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I had surgery a week ago. I went to the pre-surgery appointment with the anesthesiologist, had a chest x-ray and EKG done, had all of my pre-surgery blood tests done as requested. I also saw my primary care doctor three days before the procedure (I wasn't sick, just needed prescription refills) and he listened to my lungs and said everything was fine.
I had general anesthesia (the gynecologist said I could have twilight sedation when we discussed the procedure in her office, but the anesthesiologist said it had to be general anesthesia). When they removed the breathing tube, a lot of thick yellow stuff came out of my lungs and I didn't start breathing again. I had to be hooked up to a ventilator for four or five hours. When I woke up, they said I had pneumonia and kept asking if I had been sick. I hadn't been sick. The only thing unusual at all was that my temperature had been 99.1 or 99.2 the last few times I'd checked it, not high enough to worry about. I had been exercising and hadn't had any shortness of breath, even riding my bike up hills.
I will have to have surgery again soon and I'm really worried...if all those tests didn't catch the pneumonia, how will they know if I'm okay to have surgery the next time?
People do not go from a perfectly clear X-ray and no pulmonary symptoms to a serious case of pneumonia just like that. Just what evidence did they present that you had pneumonia? Did they take a Chest X-ray after the event that showed it? Did they do some lab work that showed a rise in your white blood count? Did you spike a big temperature? When they finally took the tube out did they admit you to the hospital or just send you home? After you went home did you feel sick? Were you coughing up more of the stuff they said they saw in the tube? Were you short of breath? Or is just what you were told? Lets go back to the start.
If the SURGEON says the case can be done using sedation then the ANESTHESIOLOGIST should not be telling you different. That is not his place. If he felt you needed to be asleep for the surgery he should have discussed it with the surgeon first, before saying anything to you. The sad fact is, many anesthesiologists want to put everyone to sleep because they do not speak English very well. By any chance was this guy from some other country? If that is the case, with sedation he would have had to talk to you. By putting you to sleep he does not. Another sad fact is a lot of anesthesiologists like to put people to sleep because it is fast and easy and less work for them as they just stick a tube in, put you on a ventilator, sit back and read a magazine.
If the case was minor enough that it could be done with sedation then you did not need to be intubated for the procedure. The anesthesiologist could have used an LMA which does not go so deep or even a simple mask. He could have kept you breathing and not used a ventilator, in which case you would have been breathing during the entire case and you would not have had an issue at the end of the case.
To intubate you the anesthesiologist he had to give you a paralyzing agent and if you could not breath that might have been the problem. If he gave you rocuronium and the procedure was short and he did not reverse the drug properly, you could still have been paralyzed from the drug. If he took the tube out, found the goober and then you could not breath and then put you on a ventilator that means he had to put the tube back in and that is one of the big negative indicators of care watched for by Quality Assurance people. It means he took the tube out too soon the first time.
Sounds to me like the anesthesiologist was trying to make things easy for himself by telling you you needed general anesthesia. The whole story of you having pneumonia may be a big fat lie to cover up his screw up. The anesthesiologist may have told the surgeon the same thing rather than admit he screwed up. Get a lawyer and he can have an expert witness review the case. The real issue is this, had you had the local with sedation as said by the surgeon, none of this would have happened. And you can bet, you did get billed for the extra time in the OR and Recovery Room and for the ventilator and extra care.
Last edited by 212david51; 05-10-2014 at 06:34 PM..
I had to stay overnight in the hospital once they took the tube out. I was coughing up thick yellow junk and they prescribed antibiotics. I did feel sick when I went home, but most of that was that my throat was extremely sore, which I think was from the tube being put in the second time. I'm diabetic and usually if I have some sort of infection, my FBG is high, but it was not high before or after the surgery.
I had the procedure done at a large teaching hospital where I've had two other surgeries. It was a d&c and endometrial resection and the anesthesiologist said they would be tilting the table so that my head was lower than my hips and that was why I had to have the general anesthesia. She's supposed to be the best anesthesiologist they have...I asked around before I had the surgery and she was the one the nurses said they would request if they were having surgery. I told her my gynecologist said I didn't have to have general anesthesia for the procedure, but she said there was no other way.
They told my husband the reason the pneumonia didn't show on the x-ray is that I'm overweight. They told me that the x-rays they did while I was unconscious showed that my lungs were 3/4 collapsed.
I did get billed for the extra care and all that. My insurance covered most of it, I had to pay about $700.
If you feel they told you the truth then OK. If at all possible with your next surgery, see if you can get a spinal, epidural or regional block.
Thanks!
The next surgery will probably be a hysterectomy and I don't think they'll do that one while I'm awake. I've been working on losing weight so that if I do have to have it, hopefully there won't be the same problems.
If you get a vaginal hysterectomy or an open abdominal hysterectomy with a low incision, you can get it done with a spinal. They will sedate you so you do not know what is going on. They can even put some morphine in the spinal so you got 24 hours of good post operative pain relief. However if they do a laparoscopic procedure, then yes, you will have to be asleep. But if the surgeon is going to do a vaginal hyst, do NOT let the anesthesiologist tell you you HAVE to go to sleep. It can be done with a spinal. If the anesthesiologist says no, then ask for a different anesthesiologist. A vaginal hyst CAN be done with a spinal.
I don't know about the pneumonia, but I had a gynecological procedure that involved being on a tilt table during surgery, and I was told up front that I would have general anesthesia. Why your gynecologist did not say this, I'd want to know. Also, I'd want to request whatever medical records they can legally give you that documents your surgery. I don't buy that they missed the pneumonia. You would have been feeling bad before surgery. I suspect you might have inhaled some anesthesia that got into your lungs. I would be very interested to know if I was billed for a condition caused by the anesthesiologist's mistake.
You may feel it is not worthwhile to pursue. But if you feel strongly about knowing what really went on in the OR, then I'd recommend pursuing it.
I had told my gynecologist that I would rather not have general anesthesia and she said she was fine with that. She said sometimes they do the d&c in the office, but mine had to be done in the hospital because I had hemorrhaged and had to have two transfusions a couple of months before. I had the presurgery appointment with the anesthesiologist (not the same one who was there during the surgery) and told him I didn't want general anesthesia and he said that was fine and they would do a spinal or the twilight sedation. When I got to the hospital and they said I had to have the general anesthesia, I almost walked out and went home. But I was having the procedure to see if I had cancer so I felt like I had to get it done. I shouldn't have signed the consent form for the general anesthesia during the presurgery appointment, but he said they needed that signed in case a problem developed during the surgery and they needed to put me under to work on it.
I've lost 53lbs since the surgery so hopefully if I have to have more surgery there will be less risk of problems.
The idea that the anesthesiologist might have made a mistake is actually kind of comforting, in a weird way. I guess because then it's less likely to happen again.
Inhaled anesthesia (AKA gas anesthesia) is SUPPOSE to get in your lungs, that is how they work. I really do not see why they needed to put in an endotracheal tube unless you were really over weight, an LMA would have worked fine.
212david51, you sound like you are a medical professional. If you are an anesthesiologist, I have a question. I don't tolerate dental anesthesia (lidocaine, carbocaine), I get a very fast heartbeat, and panic attack like feeling. Also, excedrin makes my heart race, I guess from the caffeine, and it's absolutely horrible. I can't even drink coffee. So, among the drugs that they administer during the surgery, is there any drug that contains any agents that the above mentioned have?
Thank you.
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question about anesthesia
