odin33
Footballguy
First and foremost, my daughter is healthy and ok with no lingering issues from the below situation. Some of this is seeking advice and some of it is just getting it off my chest. A good bit of protective parenting, but something feels very off.
My 14 yo daughter broke and dislocated her ankle mid April. Plate, pins, and tight rope surgery for dislocation. ~10" incision. Surgery was a success and she was up alert and talking about an hour later.
After the surgery there was a small area that was open. Changed dressing daily and all, but a month later it just wasn't healing so last Friday she had another surgery to stitch the area up. There was a concern about having to do a 'wound vac' so they put her under. She ended up not needing it, half hour -45 minutes and the surgeon/ortho was talking to us saying all went well, cleaned it up a bit and 6 stitches total. That was at 4:45p. She said she's recovering in post op and should be back to the room in about an 45-hour. Phew!
5:30 rolls around and nothing, 6 nada- getting twitchy, nurses confirmed all good, 6:30- now we're getting pissed. 7- wife is climbing the walls, still no daughter. 7:15 (this hospital pretty much shuts down on the weekend so no one is around) I track down one of the few nurses in the wing and she said they don't have enough nurses to go get her. WTF! Offered to go get her myself, which must have been the trigger as she came back to the room about 15 minutes later. Wife is messaging/calling a good friend who's a doctor down in GA updating as we go through this.
So it's 7:30, 3 hours after surgery and she is still on another planet from the meds and looks washed out (very pale). She's wheelchair bound so she has to be alert enough to plant her good leg and pivot from bed/chair/toilet etc. So, we wait until she's back on earth. Nurses checking vitals every half hour, and actively trying to get us out the door. Anesthesiologist on call comes in and looks/reads her records. Fentanyl during surgery, plus deladid, then she says oxy during and another at 5:45. An hour after surgery when they said she was fine? We both look at the doc like you've got to be kidding. This was for 6 flipping stitches.
So 9:00 rolls around and she's on the space ship back to earth but barely. That wing of the hospital is shutting down and she's still not with it so we decide ok, admit her overnight because it's simply not safe to take her home. Had to convince the Anesthesiologist to call the surgeon to write the order. Back and forth between hospital and surgeon, she writes the order. Ok cool, I go take off to grab dinner. Get back and we're told the hospital can't admit her because she isn't 16. How in the hell is that possible? Our options are move her back to post op recovery where it's a giant room with curtains as 'rooms' or call the ambulance and transport her downtown to children's hospital only to sit in their generic ER for god knows how long to maybe, possibly, get a room. So we go back to post op.
Finally about 10:30 (6 full hours after surgery) she's awake and aware. End up rolling out of the hospital shortly after 11.
We're not the type to sue for the cash grab, and as I mentioned she's perfectly ok now, but this feels very wrong. Surgeon/Ortho stated they are looking into it when we had a follow-up this week. No S*** Sherlock. You can tell their all bracing for the lawsuit as the finger pointing and defenses have gone up. Had we not stood up for ourselves they'd have sent us home with a doped up kid who could and likely would have reinjured her leg from being out of it. We don't want this to happen to anyone else with possibly a much worse outcome so we feel we have to do something.
Put in for and received her medical records which confirmed the meds given. Doctor friend is reviewing it but this isn't her area of expertise. Hoping to tap the general knowledge here for both medical guidance if I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill or not, and any legal professional as to how/should we proceed with legal action.
TIA
TL/DR
So to total it all up:
- Anesthesiologist doing the surgery went IMO way overboard on the meds- google search states that combo of meds can be lethal!
- Hospital was not adequately staffed to tend to patients
- Nursing staff was pushing us to leave despite daughters condition
- Hospital would not admit her overnight because of age
- Hospital's solution was to send her to another hospital with no guarantee of getting a room
My 14 yo daughter broke and dislocated her ankle mid April. Plate, pins, and tight rope surgery for dislocation. ~10" incision. Surgery was a success and she was up alert and talking about an hour later.
After the surgery there was a small area that was open. Changed dressing daily and all, but a month later it just wasn't healing so last Friday she had another surgery to stitch the area up. There was a concern about having to do a 'wound vac' so they put her under. She ended up not needing it, half hour -45 minutes and the surgeon/ortho was talking to us saying all went well, cleaned it up a bit and 6 stitches total. That was at 4:45p. She said she's recovering in post op and should be back to the room in about an 45-hour. Phew!
5:30 rolls around and nothing, 6 nada- getting twitchy, nurses confirmed all good, 6:30- now we're getting pissed. 7- wife is climbing the walls, still no daughter. 7:15 (this hospital pretty much shuts down on the weekend so no one is around) I track down one of the few nurses in the wing and she said they don't have enough nurses to go get her. WTF! Offered to go get her myself, which must have been the trigger as she came back to the room about 15 minutes later. Wife is messaging/calling a good friend who's a doctor down in GA updating as we go through this.
So it's 7:30, 3 hours after surgery and she is still on another planet from the meds and looks washed out (very pale). She's wheelchair bound so she has to be alert enough to plant her good leg and pivot from bed/chair/toilet etc. So, we wait until she's back on earth. Nurses checking vitals every half hour, and actively trying to get us out the door. Anesthesiologist on call comes in and looks/reads her records. Fentanyl during surgery, plus deladid, then she says oxy during and another at 5:45. An hour after surgery when they said she was fine? We both look at the doc like you've got to be kidding. This was for 6 flipping stitches.
So 9:00 rolls around and she's on the space ship back to earth but barely. That wing of the hospital is shutting down and she's still not with it so we decide ok, admit her overnight because it's simply not safe to take her home. Had to convince the Anesthesiologist to call the surgeon to write the order. Back and forth between hospital and surgeon, she writes the order. Ok cool, I go take off to grab dinner. Get back and we're told the hospital can't admit her because she isn't 16. How in the hell is that possible? Our options are move her back to post op recovery where it's a giant room with curtains as 'rooms' or call the ambulance and transport her downtown to children's hospital only to sit in their generic ER for god knows how long to maybe, possibly, get a room. So we go back to post op.
Finally about 10:30 (6 full hours after surgery) she's awake and aware. End up rolling out of the hospital shortly after 11.
We're not the type to sue for the cash grab, and as I mentioned she's perfectly ok now, but this feels very wrong. Surgeon/Ortho stated they are looking into it when we had a follow-up this week. No S*** Sherlock. You can tell their all bracing for the lawsuit as the finger pointing and defenses have gone up. Had we not stood up for ourselves they'd have sent us home with a doped up kid who could and likely would have reinjured her leg from being out of it. We don't want this to happen to anyone else with possibly a much worse outcome so we feel we have to do something.
Put in for and received her medical records which confirmed the meds given. Doctor friend is reviewing it but this isn't her area of expertise. Hoping to tap the general knowledge here for both medical guidance if I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill or not, and any legal professional as to how/should we proceed with legal action.
TIA
TL/DR
So to total it all up:
- Anesthesiologist doing the surgery went IMO way overboard on the meds- google search states that combo of meds can be lethal!
- Hospital was not adequately staffed to tend to patients
- Nursing staff was pushing us to leave despite daughters condition
- Hospital would not admit her overnight because of age
- Hospital's solution was to send her to another hospital with no guarantee of getting a room
with 
