Posted on 10/12/2002 4:17:28 PM PDT by Cobra64
Anywhere between 65% and 50%. Not good Russian Roulette odds.
As a mechanical engineer I always felt that lawyers were scum of the earth. The lawyers in my case were the only ones who behaved ethically
FYI--Prilosec is not the "purple pill" so you're insecurities and suggestions with regards to it were misguided. Nexium in the "purple pill" which you were looking to point blame on, but beings it isn't the prescribed medication your wife was taking, you have misguided your anger. Do your research before you cause an uproar amongst people who really desire to find the true casue of their medical problems.
Oh...and I don't recall peanuts being a part of the "roughage" category. I would recommend keeping him away from lettuce instead.
"Physician incompetence kills more people than guns"
You got that right. In many "civilized countries" the medical and pharmaceutical industries take a terrible toll. The US and Australia had something like 1 in 9 or 1 in 11 of all deaths due directly to the actions of a doctor, nurse, pharmacist or related fields. That is many times the deaths due to guns, cars, telemarketers combined.
Had a friend that did lose her life while having a colonoscopy.
Thousands and thousands of these procedures go without a hitch, but I suppose any medical procedure can occasionally go awry. Good luck to you.
Your opinion might be valuable here.
There is a major improvement in this area -- It used to be they gave you a gallon of this cr*p to drink the day before called "Go Lightly". But as those of you who have used it know, it tastes awful (and it isn't easy drinking a gallon of something awful), and you don't go lightly.
Last week, when I had my last colonoscopy, gastrodoc had me buy two very small bottles of "Fleet Phospho-Soda". They are no more than about 2 ounces each. You buy them at the pharmacy, but I couldn't find, so asked, and the pharmacist keeps it in the back, but its OTC. The stuff doesn't taste great, but it's such a small amount that it's easy to take. You take one tiny bottle at 2 pm the afternoon before the procedure, and the second tiny bottle at about 3 am the morning of the procedure. It does clean you out, but it's much less hassle than that gallon of 'Go Lightly' stuff.
If your doc isn't hip to the newer stuff, tell him you prefer to use the Fleet Phospho-Soda. You'll be glad you did.
While I do empathize with your wife's predicament, I can't see how you would blame the manufacturers of Prilosec for what happened to her. Blame the doctor, yes, for not accurately pursuing all possible etiologies of epigastric discomfort on the differential diagnosis...but it's well known by physicians that proton-pump inhibitors may mask symptoms of conditions that are not GERD, which comprises a further reason that your wife's doctor should have taken a more skeptical eye toward her symptoms. But it's not the fault of the manufacturer that their drug was poorly utilized by the physician.
Prilosec (and it's younger and more over-achieving brother, Nexium) are very good drugs for patients that do indeed have GERD (by preventing esophagitis and possible metaplasia of the esophagus which may eventually lead to cancer). But while the drug is heavily promoted, it is not promoted for treatment of gallbladder disease since it is of course not indicated for such. Again, the manufacturer is not to blame for poor judgement on the part of the physician.
Could you perhaps provide some links to studies supporting such a claim?
It sounds like he perforated your colon with the "scope." This is a very real, but extremely rare "complication." Before my first, my GI told me that it was possible, but quite doubtful. It's just that any surgical procedure carries risks.
I have no idea if this is "real" malpractice, but you need to see a lawyer
Mark
Perforation is actually very unlikely in this case. He would have experienced severe infection instead of bleeding. There is a post explaining such much better further up in the thread by a poster with more years of medical experience than I, so I'll defer to his explanation of the mechanics of a perforated colon.
My sister in law went in for a hernia op and ended up with a perforated bowel. It took the idiots 3 days to figure out where the bleeding was coming from. She's full of infection; we still don't know if she will make it.
Well, it's been 3 1/2 years and pantaya just now joined and bumped the thread. How'd things work out?
Do your research before you go in there, and have them fix it. Your health is more important than hurt feelings. (and document everything!)
Fleet Phospho Soda IS the prep I had. Yuk. It tastes so nasty it's a good thing you have to drink only a couple ounces. The problem I had was that my procedure wasn;t until mid-afternoon and the elimination part had me SO dehydrated I had a splitting headache and they couldn't get an IV started.
Re the taste, the Phospho Soda comes in unflavored as well as flavored -- I got "ginger lemon" I think it was. It wasn't tasty but I didn't have a problem downing it, and then I chased it with a couple of ounces of ginger ale.
Post-script to my own post #89 -- I forgot to mention: Two nights before the procedure at bedtime, I took two tiny Ducolax (sp?) laxative tabs as instructed (provided by the doc's office). That got the elimination process started, then next afternoon, the first Phospho-Soda, and so on ...
Thanks for the ping.
I have no idea whether he suffered malpractice or whether it was just a bad result. The only person who can make that determination is a physician who is a specialist in the same field.
He needs a second opinion.
Also, he needs to find out whether he has any permanent injury or whether he has fully recovered.
If he's fully recovered it's probably not worth bringing a case against the doctor, but that depends a lot on where he lives.
So, first thing, I would say, is see another doctor and see what that doctor has to say.
Also, keep a diary, write down everything while it's still fresh in your mind.
And keep all receipts.
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