If John Murtha had been kept in the hospital a day or so longer,

[hedgehog]

would the infection have been caught sooner and might he be alive today?

I understand that people need to be discharged from the hospital ASAP because of costs and tha hazard of picking up a hospital infection. Most people sleep better at home, anyways. But I can't help but fell people re being discharged without an evaluation of their status. I've said it before, for some of my babies I could have picked the kid up and walked home from the delivery room, for others I could have used a week of rest. I got discharged 48 hours after admission regardless.

If we can't use judgment when discharging people, what about having a visiting nurse do follow-up for a day or so?

[vadawg]

1. do you really think he didnt get the best care available in the US regardless

shit sometimes happens even to the richest and best looked after people on the planet, i think if he needed to stay they would have kept him..

[hedgehog]

13. Thinking it over, I'm guessing there was no sign of fever when he was discharged.

At least, i hope not!

[stray cat]

2. No

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. probably. On the other hand

there are millions of nasties ready to infect anyone in a hospital bed. I got a cellulitis infection in my foot after surgery, and 7 months later, I STILL feel numbness, pain and discomfort.

The issue is not do we reform medical malpractice litigation, but how can we eliminate medical malpractice! Doctors are the worst of any profession at self-policing. 5% of those committing malpractice provide close to 80% of all litigation. (as an aside, you'd think that doctors would love to lower their own premiums, by policing those fuck ups. But no. They protect them, instead)

Insurance companies love selling med mal, because it is so profitable. Their protests are simply a way of increasing their own profits.

[lapfog_1]

4. No, they nicked his small intestine during his gall bladder surgery

The only way to have saved him would have been to "run the intestine" by opening him up and going through the entire small intestine (and large one) looking for small bleeds or the site of the infection by hand. A difficult surgery for someone that just had surgery and who may have been in poor health anyway. Even then, they might not have found the nick. Had they found it, more surgery to repair the damage AND a long course of antibiotics might have saved him.

The problem was with the original surgical team. It's unfortunate that they didn't take more care in the first place.

Untold number of people die every year from mistakes like this, even with the best insurance and reputable doctors.

[vegiegals]

7. I wonder if he had bowel leakage.?? Bad sign and not easy to

detect --can lead to a generalized abdominal infection-outside the bowel. Bad sign if this happened. I had not known his bowel was nicked.

[lapfog_1]

8. That is what the Congressman's staff are saying.

nicked small intestine. Very hard to find. And yes, a generalized infection would occur, and cannot be stopped with just antibiotics. You have to get in there and repair things or the infection will simply happen over and over again.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/09/murthas-death-caused-by-s_n_454861.html

[vegiegals]

17. Having worked

in nursing for many years, I do know it it bad when this happens. We generally see the patients only after a systematic infection has set in. And you are right, it involves surgery to open them up and clean out the mess and do the repairs. The problem is that many are unstable when they first come in and surgery is out of the question for a few days. Some make it and some do not. Rest in peace John.

Thanks for the link.

[lapfog_1]

18. No Problem...

Yes, it's just unfortunate for the Congressman.

BTW. Welcome to DU!

[hedgehog]

14. I didn't realize what the repair procedure would have been.

On the other hand, I'm kind of thinking that this wasn't really malpractice so much as a typical hazard. I don know that the more often a surgeon does a procedure, the better the results. The problem is, how do we get the surgeon to achieve that experience without learning on the first 20 or so patients!

[lapfog_1]

16. It's not typical for gall bladder surgery.

but then, that's why they make you sign all those forms indicating that you are aware of the risks before surgery.

Laproscopic surgery has the advantage of not making a large incision, but has the disadvantage of the surgeon having to watch where the surgical tip goes via camera. Usually it's the better option, but sometimes it's nice to be able to have room to move the small intestine and the liver out of the way (using retractors or similar instruments).

Every surgery has a small chance of a "bad outcome that results in death", this was just one of those times.

That said, his family probably still has a good malpractice case.

[Warpy]

5. Two days, yes. One day, maybe not

The bottom line in this one is how important his work was to him and that it caused him to miss some pretty important signals his body was sending.

Anyone who is discharged after surgery needs to his/her follow temperature for the first five days, at least. Along with that is any new pain, redness or swelling. A call to the doc costs nothing.

Blaming the victim is never my style, but I do wonder what might have happened if he'd gotten to the hospital as little as eight hours sooner.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. At his age, the ability to rebound from an infection is already comprised.

I say this as someone who went through something similar recently with one of my relatives who also died not from the primary medical problem but from a hospital-acquired infection. The medical team was on top of it immediately but to no avail.

[Warpy]

11. Sepsis is 50% fatal even with treatment

I looked that statistic up after I survived it last summer.

[spinbaby]

9. They just had this on the news

Said that if you have a fever after something like this, get to a doctor ASAP because by the third day it'll be too late.

[HipChick]

10. Some things just get missed...I was discharged after surgery and 48hrs later

developed a blood clot, I went to see a nurse as I knew something was off, she said Dr was not available, ...even she missed it. I demanded and insisted on seing the Dr...I was back in the hospital the next day..

[hedgehog]

12. I think it's situations like yours that show the benefit of having

a visiting nurse follow-up. I don't know how experienced the nurse you talked to was, but I suspect someone who routinely sees patients several days post-op would be able to spot trouble.

[librechik]

15. older folks getting surgery routinely are given broad-spectrum antibiotics in the post op

because infection is so common and such a threat at their age. It would surprise me if they made an exception in Murtha's case.