Hospitals Suck

[FreightTrain]

I swear I can't get away from them and they drive me nuts. My wife had surgery 10 days ago and spent 3 days in the hospital. She had been home for a few days and felt pretty good so Friday night I got her out of the house and we went to dinner. Early Saturday morning she woke up with a really bad pain in her back. We thought she might of pulled a muscle so I gave her a pain pill and that took care of it. Through out the day on Sat the pain would come and go but nothing to bad. Then at about 10pm last night it got so bad she was in tears and having trouble breathing. I loaded her up and took her to the ER. They admitted her right away after doing a catscan and a chest x ray. Turns out she has multiple blood clots in both her lungs.

What really pisses me off is the ER doctors couldn't believe she was still taking birth control pills after her major surgery. They questioned us if her surgeon advised not to take them which he nor the hospital she was at told her not to take them. They both knew she was on them as they ask you a hundred times what medications you're on. Evidently her Birth Control is known to cause blood clots especially after a major surgery. So here we are looking to spend another 3 to 4 days in the hospital.

[Unicorn Jeff]

That sucks man, Hope she has a speedy recovery!!! What hospital you guys at?

[The King]

Glad to hear she didn't have a pulmonary embolism.....those can be life-threatening.

[davbrucas]

Glad to hear she didn't have a pulmonary embolism.....those can be life-threatening.

LOL. What do you think "blood clots in her lungs" means? Sounds like she had several emboli.

But, she is lucky that the clots were small. I recently posted a thread on here about a you woman who had a massive pulmonary embolus (blood clot in lungs) the day after delivering her first child. It completely occluded the pulmonary artery and she died right there in front of her husband. It sucked as I could not revive her.

It really isnt the hospital's fault that your wife had complications. OCPs are easily overlooked when doing the intial H&P. Does your wife smoke? The reason I ask is that blood clots are much more common with OCPs in people who smoke.

[FreightTrain]

She's never smoked in her life.

[davbrucas]

She's never smoked in her life.

Another risk factor is post-surgery...especially if they are laying in bed for a couple days. If they did not give her DVT prophylaxis while she was in the hospital, you may have a malpractice case...not that I am suggesting you sue.

[The King]

LOL. What do you think "blood clots in her lungs" means? Sounds like she had several emboli.

But, she is lucky that the clots were small. I recently posted a thread on here about a you woman who had a massive pulmonary embolus (blood clot in lungs) the day after delivering her first child. It completely occluded the pulmonary artery and she died right there in front of her husband. It sucked as I could not revive her.

It really isnt the hospital's fault that your wife had complications. OCPs are easily overlooked when doing the intial H&P. Does your wife smoke? The reason I ask is that blood clots are much more common with OCPs in people who smoke.

For some reason I was thinking a pulmonary embolism was a complete blockage of a major artery or vein in the lungs, and FT's post mentioned small clots and no specifics on whether blood flow was blocked completely.

But, you're the doctor, Doctor, so I've learned something here.

[davbrucas]

Yup...a large majority of blood clots that enter the lungs come from the deep veins in the legs...hence the name DVT/Deep Vein Thrombosis. Some come from the upper extremities but this is rare. Often times the clots that are sent upstream are small enough to to pass through the right side of the heart and into the lungs. What you are describing is massive pulmonary embolus...where a large clot goes from the legs into the right side of the heart and out to the lungs via the pulmonary artery...this artery has a T in it where the blood goes to each lung. When large clots reach this T, they completely occlude the outflow tract to the lungs and the patient is dead in seconds. The right side of the heart is a low pressure system so the clot can easily block outflow. There isnt much we can do for patients that become pulseless and apneic from a massive pulmonary embolus.
I can remember when I was a surgery resident rounding on my ICU patients early one morning. This 50yr old man had surgery the day before and was likely going to be discharged that day or the next. I had him sit up on the side of the bed so I could examine him and as soon as he sat up he said "doc, I..." and turned blue and collapsed. We could not save his life. I will never forget his family's reaction when they showed up that day to take him expecting to take him home...

[FreightTrain]

PM coming your way Doc.