
that they are looking for a Dr who can do one.
They finally do the spinal tap thursday afternoon.

Results come back Saturday - luckely negative.

Meanwhile DW is having a few episodes with the tubes that are fed
through her mouth - chocking as she is producing quite some flegm and
mucus. I ask if they can do something about the tubes - but don't get
anywhere.

DW still barely conscious and when then for maybe 30 seconds at the
time. So now that it is not menengitis I get a call from another
resident getting consent to do a MRI to see if there is any abnormal
brain activity. So I give consent - and now it is a tuesday.

I call wednesday - no MRI yet

Thursday I get a call from the MRI technician. "Your wife had a broken
leg that was repaired with some screws and a braket - what are the
screws and the bracket made out of."

I say "I don't know - you guys did that operation a couple of weeks
ago and she has not woken up since and you guys did not tell me yet
what hardware you used. I guess you look it up. I hope you guys wrote
it down somewhere."

No MRI friday - DW gets moved to a different section of the hospital
the new Dr. Says "How come she got the tubes through her mouth for so
long with all that flegm and mucus that is a chocking hazard. I want
to do a trachiotomy immediatly and a peg (feeding tube directly
through the stomache) before we run into any serious problems here -
do you consent"

So I consent and ask why that was not offered earlier as I had been
asking if we can do something about those tubes to keep her from
choking.

No operation friday the OR is too busy and she is low priority
Same on Saturday
Same on Sunday (its easter sunday)
Same on Monday

Monday night 2 am I get a call from the hospital that there was an
"episode" and they moved her back to ICU. Some mucus got stuck in her
throat with the tubes causing her to chocke. She was for 5 minutes
without oxigen before her heart stopped and then for 20 minutes more
before they restarted her heart again.

Final result - major brain damage and coma due to oxygen depravation.

My advise to everyone .... Don't get sick .... cause this is the best
you can get.