TFM® wrote:
>
>
> "Pennyaline" > wrote in message
> ...
>> TFM® wrote:
>>> ...Feeling much better since she was readmitted to TGH and the
>>> doctors undid what the nurses so dangerously bungled last time.
>>>
>>
>> I am glad that she's feeling better and will soon be back to her old
>> self! But, what did I miss? What did the nurses so dangerously bungle?
>
> They damaged her veins to the point they had to do a PICC
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periphe...ntral_catheter
>

Thanks. I know what PICC lines are.



> The first time she was in TGH, I saw this procedure done. A lot of
> work, but the nurse pulled it off without a hitch and Christy barely
> flinched.
>
> Then she was released and sent home a few days after that.
> Barely home for a week, her PCP (primary care physician) called and said
> it was urgent that she go to the ER at TGH and be admitted.
> After she was admitted they attempted to do another PICC. I was not
> there to witness the procedure this time. Evidently they used a small
> monkey on crack. Her arm swelled up to almost the size of her leg and
> became infected.
>

Sounds like she developed a thrombophlebitis, a common problem with
indwelling venous access. Before you blame the entire nursing staff,
remember that PICCs nothing like ordinary IVs and nurses have to be
certified to place them. Not just anybody in the nursing staff could
have inserted it, so don't condemn the whole group for it. "What the
nurses so dangerously bungled" is not the case at all.



> Realizing they had ****ed something up, they had that one pulled and
> went straight into the carotid artery (I think).

It's more likely they did a subclavian, but they might have done a
jugular. The carotid is an artery. They'll avoid placing IV access there
at all costs.



> When the arm situation got worse the next day, they pulled that jackass
> maneuver of discharging her at night and sending her home in a cab.

I hate hospitals. You don't know how passionately I hate hospitals,
expressly because they pull stunts like that one.



> (Here's where people start asking, "Why didn't you go pick her up?")

No problem here. I know intimately how difficult driving at night is.



> Back to Christy...
> When she got home I took one look at her and said, "What the Hell did
> they send you home for?"
> She had no idea. When the sun came up the next morning I had her back
> in the ER at a local hospital.

You should have called 911 and had her transported right back to the
hospital that discharged her. Oooooo, but they hate it from a liability
management standpoint when that happens and they would have moved heaven
and earth to do damage control. You would have had them wrapped around
your finger.



> They kept her there all day doing X-rays and other tests. Then they
> sent her back to TGH where they performed the surgery that saved her
> from impending amputation.
>
> Yes, there is a lawsuit in there somewhere. Any attorneys here?
>
> So that's where we are.

Other than the precipitous nighttime discharge and return to the
hospital the next morning, you probably don't have a case for a lawsuit.
Before the PICC insertion, one of you signed informed consent in which
the risks and benefits of the procedure were explained. The increased
chance of phlebitis, thrombus formation, embolus, infection and
peripheral circulatory compromise were very likely delineated there, as
well as the dangers to the entire pulmocardiovascular system.

But, she's better now. With luck, she'll never set foot into one of
those places again.