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Serious Advice Needed

tink75

tink75

New Member
Hi all, I really, REALLY need some advice. I'm sure most of you know I suffered serious complications after my surgery and ended up in hospital for a month. I now have many unanswered questions about the complications that are really messing with my head. I know for definate there were 3 HUGE mistakes that each endangered my life, I am now wondering whether to have the matter investigated. My surgon can not stop appologising and says that he's so glad to have me still with us (alive).

I'm really not sure how to get past this - my family are all really cross and want the situation looked in too - I'm confused and don't really know what I want. I do know that I have been off work for 3 months now and I am still really weak after the muscle loss in intensive care, however, the surgery has worked and I am 5 stone lighter.

I would like answers as to how these mistakes can happen but don't know if it will make me even more emotional and messed up.

Please give me your opinion as to what you would do. Thank you so much for your help (i really need it)
 
personally I think that if they messed up then it needs to be investigated to stop it happening to anyone else - you could do worse than consult a solicitor who is versed in medical knowledge. Think your first port of call is a strong letter to the top honcho at the hospital.

You could be entitled to compensation you know - hospitals are not supposed to make mistakes - dont let it go.
 
Oh my, thats awful. I supose you could take the legal route, and employ a solicitor to request an investigation by the Medical Board. or the other thing is to be just thankful you are still here, and that the surgery, although complicated, finally worked.
I think it's only you who can decide.
Whatever..I hope all goes well for you from now on. :)
 
Hi there

Personally if It was me , although I'd be thankful I am alive , I would still want to know what went wrong, and take what ever action you get from their answer from there (if u decide too) , dont think too far ahead, take one stage at a time (should u decide to proceed further) .

At the end of the day something went wrong somewhere and you are still suffering the consequences of this surgery and someone should be answerable to . Maybe you could find out what went wrong(as this is your right),then you can take any further decisions you need to take from there.

All the best - MeJulie x x
 
You do need to have what happened to you looked into on a professional and legal level as i am sure it has not been a good experience for yourself or your family and i am sure you would not like this to happen to others. But first i would talk this over with my GP and they can get a lot of information that you will not be able to get hold of - then when you are strong enough both physically and this is important mentally go forward with this case. You will need the support of all of your family and friends and i am sure they are a great help already - but you need to be strong for this as the stress will weaken you so see your GP and take things slowly through them (and a solicitor) until you are strong enough to cope with the information and the consequences of this.

Take care - sending special hugs and fairy dust to you to help you through this time xx
 
i 2 got really poorly and the hospital admitted it was due to mistakes and the wards hygiene standers however after asking myself the same questions (and dealing with the angry family members) i have decided that the op was done on nhs it has worked im alive and the team that looked after me after was so so nice and done all they could, to the point the let me mum stay 3 nights with me and even held a cold flannel on my head to try get my temp down and moved me 2 my own room.. my surgeon like yours couldn't say sorry enough and even phoned me on his day off to see if i was any better .. i was in just over a week but nearly died also! so ive decided that these things happen for a reason and are sent to test us ... and no doctors aren't supposed to make mistakes but u know what there only human! and they done all they could and more to put it right! but thats just me you need to decide for you.. hope ive helped xx
 
I think that it would depend on what the mistakes were and if they were likely to happen again to someone else and maybe even cause the loss of life at a later date to someone else, if this was the case then I would HAVE to put in a complaint, not for compensation but so that I could rest easy that nobody else was going to suffer or die because of these 'mistakes', but that is just me.
If it turned out that they were very unlikely to happen again then I would still write to the hospital direct to make it clear that I was unhappy and then leave it at that.
THREE HUGE mistakes is a lot though, just one is bad enough but THREE?!!
Good luck with whatever you decide and well done with your weight loss.
Steph xx
 
Oh I forgot one point...of course the surgeons were apologetic and caring and went out of their way to make it all better, they arent stupid, they know that their mistakes could have ended their careers if anyone took it further, no wonder they went out of their way to make things better!!
Also, just because you may be an NHS patient the surgeon is still getting paid, it just isnt you that is paying it, somebody else is but the point is they ARE getting paid and for that reason they should NOT be making mistakes.
Steph xx
 
I would advise taking legal advice. I have worked on 2 medical negligence cases in the past and it is incredibly difficult to sue a medical professional. Their negligence has to be extremely gross to qualify a claim, but it is definately worth looking in to as if you have been the subject of extreme gross negligence then you deserve compensating.... But it is definately worth looking into having an investigation launced, so at least you may be able to avoid this happening to anyone else.

x
 
If it was me I would want it looked into. My first port of call would be my GP to discuss it with her and hopefully get her support. I believe you are also entitled to read through your hospital notes under the freedom of information act. They should contain a breakdown of events and will give you a better idea of what occured before, during and after your op.

The fact your surgeon is repeatedly apologising for these mistakes says to me that he must know he is either partly or fully to blame for what happened. Personally I wouldn't apologise for something I hadn't done, would you?

Good luck with whatever you decide and I'm pleased you are finally making a recovery.

Cuppa xx
 
To start the ball rolling, I would contact PALS, tell them you are considering an official complaint at this point and that you would like a copy of your hospital records as advised by Cuppa.

A chat with the GP wouldnt hurt also.
 
Thanks all for youradvice. I think it is only fair to explain the mistakes so that you know what happened.

1) Misdiagnosed with a pulmanory embolism (following morning after surgery) - this ment having treatment which lead to all future complications.

2) Overdosed with warfarin - blood specialist thought I was a "big girl" so dicided not to work out my dose based on my weight and height just had a guess. This lead to me haemorragin through vomitting and poohing blood initially and 3 weeks after surgery they found a 2 litre haematoma in my stomach (near the surgery site)

3) and the worst for me - after a scan and without being told anything I was transfered to a different hospital (NHS hospital) - taken straight into theatre and heard my new surgical team discussing how suspicious it was that I was there because my body was not showing symtoms of the life threatening condition I had been sent there with. I put my hand up to talk and they stopped trying to knock me out. I explained what had happened with the warfarin and they were not aware. They then told me they would explain what they felt and what I had said to the surgen. They then explained I would probably die - let my husband in to say goodbye (they had told him and my mum and dad that I would most probably die that night) and then put me to sleep. That was the last I knew for nearly a week. During this time by the grace of the angels watching over me my team explained the situation to the surgen who wasn't happy with taking the private hospitals word and ordered the same cat scan to be repeated. He told my family that the private hospital said I had a split aorta and had sent me there for surgery - however when he looked at the new scan he found NOTHING to show this. I'm guessing because I was put under anesthetic again?????? this caused my lungs to collapse (unsure whether hospital collapsed them ready for surgery). I then got pneumonia and ended up being put unconscious for 3/4 days on life support. When they first tried to reinflate my lungs they couldn't so I ended up in like a space mask (oxygen) for the next 5 days. I can't believe my first hospital told me nothing about the condition they suspected and sent me through to the other hospital without even telling me they were sending me for surgery or they suspected something wrong with my heart

My recovery has been slow and I still can't do many things because I lost at least 32% muscle mass when in intensive care. I have had to walk on a zimmer frame for a short period whilst starting to walk again. The specialist have told me in can take at least 3-6 months maybe upto a year before I will be able to do what I used to do. It is so frustrating to become so unable to even walk around and do little things.

There have been lots more different things that have gone wrong during my time in both hospitals, however, my biggest problem is the fact that I was misdiagnosed in the first place and without that mistake I would not have been overdosed and therefore non of the other problems would have happened and I didn't find this out until my 7 week post op appointment with my surgen where he said "have you been told you never had a blood clot - sorry but we acted on what we thought was your best interest.

I understand your point about them being human Kirsty and before I found out that I didn't have a blood clot I was quite happy to let things go, however, now I want someone to look at the scans and xrays to see how they could be sooooooooooo wrong on 2 really serious diagnoses and also how that so called blood specialist can just give whatever warfarin he likes. I have so many questions that I would just like answers to - I don't want to seem ungrateful but I lost 1 month with my family and I need to know that it couldn't have been avoided because at this point it looks like it could :0(

Sam just wondering if you can tell me who PALS are and how I can contact them - thanks
 
Gosh it sounds like you have had a truly horrendous experience. I hope you make a full recovery.

PALS are the complaints people attached to each hospital. I think it stands for patient liaison or something like that xx
 
oh my god you poor love, if it was me i would want to sue the arse of them for putting me and my family through such an horrendous ordeal. i wouldnt go to my gp first i would go to see someone that knows how to go about getting compensated... i truelly hope you get better soon.
 
oh my lordy what a truly horrendous thing to happen to you, to be honest i'm not sure what i would do if that had happened to me, i think i would definately want answers as to how and why these things happened, so i think contacting PALS and asking to have your notes explained to you would be a good start. I'm glad to hear you are starting to feel better and hope you sort things out.
 
OMG you poor thing. That kind of treatment is unforgivable. Yes the hospital staff are human and we can make mistakes but what they did is truly shocking. I would definitely take this further not because you want compensation but because you need closure to move on with your life. You also need to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Good luck with whatever route you chose.
 
F**K me Tinks you really have been in the wars, Im so sorry for you.

If it was me I would definately take it further and find out how this could of happened.

It could give you closure on the whole horrendous episode and help you move on knowing all the facts.

Take care Tinks

xxxxxxxx
 
big hugs tinks
pals is patient advice and liason service. definetly get in touch. xx
 
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