My three year old son needed dental work. His dentist uses Apex at her office for general anesthesia services (which are required at my son's age). Leading up to the procedure Apex was good with communication, paperwork and confirmation.
We arrived early morning on a Wednesday to have the procedure. We were given instructions on holding and comforting our son as he was being put under. Once he was asleep everything seemed to go smoothly and was over in a couple of hours. We were asked to come back to where he was waking up. I was told my son had just been given a narcotic which I found a bit odd since nothing had been mentioned in the waiting room.
That day my son was of course groggy and tired. Later that night, 12 hours after surgery he had fallen asleep. He woke gasping and coughing and couldn't calm down like a panic attack or asthma, nothing like I have seen before. After quite some time we decided to call 911. My son calmed down and the paramedics said that his vitals all looked good, so we did not end up going to the ER. Strange waking from sleep, anxiety and pain continued for about 72 hours after the procedure.
Drug sensitivity/allergies/reactions can happen, that I understand. However there is a much bigger reason you should never use Apex: should you have an emergency after general anesthesia they will be completely useless to you. After speaking to Apex's on-call anesthesiologist, he told me he would call me in the morning to figure out what might have gone wrong and what narcotic was administered. He didn't have access to our records.
I never received a call back from anyone with a medical background that next day (Thursday). What I did receive was a phone call from a rather unprofessional office employee at Apex who called to ask "how is your son doing?" I told the woman my son's experience, and that I was very anxious over 24 hours later to find out what narcotic had been administered. She said that nobody in the office had received the logs yet, but that they would get back to us as soon as possible to discuss. It is now midnight on Sunday. Nobody ever called us after that 911 incident to discuss what part the drugs may have played or what drug was administered.
These are young children we are talking about undergoing general anesthesia, and there is zero protocol or system for actual problems occurring after you leave the anesthesiologist. I'm both disturbed and concerned about this company's negligence and incompetence. BEWARE!!!!! read more