A bad Accident

[firefighterchic]

I was hanging a picture and I know we all do this, well not all, I was using a picture screw and I was using my mouth as a third hand. At the time I was also chewing gum and as you can guess I swallowed the screw on accident. I went directly to the emergency room where I waited and waited and waited. Finally I got to the back and there were no rooms so I was stuck in the hall. I waited and waited and 5 hours pass and they finally send me to x-ray every time I moved it hurt and they hadn't given me anything for the pain. Well the x-ray confirmed that I swallowed it, the ER doc said that they probably would not have to do surgery because he thought it would pass. So I wait and wait in pain and 3 hours later the surgery team comes to see me and I was finally taken out of the hall into a room. I was expecting them to say well we think it will pass like the ER doc had said. But totally opposite the come in and say they have to open me up and get this thing out. I got scared and was very very very hesitant, I didn't want to but the Surgeon says if we don't do this you are going to die. So what was I suppose to say then? No? Well they rushed me to the waiting for surgery and my significant other wasn't there yet and I told them we had to wait they refused so I started screaming saying I was going anywhere until her got there! My other friend yelled out she isn't going you can wait five minutes, he is on the elevator and the doctors still tried to take me. Well they rush me in and put me to sleep, I woke up and thought I was dying the pain was so bad and when I was coherent enough I looked at my belly and I had an incision from my breast bone all the way to my belly button. and had a drainage tube and a central line in my neck, catheter in my bladder and a NG tube. They came and told my friend and my sig other that they had to find it and forced it through my intestines and back into my stomach and the cut my stomach open to get it out. What I dont understand is if they got it back in my stomach why wouldn't they have used a scope to go and get it out instead of cutting my stomach open? Afterwards during my stay I was treated very very very poorly they wouldn't treat my pain and I couldn't eat or drink and went days without urinating. They wouldn't even hook me back up to fluids, while I was in I kept asking if they can get and x-ray to check out if anything was going on because the 8 days I was in there I maybe urinated 5 times and couldn't pass gas or have a bowel movement. I was discharged in this condition and was sent home with no kind of pain control. Now at home I am not passing gas, no bowel movements, nausea and vomiting and I haven't passed urine in 3 days. I am so nauseated that I can barely swallow my own spit. I have lost 10 pounds since this went down. I try to eat and I just vomit on top of that I am vomiting blood. I tried to make a follow up appointment and the clinic refused because they don't take my insurance? So who do I turn to now? No one seems to care. I am in excruciating pain. I think that the were cut happy and just wanted someone to cut open, if they would have treat it sooner they could have done a scope to get it out. Now I am alone and other doctors will have nothing to do with me because they didn't do my surgery. Any Advice?

[Fuzzz]

Here is an article that shows how complex a problem you brought them.  It says the medical professionals have to use their experience to decide how to proceed when it's a sharp object.  At the same time they are juggling all the other emergencies that arrived during the same time period.  These days every hospital is understaffed and trying to cope with huge patient loads.  

http://www.rcsed.ac.uk/journal/vol43_2/4320048.htm

As far as the clinic followup, I've worked in offices and training can be horrible, so the person answering the phone may get the answers wrong at times.  If you have calmly told the person that you need to schedule your followup visit after emergency surgery by Dr. Smith (you REALLY NEED TO KNOW THE MDs NAME WHO TREATED YOU TO GET ON THE SCHEDULE EASILY - sad but true),  and the person argues with you, then they are misinformed.  Calmly ask to leave a message with your surgeon, Dr. Smith.  Leave the message that you are having complications after your emergency surgery by him on this date, and you need to see him immediately, and how can this be accomplished?  You will probably get a call back from the nurse telling you when to come in or what to do.  Hopefully she will give a flip about the way the staff hasn't been trained properly and give them instructions, but it's really the office manager's job, and most of them are idiots in my experience.  The surgeons have little idea of how poorly training is done, just that turnover is high and the OM blames the employees.  

[firefighterchic]

I don't think you are understanding me, if they would have treated it like a emergency instead of making me wait over 8 hours with this in my abdomen they could snagged it with a scope. You don't even know the hell they put me through. People swallows things all the time and are usually extracted by endoscope not through an incision that big. They made me wait wait and wait....why didn't they react sooner? and why didn't they get a cat scan? Or other x-rays? So don't tell me I had a tantrum. I was calm when I called the clinic and explained to them that I had my surgery at the hospital, but they refused to see me because their hospital does not take my insurance. And I did not yell when I called them, I explained it too them well and they still refuse. Trust me if you were there you would know what I am talking about.

[Fuzzz]

It sounds like they gave it about 8 hours to pass on its own and it did not.  

The first thing they would have done is make the long skin incision you can see and then start manually checking your bowel for the hard object.  They were trying to find a sharp metal object without puncturing your bowel.  So they found it and manually pushed it up to your stomach so they could make an incision in the organ of your stomach (not your skin because they are already inside your abdominal cavity).  

Quite honestly it sounds like they did what they were supposed to do to save your life, adn you put up a terrible tantrum.  

Pain meds would have further slowed down your digestive tract, so maybe that's why they couldn't give you any.  All the manipulation of your intestines that they were forced to do to find the screw will unfortunately cause ileus, which is why you could not pass gas or stool.  I do not think the clinic understands that one of their surgeons did your surgery; they cannot refuse you follow up treatment.  Having worked in medical offices, I can tell you that if you cannot explain things clearly and you are yelling, it can make it very hard to sort out what's what.  Call the clinic when you are calm and explain that you need a postop visit and you are having what you believe are life-threatening complications.  If they won't listen, you will have to go back to the ER adn explain you were refused care in the clinic and your symptoms seem to be life-threatening.  But I think the surgery was necessary and you should not accuse the doctors of being knife happy.  You are alienating the only people who can help you.