Neighbor with complications

A neighbor had many complications with a pacemaker implanted on Thurs. which made me glad I went to the University of Chicago Hospitals for mine.

His doctor was board certified in electrophysiology but our hospital may not have enough experience with this procedure or the fluoroscope equipment. His diagnosis was bradycardia after a 1 week monitor and he was sent to a heart doctor who hospitalized him for a pacemaker. His pulse was 45, and he was often tired and lightheaded after little exercise. So far, so good.

During the procedure, however, the doctor could only install 1 out of the two leads because there was a blood clot in the vein. Isn't this something that should have been discovered before? Also the lung was punctured. Also the aorta was plugged and he will need a new heart valve but that has to wait for 3 weeks because of the pacemaker surgery.

Does this sound to anybody else that you would also avoid this doctor and this hospital like the plague? I suggested that he have any further work done at Mayo's, which he has visited often.

4 Comments

Some things didn't seem right

by flutetooter - 2014-10-27 05:10:01

I suppose I was worried about things such as sending him home in one day with only 1 lead implanted, and the other lead not because there was a blood clot in the vein. Also I wondered about the punctured lung, and what other part of the body got punctured in order to get to that lung. Also about why his cardiologist hadn't found any of the other heart ailments before the pacemaker. Also about why he was going in again two days later for an angiogram - which he believes is only an X-ray of some kind. Also why he was sent home without any blood thinners with a heart blood vessel clot? It seems that most of the posters here have had many less problems, thank heavens.

answers

by Tracey_E - 2014-10-27 08:10:17

It does sound like something isn't right, I'm with you there. A second opinion is definitely in order.

Lungs can puncture when placing leads. If you look at the anatomy of the heart, it's super close to the lungs. It's rare, but not unheard of.

I don't know much about clots, but I do know that veins go to the heart, arteries go away and circulate through the body. Maybe they treat it differently when it's not an artery? I dunno, just thinking out loud (so to speak).

fault

by Tracey_E - 2014-10-27 09:10:21

it's hard to say if the dr was at fault or if there was more going on and your neighbor was more sick than he/she knew before so going in for the pm was like opening a can of worms. I would definitely get a second opinion elsewhere. Mayo is a great choice.

I would not post the drs name, jmho. There is no proof at this point of wrongdoing. My husband's aunt was seemingly healthy, went in for a valve replacement, had one complication after another and did not pull through. It looked like the drs were negligent. We had a very good friend who is a surgeon go through the records. She had an underlying problem that he didn't feel the attending drs would have reasonably found prior to surgery so a simple surgery became very complicated very quickly. It was sad, it was a shock, but no one did anything wrong. We aren't drs, so let's not jump to conclusions.

angiogram also scheduled

by flutetooter - 2014-10-27 09:10:55

to AngrySparrow et al: The next thing his local doctor wants to do is the invasive angiogram. I am thinking--"When they already know he has a blood clot, they want to run more wires into his blood vessels?" Unfortunately this group of 12 cardiologists with a large new local hospital is in my immediate town, and the place all my doctors send patients. It is very inconvenient for us to go into Chicago for all surgeries and MRIs, but this is why we keep doing it. However, since I really don't know all the reasons for the complications, I cannot publicly name names.

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