Doctors suck

I should not be writing, I should be sleeping right now. But if you understood what "people" are capable of, you would understand my need to write. Hospital malice. I and my family have seen it up close and personal. Pam went to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence twice and both were especially ugly. But hell, we have tried every hospital in New England or so it seems and Goldenberg just keeps showing up! It is hard to remember all of the details anymore, but I will try.

So in May, 2013 Pam got another abscess on her leg. It seems to be a flesh eating bacteria introduced into her leg by some means. She went to Charleton Hospital in Fall River first and they gave her antibiotics by IV for a week. This one doctor that seemed determined to keep Pam there was off and another doctor released Pam to go home. Somehow I do not think the doctor who released Pam was the idiot he was painted out to be... I think he was trying to do right by Pam in a field where most seemed willing to sacrifice Pam's well-being for the desires of the medical mafioso. Pam's discharge orders indicated no followup and nothing was done for the wound that opened up the same day she was released. Did the orders he left somehow get lost? I had treated Pam's wounds before but they did not give her a prescription for wound packing tape or set her up with a visiting nurse. I did what I could with the old supplies, the unopened ones, and it did better for a few days. After that the edges of the wound got mushy and I was afraid to let it go. So we took Pam to St Anne's Hospital instead of back to Charleton this time. St Anne's Hospital, however, did not feel equipped to deal with such a wound and transferred her by ambulance to RI Hospital.

The sad truth is that I liked the surgeon they consulted on Pam's case in the ER at the Rhode Island Hospital. His name was (is?) Dr David Harrington. Well, I liked him at the time. Harrington said they could do one of two approaches, give her more antibiotics or cut around the wound and clean it out. There was a second spot that was also developing an abscess, you could see the red skin that was hot to the touch like the first area. They were going to check that one while they was in there. So here we were expecting two quarter size incisions but that was not what we (rather Pam) got. But first, there is more story to cover before we get to that.

The anesthesiologist that day was Dr Burt. While the surgeon, Harrington, acted like what they were going to do was nothing, the anesthesiologist painted an entirely different picture - only he painted it AFTER they had given Pam the anesthesia and she had signed the consent form. I mean seriously!!! We could have just gone with the antibiotics at least before something so drastic!!! So first off, Dr Burt kept telling me to "kiss Pam goodbye"! That pissed me off and I refused to do so. Not only did his words upset me, they upset Sara my other daughter!! It sounded like they were preparing us for the possibility of death! Later the nurse assured me Burt said that to all of the patients. Like I told her, he should NEVER say that to anyone again!! What barbaric bedside manners!!!

I found it odd how commanding the anesthesiologist was as well. It seemed like he was more in charge than the surgeon. In my limited experience, anesthesiologists were background players. This anesthesiologist practically demanded that I call the doctor up at Charleton Hospital that had released Pam and let him know what a mistake he had made. I did not. At least in my mind, that doctor had tried to do right by Pam by not forcing her to stay there longer than she needed to. (Admittedly that did not work out very well but I do applaud people who valiantly try to do the right thing.) Burt also warned me that Pam was going to look awful when she came out of surgery. And she did. Pam had a breathing machine and later they hooked her up to a dialysis machine. They had flooded her body with fluids and the dialysis was needed to remove the fluids they flooded her with. Pam also developed these huge bubbles on her shins while she was in the hospital and they said it was fluid buildup at an intracellular level from the dialysis. (The next year the kidney doctors from the same hospital said the wounds were from an infection, not the dialysis but that is not what the original group claimed.) Suffice it to say, it took Pam over six months of treatment from the wound clinic and she still has the horrendous scars on her shins two years later. It is going to take surgery to fix them.... and hopefully not one of these surgeons!!!

Ok, so back to the original problem... the abscesses on Pam's thigh. When she came out of surgery, the quarter size wound was anything but the size of a quarter. They cut out two channels, one on each side of her thigh, probably six inches long by one and a half inches wide and at least an inch deep. They used wound vacuums to help it close. Pam had doctors led by Harrington's hand picked team coming in daily and you would not believe the scars they allowed to form. They left the stitches in too long and it looks like railroad tracks on her legs. One of the stitches in particular had to be dug out of her skin where it had gotten embedded. Photos of Pam's wound can be found from the link at the bottom of this page, but please know that some f the pictures are very graphic and scary and not for the feint of heart. I took the picture of Pam's leg opened up while they packed it myself and I thought I could handle it... but that was so much more than I was prepared for. That night I sobbed like a baby remembering what I had seen.

There were at least three occasions that the physical therapists or the occupational therapists almost dropped Pam when they tried to move her from the bed to the chair. She had no leg muscles and these people apparently could not remember something so basic as to lock the wheels on the chair they were trying to transfer her to!! Pam's muscles were so toasted that they had to use the Hoya lift to move her and after the almost-falls, she would be terrified to even attempt the chair! That is not how you build confidence!

I was there with Pam every step of the way. She was in the hospital for a month before they sent her to physical rehab so that she could walk again. Her legs had gotten weak from the extended hospital stay. Also, I do not know at what level the muscles are located but I would not be the teeniest tiniest bit surprised if they took out some muscle during the surgery. In total it took Pam three months before she finally went home after the RI hospital stay and she still had another three plus months of doctor appointments at the Wound Clinic where they worked on the infection/dialysis wounds. The source of those problems depends on whose version you believe.

And by the way, the next time Pam went to Rhode Island Hospital, they had signs everywhere saying that photos were not allowed!!

GALLERY OF IMAGES