OOPS!

It's no secret, since I mention it repeatedly, that my experiences with the military medical establishment are a the primary reason I am very skeptical about further government involvement in health care.  I stumbled across this article (quoted below) and decided to provide it as an example of the reason for my distrust.  I thought about sticking this in the on-going thread on this topic, but chose not to muddy the waters of what is actually a fairly civil and informed discussion with what is essentially an anecdote about a doctor's mistake.  (I would like to point out that my distrust of the government running health care is based on more than a single incident; I saw quite a few mistakes, some at least as serious than this, while I was in.)

Article wrote: A Texas Airman stationed at an Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif. has lost both legs after surgeons reportedly botched a routine surgery to remove his gallbladder. Colton Read, 20, underwent laproscopic surgery last week at David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento. Laproscopic surgery is a minimally invasive procedure that involves making a tiny incision to minimize pain and speed recovery time. About an hour into the surgery, something went wrong. Read's wife Jessica told CBS11TV.com. "A nurse runs out, 'we need blood now' and she rounds the corner and my gut feelings is 'oh my God, is that my husband?'" Jessica Read said. Read's wife said an Air Force general surgeon mistakenly cut her husband's aortic valve, which supplies blood to the heart, but waited hours to transport Colton Read to a state hospital with a vascular surgeon. Read, who is still in intensive care, lost both legs as a result of the blood loss. Meanwhile, his gallbladder still has not been removed. Jessica Read said the doctor admitted his mistake, but under federal law the Reads cannot sue. The future of Colton Read's career is now uncertain, FOX 40 in Sacramento reported. Jessica Read told FOX 40 she is appalled that the Air Force is even considering medical retirement or medical discharge while Airman Read is incapable of making any type of decision. She said he is not 100 percent lucid and is still heavily medicated. The Air Force is conducting a review of the case using outside experts.

Please note the reference to having no legal recourse in the quoted article.

Actually, Stealth, the Aorta goes all the way down the abdomen, and splits off into both femoral arteries. There's something called an abdominal aortic aneurysm. If that burst and you're not ready for it, a person will bleed out in seconds.


The gallbladder is also in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen, not the lower, tucked beneath the liver, which is just below the diaphragm, which is just below the heart.



Also, with the man in the hospital, with a ready supply of blood for transfusion, him surviving an aortic cut is not that hard to believe, as it happens. Rare, but it happens.

Edited by Linus - 26 July 2009 at 1:03am

I remember a JAG episode where a similar thing happened, where a Naval doctor could not be sued for malpractice.




Tis gotta be true, it's endorsed by the DoD!

Linus wrote: Actually, Stealth, the Aorta goes all the way down the abdomen, and splits off into both femoral arteries. There's something called an abdominal aortic aneurysm. If that burst and you're not ready for it, a person will bleed out in seconds. The gallbladder is also in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen, not the lower, tucked beneath the liver, which is just below the diaphragm, which is just below the heart. Also, with the man in the hospital, with a ready supply of blood for transfusion, him surviving an aortic cut is not that hard to believe, as it happens. Rare, but it happens.

I'm well aware of the arteries, and aneurysms. I'm pre-med - I've taken my anatomy classes Linus.

The article states: Aortic Valve, and unless you know something I don't - there is only one such place for that, and it happens to be a semi-lunar valve located just above the left ventricle of the heart.


Also, you're right about the quads - it is on the opposing as I said - but upper is correct and my mistake - i meant to try to convey the gross sense of misdirection one would have to posses to be at the heart as the gallbladder is as you know, sub-cardiac, or deep to the heart - if you'd rather. Thanks for the brush up on the basics though - I appreciate it. Either way - when surgeons operate within millimeter specifications - the distance between the heart and gallbladder may as well be kilometers  apart from one another,


and a valve cut of that magnitude, ready supply or not, would be impressive, especially given the skill of the doctors discussed. And we won't even get started on the nerve damage that such and error would imply, and how the would impact the heart itself. Your talking Bundle of Hiss damage in order to hit the Aortic valve.


Edited by *Stealth* - 26 July 2009 at 1:31am

Yeah, I call shens too. There is no way that they would have hit any valve, and had they hit a large artery, there is no way they could have stopped the bleeding in time.

Also, why would they have to take his legs?

Its stuff like this that makes me glad I'm in the medical field so I dont get duped.


Edit: http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/gallbladderairman,0,7707031.story

Atleast it explains the amputation. But that doctor must really really blow!


Edited by Monk - 26 July 2009 at 1:31am

In all fairness - it is likely, given an aortic cut, that the legs would be amongst the first to go. - legs are amongst the least efficiently circulated areas of the body, due to distance from the heart, and gravity forces.

Which is why you ought to stop and walk around during longs drives, to "get the blood moving" :)



So I can at least see that part of the article as realistic.  

Well in the other article it sights removing the legs to stop the risk on infection.

Monk wrote: Well in the other article it sights removing the legs to stop the risk on infection.

Linus touched on the details I didn't want to.


I thought "legs would be amongst the first to go' would suffice.

Linus wrote: Can you believe people trust me with drugs, needles, and their lives?