Life is full of choices, sometimes we make the right choice and sometimes we make the wrong choice...the point is that WE make the choice. Well I was told I didn't have a choice, and trusting doctors the way I do, I believed him...but I did have a choice, he just didn't give it to me.
12/17/2017 - I went to St. Catherine's Hospital in Smithtown due to a slight pain in my chest and scheduled for a Cardiac Catheterization on 12/18/2017.
12/18/2017 - During the Catheterization, Dr. Michael Happes determined that I had multiple blockages in my arteries. At the end of the procedure he informed me that I needed quintuple bypass surgery, telling me that I "CAN'T be stented" because my arteries were too narrow. I was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital, admitted and scheduled for the quintuple bypass surgery on Wednesday 12/20/2017, but it wound up being a triple bypass surgery.
1/20/2018 - I had pain in my right leg and I went to St. Catherine's Hospital's ER. I had a sonogram of the leg and was admitted to the hospital. Dr. David Gidseg, Suffolk Heart Group, was my treating physician. Dr. Gidseg informed me that I needed surgery on my right leg due to a blockage/blockages in my arteries. Arrangements were made for me to be transported to Good Samaritan Hospital to have the surgery done.
Meanwhile Dr. Morad Awadallah, Vascular Surgeon at St. Catherine's, visited me and just a few moments after he arrived, Dr. Marliena Mirica joined him (I'd never met Dr. Awadallah, but I'd known Dr. Mirica for over 15 years so I trusted her and respected her opinion). Dr. Awadallah told me that if I have the surgery on my right leg, that I could literally die, the reason being that it was just 1 month since the open heart surgery and I wasn't finished healing and my body wouldn't be able to handle the leg surgery. He told me that the problem with my leg has been going on for years, that it didn't just happen and it wasn't an emergency. Dr. Mirica even went so far as to draw me a picture of what "collaterals" are and how they work and that I already have them, that they've been there for years. I asked Dr. Mirica what she thought of all that Dr. Awadallah told me and she said she "agrees with him 100%". I cancelled the transport to Good Samaritan and the leg surgery.
2/24/2018 - I hadn't been feeling well for about 11 days and finally told my husband, so he took me to St. Catherine's ER. I was admitted and scheduled for another Cardiac Catheterization by Dr. Happes. He determined that all 3 bypasses failed (1 was totally gone, 1 was "hanging on like a string" and 1 was "pinched"). So NOW I was scheduled to have stents put in, being transported yet again to Good Samaritan Hospital because I was a "risky" case and Dr. Happes felt that with Good Samaritan's doctors and equipment it would be better to do it there than St. Catherine's in case something happened during the procedure, and they NOW have "smaller stents" for my "narrow arteries".
I'm in the Cath Lab at Good Samaritan waiting to be taken in for the procedure, my husband is with me. Dr. Happes and Dr. Rovensky came into the little cubicle to talk to me before the procedure. I asked Dr. Happes why I COULDN'T be stented 2 months ago, but I can now and his response was "I never said that" and both my husband and I looked him straight in the eye and said "oh yes you did, you said CAN'T" - well neither Dr. Happes nor Dr. Rovensky could say another word, they just looked away. I went from "can't be stented" to having 7 stents put in me.
Dr. Stephen Littman paid me a visit and I questioned him about why Dr. Gidseg was going to send me to Good Samaritan for the right leg surgery knowing it would be dangerous to me and he said that Dr. Gidseg was "under pressure from others" to send me to Good Samaritan to have the surgery. Also, after having the 7 stents put in me, while still on the table, Dr. Happes admitted that they knew that it would be dangerous for me to have the right leg surgery, but being under pressure they were going to do it anyway. I said to him "my life is worth more than the God Almighty dollar." Dr. Happes was able to save 1 of the 3 bypasses, the one that was "pinched", he un-pinched it.
3/24/2018 - Well more chest pain, so back to St. Catherine's ER, back to being transported to Good Samaritan for an 8th stent (have I mentioned that I "CAN'T" be stented). I had the 8th stent put in and while still on the table, Dr. Happes told me "this is it, there is nothing I can do for you after this, I've done all I can." So if I have any more chest pains, should I just stay and home and wait to die? This is where I made the right choice-I found a new Cardiologist affiliated with a different hospital! read more