|
| Categories: Experiences |
| Experiences | |
|
|
Can a diabetes be fatal in surgery?
|
| |
23 Feb 2006 7 a.m.
Pain in my coccyx. I noted a swelling there several days ago but I have really felt pain only for two days. With great difficulty I set off to the family doctor.
23 Feb 2006 9 a.m.
By now I know that it is not a swelling of the bone but a “monstrous abscess”.
I am supposed to report to an ambulant operating theatre - as soon as possible, because the operation will be “serious” in any case (quotation of the family doctor).
23 Feb 2006 11:30 a.m.
I am arriving at the ambulant operation theatre. After the examination, the doctor proposes to send me to the stationary surgical university hospital Rostock as the expected wound will be too serious and she will not be able to carry out postoperative care of my diabetes.
23 Feb 2006 2:30 p.m.
In spite of the direct referral from the doctor, I had to wait two and a half hours in the so-called “emergency room” of the surgical university hospital (from now on called SUH). Besides, I am nearly twenty hours with an empty stomach now (I had not eaten in the morning and since my visit at the family doctor’s I knew I had to remain fasting because of the operation.)
23 Feb 2006 3 p.m.
I am standing in station “G” of the SUH and am waiting for my admission. Although “diabetes type 1“is indicated on the record of admission I am asked about the medicaments I have to take and state Humalog. The nurse asks me:
”How much do you inject?” My answer is: “It depends, usually between 25 and 30 units of insulin a day.” Nurse: “I don’t understand, you have to inject it in the morning, at noon and in the evening. Every diabetic does that.” My answer: “No, type 1 diabetics usually have a variable therapy, me, wearing a pump, anyway.” Her answer: “I don’t understand [gets angry].
Are you kidding me? What am I supposed to write down?”
Such lacks of competence became obvious several times over the next three hours but I do not want to discuss them any further.
23 Feb 2006 5:45 p.m.
The anaesthetist comes along. Finally, someone who is competent (that is what I was thinking at that moment). Though recommended I do not want a spiral anaesthesia but a general anaesthesia. We are shortly talking about diabetes; at this point I state that my blood sugar level (BSL) is to be observed, especially since I am with an empty stomach for a whole day which is why my body reacts very sensitive to the basal insulin from my pump.
(A regulation is not possible because – with 6.8 units of basal insulin a day –
I am already at the lowest level for grown-up type 1 diabetics.)
23 Feb 2006 6:30 p.m.
The operation starts. First, a BSL is measured (6.8 mmol/l). I think that is the value I read in the record the next day.
23 Feb 2006 8:30 p.m.
In the SUH’s waking room I am slowly waking up. Immediately I feel that something is not right. All I am able to say is that I suspect a hypoglycaemia.
The nurse in the waking room needs much time to measure the level. But when she realizes that my BSL is only 1.1 mmol/l (19mg/dl), she immediately injects some glucose through the remaining port on the back of my hand.
I asked how such an extreme carelessness was possible but the nurse just replied:”You survived; what do you want more?!”
8 Mar 2006
I get a call from the university hospital. They understand my complaint but point out to me that after the operation- at 7 p.m. - a BSL was measured. It was 6.3 mmol/l. With that, all prescribed measures had been taken. Personally, I had read the record and not seen such measure. But obviously I was wrong, wasn’t I?! Furthermore, I am invited to a examination of the record and a personal conversation with the chief anaesthetist. Parallel to this I had checked by a lawyer whether it was possible to report the SUH to the police. Unfortunately, he had to tell me that it is only possible if a damage of health can be proved.
Because of the permanent danger of a hypoglycaemia during the diabetic therapy using an insulin pump (CSII) it does not count!
To sum up it can be said that I had been sent to hospital because of a routine operation and almost had been harmed seriously (hyperglycaemic coma). It was the lowest value in the story of my diabetes (since 1998) and hopefully it will remain the lowest. Legal proceedings against the university hospital have been taken and I will gladly keep you informed about it.
Mathias Widner
Webmaster of DiabetesIndex.de
Translated by Katrin Osterbart
|
Diabetes Information | Contact | Board
|
| Linked articles: |
|
|
|
|
| Comments (0) |
|
in Version 00.08.49