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cellboyJust returned from Sacramento.... and after an stressful 2 days of sitting in hospitals, signing lots of papers, I think all might be OK; at least I hope. Really not sure if my mom's close brush with death was doctor error, or just circumstance (which they say is rare). To keep thing short, this is the story. This may be worth a look, for those with older parents; Eight weeks ago, my mom had an pace maker installed to regulate her heart beat, should it slow, due to the medications she had been taking. A week later, she had pain in her diaphragm. Apparently, the wire of the pacemaker was too thin, and had punctured her aorta, and was sending charges to her diaphragm instead. They decided to disconnect the wire and cap it instead of removing it, due to the fact that she had been on Warafin, for years and her blood was very thin. They wanted to avoid bleeding. So they installed a thicker wire,and a different route. Her recovery time after this ordeal was fairly intense (my poor sister).
So last Sunday, she was rushed to the hospital, complaining of pain, in the same general area, below the left breast bone, under the rib cage, and had a hard time to breath. They were to run a series of tests. On Monday morning my sister called me and said that my mom's heart rate was over 200; her kidneys had shut down, and that the family was to be there immediately to say our goodbyes. She had no strength to breath on her own, the only thing keeping her going was the oxygen mask.. This is what actually ended up saving her life. They sent in crew after crew of specialist and then the Radiologist took x-rays and said that there was a lot of fluid in her chest cavity and they needed to drain it. The fluid could be one of three things: Congestive heart failure, cancer or blood from internal bleeding. It was possible that the injection of the needle that would drain the fluid would cause her blood pressure to drop again and more forms were needed to sign. We decided to honor mom’s wishes for a DNR (do not resuscitate).Thankfully they were able to remove 1.6 liters of blood from her chest cavity. Now the question: Where is that blood coming from?
After many consults it was acknowledged that the cause was most likely that now disconnected wire. They decided that they needed to transfer her to Sutter Memorial in Sacramento because they have a special cardiac ward there. In the meantime they are giving her transfusions and “fresh frozen” plasma to help a) replace the blood she had lost and b) try to thicken up her blood so they can safely go in to explore. They needed to put her under Anesthetics. They needed to insert a chest tube into her chest cavity to remove all fluids. They needed to take the old pace maker out. Then they needed to take out both wires. If the non functional wire caused bleeding and when it was removed it continued to bleed the Cardiologist would “break” mom’s breast bone and go in to suture the puncture. This could be very dangerous. Again more forms to sign. If everything went well and they did not “need” the Cardiologist then the surgeon would continue by inserting a new pace maker on her right side (the old one was on the left). The surgery was to happen at 7am on Tuesday, but did not happen until until 7pm! We waited for the Doctor (hunk) at the hospital for over 12 hrs. So it was a long day. And a bad one for Mom who was so scared. But happily, during her surgery, they did not need the Cardiologist. She did not have bleeding (the heart muscle had clotted and repaired itself. And they did not have to go through her rib cage.
I can't believe it. Mom at 85 yrs old, although a bit out of it due to some of the pain medication, is bouncing back quite fast.... guess it is that old German stock.... so it is a waiting game to see how fast she will recuperate. I will be up this weekend, to assist my sister in locating a good convalescent home for mom. Then once her strength is back she will go back to her own home. I just hope there are no surprises, and that we are really out of the woods.
So last Sunday, she was rushed to the hospital, complaining of pain, in the same general area, below the left breast bone, under the rib cage, and had a hard time to breath. They were to run a series of tests. On Monday morning my sister called me and said that my mom's heart rate was over 200; her kidneys had shut down, and that the family was to be there immediately to say our goodbyes. She had no strength to breath on her own, the only thing keeping her going was the oxygen mask.. This is what actually ended up saving her life. They sent in crew after crew of specialist and then the Radiologist took x-rays and said that there was a lot of fluid in her chest cavity and they needed to drain it. The fluid could be one of three things: Congestive heart failure, cancer or blood from internal bleeding. It was possible that the injection of the needle that would drain the fluid would cause her blood pressure to drop again and more forms were needed to sign. We decided to honor mom’s wishes for a DNR (do not resuscitate).Thankfully they were able to remove 1.6 liters of blood from her chest cavity. Now the question: Where is that blood coming from?
After many consults it was acknowledged that the cause was most likely that now disconnected wire. They decided that they needed to transfer her to Sutter Memorial in Sacramento because they have a special cardiac ward there. In the meantime they are giving her transfusions and “fresh frozen” plasma to help a) replace the blood she had lost and b) try to thicken up her blood so they can safely go in to explore. They needed to put her under Anesthetics. They needed to insert a chest tube into her chest cavity to remove all fluids. They needed to take the old pace maker out. Then they needed to take out both wires. If the non functional wire caused bleeding and when it was removed it continued to bleed the Cardiologist would “break” mom’s breast bone and go in to suture the puncture. This could be very dangerous. Again more forms to sign. If everything went well and they did not “need” the Cardiologist then the surgeon would continue by inserting a new pace maker on her right side (the old one was on the left). The surgery was to happen at 7am on Tuesday, but did not happen until until 7pm! We waited for the Doctor (hunk) at the hospital for over 12 hrs. So it was a long day. And a bad one for Mom who was so scared. But happily, during her surgery, they did not need the Cardiologist. She did not have bleeding (the heart muscle had clotted and repaired itself. And they did not have to go through her rib cage.
I can't believe it. Mom at 85 yrs old, although a bit out of it due to some of the pain medication, is bouncing back quite fast.... guess it is that old German stock.... so it is a waiting game to see how fast she will recuperate. I will be up this weekend, to assist my sister in locating a good convalescent home for mom. Then once her strength is back she will go back to her own home. I just hope there are no surprises, and that we are really out of the woods.
