Re: Father died 2 wks after Laparoscopic Gallbladder surger

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On 10/02/08, Amy wrote:
> 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?

This is a high probability of surgical error. Have you
obtained legal help?