Heart attacks suck

[gravitylover]

12/28 was a rough day. Then the crew in the cath lab screwed up and messed me up for life. That sucked even more. Stay away from hospitals if you can. Certainly stay away over the holidays when you're dealing with the B and C teams. If you ever have to be in one hope you don't have to be there for 10 fkn days!

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

Feel better. Hospitals, and health care in general, are not what they used to be. And this is coming from a health care professional.

[Ultramaroon]

What did they do?

[DarkPira7e]

Working as IT support for a hospital, I can attest that holiday fill in staff are bad news already, not to mention that they're stressed and upset that they're working on a holiday... Terribly sorry to hear your experience was negative

[Sapphireho]

So sorry, hope you are doing better.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by gravitylover

12/28 was a rough day. Then the crew in the cath lab screwed up and messed me up for life. That sucked even more. Stay away from hospitals if you can. Certainly stay away over the holidays when you're dealing with the B and C teams. If you ever have to be in one hope you don't have to be there for 10 fkn days!

UGH!

What happened?


humfrz

[Atropine]

As a 19 year vet in health care, I am extremely curious what happened, but I would understand why someone would not want to share what happened.

I am sorry for your outcome.

I have a bunch of questions that I would ask of you as a patient and from me as a provider.

Sometimes under extreme situations, a patient doesn't hear all the risk involved in procedures.

Since you went into a cath lab, you had most likely 3 choices.

1. Do nothing and possibly die or at the very least, have a guaranteed negative outcome.

2. Get open heart surgery.

3. Get cath'd and a stent or 5 and some angioplasty.

As far as the B and C team due to it being a holiday...that is generally false, call schedules are rotated, so it being a holiday doesn't really have as much influence as you think...

That being said, there are definitely Doctors that I would never let touch me.

Anyway, rehab aggressively and stay positive.

[gravitylover]

The down and dirty answer is they either hit the wrong artery or missed and went too far putting in the sheath to put in the stent in my heart. Some of you may know that when you puncture the iliac artery it's nearly impossible to get it to seal so a couple of pints of blood drained into the middle of my body for two days before the morons dealt with it properly. Their way of dealing with it is a temporary solution so I need to have bi-annual vascular visits forever now and possible have it replaced as often as every 3-10 years which is a minor surgery, a major surgery and it can be solved permanently. It also curtails my physical activities to a point that's unacceptable to me. Fortunately there was no damage at all to my heart so that will not be much of a factor going forward but due to the mess I can't even start that rehab yet so now it's been 3 weeks of nearly complete inactivity.

All of this has put my head in the wrong place making everything that much more difficult. I can't even drive my car and go for a ride to clear my head, riding a bike is out of the question so my fun for a while is going to the supermarket or local mall and walking around like an old person. Blah...

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by gravitylover

The down and dirty answer is they either hit the wrong artery or missed and went too far putting in the sheath to put in the stent in my heart. Some of you may know that when you puncture the iliac artery it's nearly impossible to get it to seal so a couple of pints of blood drained into the middle of my body for two days before the morons dealt with it properly. Their way of dealing with it is a temporary solution so I need to have bi-annual vascular visits forever now and possible have it replaced as often as every 3-10 years which is a minor surgery, a major surgery and it can be solved permanently. It also curtails my physical activities to a point that's unacceptable to me. Fortunately there was no damage at all to my heart so that will not be much of a factor going forward but due to the mess I can't even start that rehab yet so now it's been 3 weeks of nearly complete inactivity.

All of this has put my head in the wrong place making everything that much more difficult. I can't even drive my car and go for a ride to clear my head, riding a bike is out of the question so my fun for a while is going to the supermarket or local mall and walking around like an old person. Blah...

So you are saying during an emergency heart catheterization for a STEMI you had the interventional cardiologist puncture your external iliac artery, which caused you to have blood loss into your peritoneal cavity, which will require further interventions in the future? That sucks, but it is good that they saved your life.

The only person with their hands on that equipment was the interventional cardiologist, so the idea of a B or C team messing up is probably not the case. Knowing you have internal bleeding probably wasn't known until you became symptomatic, or until your vital signs changed like an increased heart rate and decreased blood pressure, or until they took your new labs and discovered you were possibly bleeding internally.

It is possible that you have peripheral vascular disease like you have coronary artery disease; the two are correlated. It is possible that the vessel was brittle from plaque buildup, and/or that there was resistance trying to pass the sheath through a narrowing of your artery. They may have tried to dilate the vessel by trying to force the probe, but in their effort, either a small tear occurred, or a small puncture. It must have been small or you would have been dead in a matter of minutes to hours. In fact, if they gave you Heparin, Brilinta, Aspirin, Nitro, etc to open and thin your blood then that could have made a small bleed not clot like it normally would have. If it was critical they would have opened you up for an emergency vascular surgery.

Sounds like you had a bad experience, and I am sorry you had to go through that. Just glad you survived a heart attack. As someone who has worked in the ER for 5 years, in the hospital for 7 total, and in EMS before that for 4 years, I have seen many deaths from acute myocardial infections (MIs) or heart attacks. Saw a guy in his late sixties refuse intervention, said he was fine dying, looked completely healthy and fine (barely dyphoretic/sweaty with good color, not pale, and good vitals, outside of the STEMI). Twenty minutes later he was dead. For a stroke or a MI, time is tissue; they move fast because even if you live, delays cost tissue, which means you can still have damage, meaning congestive heart failure (CHF) related complications down the road and a shorter life, so it may seem like they rush or botched a job, but it could have just been bad luck. Hope you recover soon.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by gravitylover

The down and dirty answer is ............so my fun for a while is going to the supermarket or local mall and walking around like an old person. Blah...

So, gravitylover, how are you doing?


humfrz

[gravitylover]

@humfrz All things considered I think I'm doing pretty well. I've been up and about since the day after I got home. I've been walking pretty fair distances, up to a mile a couple of days. Rough, uneven ground is a challenge but that's mostly because my confidence isn't completely back yet and there is still some significant discomfort in the area around where the incision is on my upper leg (skin is stretched super tight) so I'm limping a bit. It doesn't help that we just had a terrible ice storm and it's been in the single digits for 2 days so moving around is totally sketchy even for the fully able bodied. Otherwise I really do feel pretty good. Unfortunately I can't do anything about the two 60 foot trees that crashed down in the yard so they'll probably lay there until the spring.

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

So you are saying during an emergency heart catheterization for a STEMI you had the interventional cardiologist puncture your external iliac artery, which caused you to have blood loss into your peritoneal cavity, which will require further interventions in the future? That sucks, but it is good that they saved your life.

Yes and obviously

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

The only person with their hands on that equipment was the interventional cardiologist, so the idea of a B or C team messing up is probably not the case. Knowing you have internal bleeding probably wasn't known until you became symptomatic, or until your vital signs changed like an increased heart rate and decreased blood pressure, or until they took your new labs and discovered you were possibly bleeding internally.

It is possible that you have peripheral vascular disease like you have coronary artery disease; the two are correlated. It is possible that the vessel was brittle from plaque buildup, and/or that there was resistance trying to pass the sheath through a narrowing of your artery. They may have tried to dilate the vessel by trying to force the probe, but in their effort, either a small tear occurred, or a small puncture. It must have been small or you would have been dead in a matter of minutes to hours. In fact, if they gave you Heparin, Brilinta, Aspirin, Nitro, etc to open and thin your blood then that could have made a small bleed not clot like it normally would have. If it was critical they would have opened you up for an emergency vascular surgery.

They attributed the increased heart rate to stress. The symptoms started showing up a few hours after as the hematoma appeared. By 6am (~10 hours after) my entire middle was distended and had turned purple. They didn't do anything other than begin to give me transfusions to because my crits were dropping. They left the sheath in for 40 hours in case they had to go back into the heart and when it was finally removed and the fellow couldn't get it to seal they started to really worry, a few hours later I was on the table getting operated on to have the arterial stent put in.

There was never a mention of any buildup or narrowing but two docs did say a mistake was made and they were sorry but "shit happens." I was given nitro in the ambulance and heparin on the table in the cath lab the first time, the second time, after I was rushed back into the cath lab they decided not to and just dosed me with Brilinta. The emergency surgery to repair the puncture wasn't until 52 hours after. The vascular surgeon and cardiologist I followed up with have said nothing about any other buildup outside the heart.

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

Sounds like you had a bad experience, and I am sorry you had to go through that. Just glad you survived a heart attack. As someone who has worked in the ER for 5 years, in the hospital for 7 total, and in EMS before that for 4 years, I have seen many deaths from acute myocardial infections (MIs) or heart attacks. Saw a guy in his late sixties refuse intervention, said he was fine dying, looked completely healthy and fine (barely dyphoretic/sweaty with good color, not pale, and good vitals, outside of the STEMI). Twenty minutes later he was dead. For a stroke or a MI, time is tissue; they move fast because even if you live, delays cost tissue, which means you can still have damage, meaning congestive heart failure (CHF) related complications down the road and a shorter life, so it may seem like they rush or botched a job, but it could have just been bad luck. Hope you recover soon.

Yup bad luck but now my world has changed due to a mistake that was admitted to. There are also some glaring discrepancies in the records and I was dosed with opioid pain killers I had denied. They were given by IV at night when I was sleeping.

Thankfully there was apparently no damage to my heart at all and the blockages that are left will be able to be handled medicinally. This post may self destruct soon and without warning

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by gravitylover

[MENTION=47115]They attributed the increased heart rate to stress. The symptoms started showing up a few hours after as the hematoma appeared. By 6am (~10 hours after) my entire middle was distended and had turned purple. They didn't do anything other than begin to give me transfusions to because my crits were dropping. They left the sheath in for 40 hours in case they had to go back into the heart and when it was finally removed and the fellow couldn't get it to seal they started to really worry, a few hours later I was on the table getting operated on to have the arterial stent put in.

There was never a mention of any buildup or narrowing but two docs did say a mistake was made and they were sorry but "shit happens." I was given nitro in the ambulance and heparin on the table in the cath lab the first time, the second time, after I was rushed back into the cath lab they decided not to and just dosed me with Brilinta. The emergency surgery to repair the puncture wasn't until 52 hours after. The vascular surgeon and cardiologist I followed up with have said nothing about any other buildup outside the heart.

Thankfully there was apparently no damage to my heart at all and the blockages that are left will be able to be handled medicinally. This post may self destruct soon and without warning

I don't know your age, but I have seen many times (usually with older people, >75) where the ER, ICU or Trauma doctors get resistance while trying to thread a catheter sheath while attempting to place a central line. I have seen the guide wire curl up, requiring multiple attempts, and I have seen them simply not able to pass the wire. I'm just saying, even if the doctor was a machine, doing everything perfectly, there are physical problems such as brittle vessels caused by plaque or diabetes, or anatomical variances that could account for an unavoidable puncture.

It could also be their bad, and you may want to consider seeking legal advice on the matter, in which case, I could imagine the thread self-destructing.

Good luck.

[ZionsWrath]

"informed consent" Most likely whatever you signed listed out all these potential complications. It is just the nature of emergency medicine.

Good luck in recovery.

[Ultramaroon]

The dirty little secret is that surgery of any kind is WAY less precise than we would like to believe. More often than not, results are mixed. I lost my dad to a misdiagnosis. My mom was given an anticoagulant when she had her second brain aneurysm.


It wasn't pretty but you made it!