My Dad had a quadruple bypass surgery at Saint Lukes hospital in Kansas City
last Nov. He was released on the 5th day after surgery and was told to
expect pain for awhile. He endured pain alright, but after several days the
incision started to ooze. He had to go back to Saint Lukes and was operated
on again immediately. He had a raging staff infection and part of his
sternum was infected and had to be removed. He took up residence in the
CVICU area and was placed on some powerful antibiotics. He had to be fed
intravenously.
After a few days he developed intense stomach and lower back pain. They
thought he might have peritonitis and did an emergency stomach surgery (really
big incision). Once inside, they could’nt see any problems. The surgery
was just another source of stress for my dad. A couple of days after this,
he had a stroke that paralyzed his left arm and leg. A couple of days later
they did a CAT scan that showed a collection of fluid walled off behind the
stomach. They put a drain in there and sampled some of the fluid. It had a
high amount of enzymes. They thought it could be a perforated ulser or
pancreatitis. They shot dye into this fluid area via the drain they had
installed and checked to see if the dye made its way into the stomach (which
would have pointed to an ulcer). The dye was not found in the stomach so they
were thinking it was a pancreas problem.
Well, they finally decided to get a GI team in there to scope him and they
saw the ULCER with the scope. So they have to go back in through that same
incision they had made a week or so earlier. The doctor was able to find the
ulcer and sow it closed. The tissues were to inflamed to excise the ulcer
area and sow the surrounding tissues together. He even wanted to do a bypass
on that part of the stomach but he at least had the sense not to do it.
Anyway, I thought my dad might start to improve after that, but two days after
the surgery, he was really agitated about something but since he was on a
ventilater and had been most of this time I could’nt read his lips to determine
what he was saying. Later that day he became unresponsive and his temperature
rose to 39.6c. His blood pressure dropped and he required two units of blood.
It turns out that he had another stroke that paralyzed his right arm and leg.
Also he was not able to see after this stroke. He did wake up at one point
and was able to hear us and smile in response to stories. However he had made
out a living will that made it clear he did not want to be on any type of life
support. We decided to withdraw support and they gave him an IV of morphine.
He died about 8 hours after that.
I believe that all of this happened because he was exposed to something in the
initial heart surgery that gave him the staff infection. Then the hospital
released him with a raging staff infection that caused this tragic chain of
events to take place. He has to go back in for surgery, developes a stress
ulcer, suffers a series of strokes and is subjected to a stomach surgery
before the ulcer was found.
On top of this, another man from our hometown about the same age as my dad
(71) went in for heart surgery a week after my dads initial surgery. He also
developed a staff infection and had to come back for a second surgery. He
developed a stress ulcer just like my dad and died a week after my dad died
from complications.
I would like to hear from anyone else out there who has heard of any similar
scenarios:
Heart Surgery
|__________Infection
|_______Stress Ulcer
|_________More Surgery
|_____Strokes
|______DEATH
If you have not heard of this before, then I would recommend staying away
from SAINT LUKES HOSPITAL in Kansas City, Mo
By the way, as far as their statistics go, my dad had a successful heart
operation. The cause of death was listed as an ulcer. They are padding
their statistics with this case.
wazz