Posted on 07/20/2009 9:08:36 AM PDT by rawhide
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.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
That was my thought also.
Who studied anatomy on a dog, in a Quonset Hut deep in the Third World.
Something must have gotten miscommunicated somewhere along the line, but you’d think Fox would have some editors around who took introductory biology and remember the basics. The article says the surgeon “cut her husband’s aortic valve, which supplies blood to the heart”. The aortic valve is where blood *exits* the heart, and cutting the valve wouldn’t result in blood loss, though it would certainly result in major loss of blood *pressure* and in poorly oxygenated blood, as a lot of blood pumped out of the left ventricle to the aorta would flow backwards into the ventricle, preventing the ventricle from filling up with newly oxygenated blood arriving from the lungs through the left atrium. As the first branches off the aorta, just after the aortic valve, the coronary arteries (which are what supply the heart muscle with oxygenated blood) would be first in line to get blood.
However, to get to the aortic valve, the surgeon would have to have first cut through either the aorta or the left ventricle — if it was the aorta (which is more likely, since the ventricle would be awfully tough to cut through by accident), it’s a miracle the guy is still alive at all. This would be comparable to rupturing an aortic aneurysm, which is one of the surest routes to immediate death, even if you’re already in the hospital and in the process of being treated.
Yeah, doc, whatever you say. Sorry I threatened your income lines.
You mean Navy medical care??? heeheehee
The military member cannot sue the govt
And I think SHE might be able to sue. . .
We had a preemie (25 weeker) >22 years ago and he had bilateral inguinal hernias. The Navy insisted on their dr, with some pediatric experience, doing the surgery. His pediatrician insisted on a specialist because of his extreme prematurity and very small size. She won, thank God! He’s a healthy 22 yo sailor today. (yayyyyy)
Yep. It would have been nice to get a story that made sense.
Ever had a gallstone? Boy howdy, dropped me like a rock.
My gallbladder was hurting me badly, so, lapo for me and I was out that very day (Andrews AFB, MD). The docs were great, the nursing care post-op, not so much so. . .pushing us out the door as soon as they could.
Thankfully the Military has its own Tort Reform.
Perhaps you need to consider a “DO” as opposed to a “MD.”
I use a DO.
I agree that private sector hospitals have their fair share of mistakes. But my experience with US Army health care was rarely encouraging.
I have had doctors at military hospitals write the wrong prescription for me and one hospital was years behind in procedure and technology for colonoscopy.
But my main complaint was almost a complete disregard for patient privacy. Men and women standing around in those ridiculous split down the back dressing gowns in a public thoroughfare waiting for a colonoscopy, for instance. And while I was at Walter Reed waiting for a second opinion about a drug my military physician wanted to deny me, some poor guy who had been given a bowel cleansing solution had an accident right on the waiting room floor. He could’t get to the bathroom in time. The poor guy’s wife was mortified AND left to clean it up.
What the hell are you talking about?
i have been noticing a rather large occurrence of gallbladder operations. ages vary. it just seems to have popped up in the last couple of years.
i don’t remember very many from the 90s.
are there any toxins we could ingest that could be messing up our gallbladders?
May God bless and protect this young man from further harm.
We used to see a lot injuries and traumas in our ER. When the AF wanted their folks sent to Keesler Medical Center, they would send a transport vehicle. You would be astounded at the level of incompetence and ignorance among their ‘medical transport team’.
The VA is a worse kettle of fish.
You are the smartest poster on this thread...I had a couple of similar thoughts, but it has been a long time since my basic medical training in AF. One other minor miss in this news article - Travis is closer to San Francisco or Oakland, it is more than 90 miles from Sacremento.
I wonder if all the tort reform cheerleaders will hold this up as a shining example of progress?
My husband was 80, so if Obamacare had been in, goodbye bypasses. As it is, he drives, goes out to our little farm and bush hogs, takes care of business.
You are right about good and bad everywhere--you need to have choices and make the best selections you can.
Our dau was working stepdown critical care, waiting for a patient post op. For 45 min. after she should have been transferred, Post Op kept telling her they couldn't get the blood pressure up. Finally, our dau went down there, examined the patient and told them to get the surgeon stat--patent had internal bleeding. They barely saved the woman--scarey who you may draw, huh.
vaudine
Thanks for the ping. I didn’t see it. This is a catastrophic case and the information doesn’t add up.
First off, the aortic valve is in the heart, so I don’t see how an abdominal surgery could get that far off. It was probably his abdominal aorta, and that can happen, albeit extremely rare.
Second - David Grant Medical Center is a tertiary care USAF hospital. They do (or did when I was active duty) cardiac surgery. There should have been a qualified vascular surgeon available.
Third - why did a 20 year old male need his gallbladder removed? That’s usually a disease of middle age, or of females.
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