Saga of BBB's son's knee surgery in a snake pit hospital

My 51-year old son requires three operations. The first on his right knee for total knee replacement; the second for total left knee replacement; and the third for total hip joint replacement of his left hip. He had his total right knee replacement surgery October 2nd in the worst hospital in Albuquerque due to paying by Workers' Comp. We agreed that, because of my disabilities we would communicate by telephone instead of hospital visits. My son's wife would make daily visits.

The next morning, 10/3, he reported to the nurse early in the morning that something was wrong with his leg, it was extremely swollen and bright red. He signaled for help but no one looked at his leg for three hours. Finally, a another nurse took the bandages off, was shocked, and went for immediate help. It took two hours for his doctor to arrive and order emergency treatment. He assigned a blood clot specialist to treat my son. It was another six hours before he was under blood clot treatment. My son's doctor said his condition was too serious to transfer him to another hospital as we requested. This hospital is a snake pit. My son desperately wanted to get out of that hospital and go home. I told him that if he tried to leave, I would come to his room and sit on his chest so he couldn't get up. That scared the **** out of him.

My son called me at 7:30 am 10/4. He was groggy. They had taken him off the morphine drip by mistake and finally put him back on it, which was helping. He's was being treated for the blood clots in his leg but it was still swollen and sore. The blood clot risk was a serious life-threat. They inserted vein filters via his throat so the clots could not reach his heart and brain.

Following another visit by his doctor that day, my son's doctor examined his leg and said he must have left a "bleeder" in his knee during the surgery and my son will have to have knee surgery again to open his knee and drain all the accumulated blood so his knee can bend. He would be operated on the next morning. My son was distressed about undergoing surgery again but was relieved they are taking a little better care of him. We hoped they don't find any infection so they don't have to remove the prosthesis, treat the infection, and start replacement all over again, which could take several weeks. Damn!

Just when I thought things were improving, my son called me about 7 pm that night DEMANDING that I come to his room IMMEDIATELY! I tried to ask him what was wrong and he verbally exploded at me. I drove to the hospital and went to his room, which was difficult because of my disabilities. My son was ranting like a mad man and almost impossible to talk to. I went to the head nurse and told her I thought my son was having a psychotic episode. Then I learned that yesterday afternoon, the idiots who were moving him back to his room after an x-ray were horsing around and slammed the gurney into the wall, knocking off my son's arm medication vein port. They put him back in bed in his room, but didn't tell anyone that his arm port had to be reinstalled. It was four hours before my son could get anyone to come to his room to reinstall his arm port so he could get morphine for his severe pain. Four hours later, he was in such severe pain that he was screaming and being irrational. That's when he called me. In addition to his leg pain, his bad hip is causing severe pain and he can barely move.

My son was so scared and enraged that he was acting insane. I sat with him as he ranted for over an hour. The morphine finally helped. I tried to get him to go to sleep but he said he wouldn't because he feared I would leave and he needed me there to help him stay alive. When the x-ray staff came to take him down for another x-ray, I had to go home because my dogs were outside and it was getting cold. A nurse promised me she would stay with my son to calm him down.

The next day, my son was told that he would be prepped for the second surgery at 2 pm and be operated on at 3 pm. That time passed with no word from anyone until 3:30 that they were running late and it would be at least 2 hours later.

My son called me in frustration and gave me the name and phone number of a hospital management person that he got from his private doctor. I called and left a message and she called me back. Turns out the woman works at the west side hospital, not the one Stuart is in. She called the patient advocate at the hospital my son was in, told her what was happening and she would call me within the hour. The hospital director called me about fifteen minutes later and said she was aware of some the problems, but not all, which I told her. She was very nice and said she would personally see that my son would get proper care. She told me my son was in surgery at this time so it will be at least three or four hours before he could call me.

My son called me about 8:30 pm. He was awake after his second surgery. The morphine was helping re his pain and he sounded more rational. His surgeon had repaired the bleeding vein and put a drain in his knee. So far, nearly a half-pint of blood has drained from his knee.

They were going to inject some dye into his hip yesterday to see what is going on that is causing him so much pain. They can't give him a cortisone injection in his hip for several more days because it will impede his healing. I hope his hip hasn't fractured. How can he stand on his left leg with a broken hip while his right knee heals?

Since we got the attention of the hospital director, things have improved for my son---at last. She came to my son's room while he was still under the effect of the anesthetic and she talked to his wife.

My son called me at 11 am Wednesday 10/8 to report he walked over 400 feet in the hallway twice this morning. He was so happy. He was calm when we talked. Severe pain can make you crazy but he sounded normal that morning. I was so relieved.

The hospital director came to see him in his room yesterday morning. She told my son what she knew about his lack of care and he told her everything she didn't know. She was shocked at the additional information. She said my son had been ignored by everyone who was supposed to care for him. She stated that this hospital was not operating properly and things were going to have to improve, which surprised us that she would admit it. She was obviously angry at what happened to my son and said she was going to confront all of the staff involved. My son said he is now getting the best of care by top notch staff. His pain is under control.

The doctor wants to inject dye into both of my son's knees and his hip to test that he can be released from the hospital. He also wants to test to be sure the blood clots are gone. My son hopes he can go home on Friday 10/10.

My advice to anyone having surgery that will be paid for by Workers' Comp is to avoid snake pit hospitals.

BBB