My son fell from a 2nd story roof the night of Feb.11th (Sat.) and was taken to the closest Hospital, Elkhart General, with Tibia, Fibula and Pylon fractures of the left leg.
He had surgery the next morning with one of the Orthopedic & Sports medicine doctors in Elkhart/Goshen, and then sent home with a Fixator in his leg that looked crooked (I'm an RN), and still actively bleeding on Sunday, with minimal dressing supplies. The discharge nurse said to not touch the dressings that covered the Fixator insertion sites; only change the absorption sponges and wraps, because they surgeon prefers to remove these himself and clean the sites on the first post-op visit, the following week. Monday I purchased nearly $125.00 worth of bandages, wraps, and one pack of disposable bed pads to protect bedding. The drainage slowed, but had not stopped. The leg was very swollen despite ice packs and elevation of it above his heart.
It was not until Tuesday evening, when I requested a change of Surgeons to the Trauma team at Memorial Hospital, this doctor phoned me back to "discuss the request" that I was told my son needed another surgery--to actually repair the fractures. The hospital hadn't mentioned this. It was not on the surgeon's discharge instructions, either. However, the instructions for what to do in case of a heart attack, or stroke was.
OSMC has rude, condescending office staff who refused to release him to Memorial'sTrauma team (where he should have been sent from Elkhart General's Emergency Department after seeing "the worst break I've ever seen,"), and knowing the OSMD surgeon assigned him specialized in shoulder and wrist, because the "leg specialist would not be available" to do the surgery.
Thursday, his leg continued to remain grossly swollen despite leg elevation and ice packs. While replacing the outer dressings on the still oozing sites the gauze wrapped had loosened enough to see a bit of purple. Loosening the gauze a bit I saw he had a large bruise on his calf; one of the symptoms for a deep vein thrombosis (blood clot), and his foot was "still numb" from the surgery, a potential second symptom.
I drove him to Memorial Hospital's Emergency Department, explain the chain of events to their ER staff. We left with instruction to phone the Trauma Dept. when it opened to get in ASAP--it was now 2 a.m., following the exams, X-rays, ultrasounds and assurance they would squeeze him in, but no blood clot. Once the Trauma Surgeon saw him his care was transferred over immediately. The Fixator was not properly done, thus requiring a second surgery to correct it on Mar 03. The new Trauma Surgeon suspected (and proven right) the Fixator was preventing drainage of the swelling. Once he corrected the placement and added on needed sections to it, the swelling subsided rapidly. Time was critical with this kind of break. The bone repair could not be done until the swelling subsided. And the longer the leg remained swollen, the few options the Trauma surgeon had when he repaired the fractions because the body starts growing new bone. There were bone fragments needing to be removed from the Pylon splintering and rods and screws placed to repair these fractures. This finally occurred March 13.
During the Mar 03 surgery (to correct the Fixator) routine swabs were done on the Fixator insertion sites and sent off for cultures.
The swelling began subsiding quickly once the Fixator was done properly. When he returned for the 3rd (and final surgery) the heel culture showed a MRSA infection in the heel. The Operating Room, and personnel now had to alter how surgery was done (more precautions in disposal of bandages, instruments, etc.), as on would for a highly infectious, quarantined patient. The surgery not took 5 1/2 hours instead of 3 hours, and my son had a vacuum pump inserted at the heel to contain drainage, and he began strong IV antibiotics. Due to this office my son needed 3 surgeries, rather than two, he contracted MRSA during the first surgery (it was a closed fracture & not from the fall), he required an Infection Control doctor to prescriber the three IV antibiotics and one by mouth, not to mention the anticoagulant (blood thinner) due to long term bedrest. Last week, the MRSA infection was finally gone, the heel closed off, and the vacuum and PICC line (for IV meds) discontinued and no sign of infection in his weekly blood tests. And his abnormal liver tests that had been a worry just before that went back to normal. Because of this office, my son's recovery took much, much longer (and so far he has been off work three months because of the life-threatening MRSA infection, he has additional hospital charges (an extra surgery and home care costs to follow his progress, and he is not to bear weight on that leg until May 23, when they anticipate he will be able to begin physical therapy to regain strength from bedrest, and range of motion in the left leg.
The extra expense, pain, and risks my read more
