Murtha's gallbladder procedure rarely deadly

[brentspeak]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/09/murtha.gallbladder.surgery/

Murtha's gallbladder procedure rarely deadly

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
February 9, 2010 5:49 p.m. EST

CNN) -- Taking out a patient's gallbladder is routine. At least 500,000 such surgeries are done each year in the United States. It takes an hour or two, and the patient can go home that day or the next.

But in rare cases, the surgery can be deadly. Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania recently died after complications from the procedure after doctors "hit his intestines" during surgery, a source close to the late congressman told CNN.

Murtha underwent the scheduled laparoscopic surgery at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on January 28, to remove his gallbladder, and was discharged. Three days later, he was admitted to Virginia Hospital Center's Intensive Care Unit because of major complications from surgery, the hospital said in a statement. He died there Monday at age 77.

The National Naval Medical Center declined to reveal additional details on Murtha's death.

[buff2]

1. Maybe his doctors were teabaggers?

Sounds fishy to me.:tinfoilhat: :shrug:

[HipChick]

2. +100

[napi21]

3. It's not fishy. Google Gallblader surgery complications & you'll

see many articles that say the same thing. As soon as I heard he was in intensive care I did that Google and I've been suspicious ever since.

[avaistheone1]

4. Precautions should have been taken

not to nick the bowel. That should have been a given for the surgeon in this kind of operation. jmo

[Bitwit1234]

8. I posted about the fact that I had the operation in 1990.

My operation was only the fifth the doctor had done. He was still learning and everything went perfect. They make three incisions in your stomach. One thru the belly button where they extract the gall bladder. The other two are for the insertion of the instruments. I have two scars that are so light you have to look very very carefully to see them. I think the doctor had to be careless or too "cocky" because it was now routine.

[myrna minx]

6. Andy Warhol died from complications from gall bladder surgery. n/t

[amborin]

15. you beat me to it; but at that time, ny hospital/cornell was not very

well regarded

many problems....

[WhackedOutBassist]

9. I had gall my Gall Bladder Surgically removed

on Jan 5 2010. Because of the sheer size of it they could not extract it with a laprascope and conventional surgery was performed. The procedure took about 4.5 hours according to my wife. There is a host of issues related to this surgery I am still dealng with, including multiple ERCPs ( i think thats the following up endoscopic procedure) and the placement of a stent on my bile duct, which in 6 weeks must be surgically removed. I was hospitalized for 8 days.
All and all a messy affair to say the least.

[Ex Lurker]

5. there's no such thing as a routine surgery

I don't understand why people take going under the knife so casually.

[Howler]

11. Ex Lurker

The pain I felt from my gall bladder When it gave up on me was Far worse then the pain from the surgery. I was relieved from the minute I woke up after surgery. Tiny scars and no more pain worked for me.LOL! Hope you never ever have to experience a gall bladder attack it REALLY REALLY HURTS.

[Ex Lurker]

17. oh, I completely understand

sometimes surgery is the only solution for what ails you. But it's never without risk.

[Howler]

19. True.

But in my case it was a no brainer.I suffered for two years before we figured out it was gall bladder that was causing an incredible amount of pain.It was almost too late by the time the last attack put me in the hospital.Truly I was ready to do a jig when I woke up from the operation and that pain was gone. While I have never had the physical pain of any other body organ going out I can tell ya the gall bladder pain was absolutely apocalyptic to me. LOL!!!!!

[Bluerthanblue]

12. word up-

I think people want to believe that it was intentional or carelessness rather than 'fate' because the knowledge that anyone of us might be dead within minutes, from something that 'most' people don't die from is just too frickin scary.

I lost my father to complications as a result of surgery similar to this- he was healthy, active, and "should not have died". But, he did- a prolonged, painful, terrible death.

The likelihood of Mr.Murtha dying without choosing surgery to remove his inflamed gall bladder were probably higher than the risk of surgery, but in this case, the odds were against him.

It's sad,'unfair', and a loss for his family and our society, but ... that IS life. We all will join him someday, no matter how careful we are, or how hard we try to avoid it.

:hi:

[brentspeak]

13. Er, what does "fate" have to do with Murtha's operation?

?

[Bluerthanblue]

14. 'fate' is exactly what happened to John Murtha-

he died- that is EVERYONES eventual 'fate'. He died as a result of infection, as a result of surgery, as a result of gall bladder disease, as a result of ____ (alcohol?-drug side effects?-heredity?-age?) as a result of ?.... having been born.

It's interesting to follow the chain back to the beginning, not just one or two steps. If Mr. Murtha had NOT had surgery for the gall bladder problems he was having it's not UNLIKELY that he would have died as a result of infection/inflammation of his gall bladder.

You want medicine to be 100% perfect- (so do I) but reality is, it never will be. Cases of negligence DO happen, (I don't deny that) but the 'risks' of surgery are very REAL and also sadly very dear, in this case, they didn't fall in favor of the patient.

People in the medical profession fight death on a daily basis. They don't like outcomes like this, but despite the "odds" being in favor of success, people DO die as a result of what is usually 'life-saving' procedures.

I don't have a better word for the reality that life is fragile, and often completely 'unfair'- I use the word fate- few things are as inevitable as our own mortality. Sometimes it comes in ways that seem wrong, but that is only if we think we control far more of life than we do.

:hi:

[Rick Myers]

7. This is just a simple mistake, but...

there should always be procedures in place to check for mistakes...

[Maru Kitteh]

10. There are.

[amborin]

16. one scary fact: elderly can run a fever, yet still have a "low" themometer reading

first sign of infection is usually fever....but elderly often run low body temps, and may be spiking a fever, yet display a "normal" temp reading on a themometer....

also...ear themom is most reliable

[Ex Lurker]

18. not just the elderly

I can be deathly ill and never show a temp above 99,