Posted by Amy on 10/02/08

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This is just a brief summary of what happened... My father
had Laparoscopic surgery on 9/02 and passed away 9/17 of
this year, he was only 56 years old. He was told he would
be home that evening. After surgery the surgeon commented
that he had really earned his money today, that it had
been very hard and difficult to remove but he had gotten
it out. He said they had placed a drain in his side
because he had some left over bile and we were told that
he would be kept overnight just as a precaution. Then the
next day he was moved to CCU, they said just for
observation puposes and that they may have to go back in
on Friday (9/05) and see if their was a leak somewhere
because he was draining way more bile than they
anticipated. But as Friday approached they decided to wait
until Monday, meanwhile my father is still draining large
ammounts of bile and is not able to eat or drink anything
oraly or by tube or IV. So Monday (9/08) they take him
down to endo. to perform the procedure. But they had to
stop midway through because they claim he was having
trouble breathing due to his sleep apnea, to which was
already known to doctors. So they rescheduled for Weds.
(9/10), my father still is not able to drink or eat
anything and still draining alot of bile. At this point he
has started hallucinating and having very paranoid
thoughts and ideas. We thought it was the pain medicine,
which could be but I have since read of a similar case
where patient began to have same effects ...(see link.
Wednesday procedure was finaly done and we were told it
was a success and leak was found and repaired, that he
would stop draining bile. But he did not... and we were
continually told he was doing better and he was moved to a
progressive ward and finally allowed to try to eat...
which made him vomit up blood. His White blood cell count
was high. They said he may need a blood transfusion. He
continued to drain large ammounts of bile and have trouble
eating and wbc continued to rise. He finally had a bowel
movement on 9/16, which looked like bile. He had a blood
transfusion on 9/17 at about noon and was scheduled for
another later that day. He was sent back to his room were
at about 3:00 they said he was in respirtory distress and
he was transfered back to CCU, he coded a few minutes
after arriving their. And they could not bring him back.
They said his heart was beating fine but there was no
blood to pump. That he had a blood leak somewhere
internally and were not sure where. We have had an autopsy
performed and recieved preliminary results stating the
main cause to be A G.I bleed and Diverticulitis and
pancreatis as secondary contributing factors. I believe
the surgeon has made a terrible mistake when performing
original Surgery and cut or injured my father causing the
bile leak which in turn poisoned my fathers organs. Is
this a Wrongful death or Malpractice issue?

Re: Father died 2 wks after Laparoscopic Gallbladder surger, 10/25/09, by Lee Gunter.

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