I just need to let of steam so not sewing related
Last Thursday the district nurse called to do a routine catheter change for hubby, this was a new nurse we had not met before, she removed the old catheter and inserted the new one, Hubby had a couching spell and expelled part of the length. I told the nurse several times that the catheter was not in correctly and was out too far.
She insisted each time that it was in correctly but then pure blood started to come down the tube. again i told her that it was not properly place but again she insisted it was and continued to expand the small balloon that should hold it in place.
More blood now showed but again she insisted she was right. she stayed for about ten minutes to make sure it stopped which it did. She left saying she would call later to make sure everything was ok.
Two hours later I called the district nurse number to say hubby was in a lot of pain and a lot of blood was in the bag. A new nurse came out and removed the catheter and huge clots of blood poured out of hubbys penis.
Paramedics were called and he was rushed to hospital with a ruptured prostate. After being in hospital for three hours is was decided to take hubby to another specialist hospital 40 miles away but there was a long wait for an ambulance so i decided to take him myself ( i am paramedic trained )
Doc at new hospital managed to stop the bleeding by inserting a special catheter and hubby was taken to ward to be kept an eye on. i went home and to bed at two in the morning
Friday morning i was up and on my way to new hospital arriving at aprox 9.00 am to see hubby in distress with high temp and rapid breathing an a rash on his tummy
I checked him and spotted that they had inserted a latex catheter since my departure the night before. I called nurse and told her to get this removed as hubby had gone into shock with latex allergy. This was done but as the doc in charge could never have done a routine catheter change, he inserted the new one wrong and i told him so and once more the prostate was ruptured and bleeding started again. A specialist urologist doctor was passing and came to the rescue and once more the panic averted. All remained calm and hubby recovered ok so by 7.00pm it was decided he could actually go home.
Saturday morning. I awoke early and went into hubby who sleeps in a special chair in the main room to find him hyper venting and unable to speak or control his hands and unable to even stand. I called paramedics in again.
I had seen this before in training so when the paramedic arrived i instructed NO OXYGEN Hubby is COPD and retains carbon dioxide and with hyper venting he had a build up back once more to hospital.
With each new nurse and doctor i instructed NO OXYGEN TO BE USED IT WILL KILL HIM.
I staid with him till 7.00 pm and came home to eat and feed the dogs and go to bed..
SUNDAY morning i awoke late at 8=30 and went for a shower and heard the phone ringing . It was the hospitial to say hubby had taken a turn for the worse and could i come over right away. outside was thick fog and i had 30 miles to drive by the time i got to hospital i was in total panic. Hubby was attached to a special oxygen mask that removes the carbon dioxide from the body. Some time during the night a nurse had decided that hubbys oxygen level was too low ( normal for hubby is between 60-70% oxygen level) and so had put him onto 100% oxygen despite hubby telling them not to and that he did not want oxygen.
I gave the machine chance to work then suggested they remove it to let hubby back onto room oxygen level only. The insisted they new best. It was not until 4.00 pm that the mask was removed so i could give hubby a drink and wipe his face. It was at this point I decided to act up and refused them permission to replace the mask or to give hubby any oxygen at all and as his carer i could actually do this I signed to say i would tack full responcibility for
the results . Just 20 minutes later the nurse returned to a great shock .. My husband was now responcive and talking without slurring his speech.
I HAD WON ..... no more oxygen was given ans he continued to improve overnight so on Monday evening i returned home with hubby
the only lasting result of all this trauma is i now look like something from The Vampires diary with my left eye all blood red from a burst bloodvessel
Hubby is fine but a bit more frail but at 86 his is doing ok as long as i cane look after him
sorry its a long rant but i just needed to put it all down and let it out. Thank you for letting me do that here
I think you deserve a BIG virtual Hug!!!
Hugs, Marie
His trauma should have never happened. I do hope you wrote who, why, and where and submitted it to the original nurse supervisor.
I am happy that he is more comfortable now.
Way to go !!!!
Hugs, Bonnie
Angie
I am going to get a medic alert bracelet for him for Christmas. with the info on it.
hope the info will help you in the future
Protect yourself and your loved ones! These days you can't depend on the system, no matter what you pay.
Meri
My husband with advanced prostate cancer has a supra-pubic catheter. For 18 months now he has lived with bad-severe irritation that has resulted in severe and debilitating pain most days. It controls our lives. Five weeks ago he had another massive infection and spent another week in hospital, and a new catheter was inserted by a visiting surgeon the day he was discharged. A week later it was still leaking from the catheter site and we spent a day in Emergency where the doctors knew very little about catheters - they didn't even know how to tell what size catheter was used - so he was sent home without any treatment or relief. My worry was that they didn't consult the doctors on the ward who knew him so well. I did mention it but my suggestion was fobbed off with the comment that they had seen his notes on the computer.
The following day I spent by the phone, trying to get help or waiting for return calls. At 3 p.m. the catheter nurse had gone off duty for the weekend and I was told to call the Ambulance Emergency Care Unit. As luck would have it, an officer from Adelaide had been seconded to our unit for the week and he was trained and qualified in catheter changing. He did the job carefully, gently and slowly, and correctly, explaining to us all the time, and then sat with us for nearly two hours, just talking and giving us information that we had never had before. Since that day, exactly four weeks ago, DHDon has had very little irritation and nothing as severe as it had been before, no sign of blood from a damaged bladder and he has had no pain at all. He has had 18 months of misery because the catheters were not inserted correctly by specialists and their specialist nurses, losing blood and gradually becoming more anaemic.
I have no paramedic training or nursing training, but I do know my husband and how his condition and certain medications affect him and I know a lot about catheters now. Like it or not, trained or not, I am now a pretty efficient nurse for DHDon's care.
Thankyou, too, for the tip about having potato crisps after drinking lots of water. I'm sure that DHDon is in for a treat since we seldom have such snacks. I remember you writing once before how you saved your husband after following advice and giving him lots to drink but then needing to supplement the salt intake as well. These days I watch DHDon carefully for the start of any tremors in his hands.
On the personal level - I know exactly how you must feel after that traumatic time - exhausted, angry, spent. On that Friday, four weeks ago, I had two melt-down episodes on the phone, out of the blue, unexpected, and surprising, since I'm not a 'crying person'. That's when I realised I needed to take myself in hand and pull back from the stress - easier to write than do. Watching our closest ones suffer and not being listened to is hugely stressful and it shows in our faces. My one upper in all this is that I'm now four stone lighter - I look like the Saggy Baggy Elephant's great-aunt - and I can get around a lot easier. We take one day at a time, enjoying the good days together and waiting for the bad ones to go, not really knowing when infections or pain will rear their ugly heads again.
I do hope that your burst blood vessel in your eye clears up quickly and well, that it doesn't have any lasting ill-effect and that you can enjoy your husband's company for a long time yet.
There are two very powerful healers on this site. The joy of seeing beautiful ME designs each day and the comfort offered from friends whom we will never meet but who take the time to listen and care.
AlmaG.
I too had a total melt down but thankfully they now know that i will stand and fight them all if i feel its necessary and they can say what they like. In fact i think i am going to be changing my hubbys catheter for him in future take care of yourself as well hugs .annie
"Wow! What a story! We learn as nurses that COPD patients should NEVER be put on O2 more than 2L/min. Because the patient can DIE of respiratory alkalosis. We want a COPD pt. O2 sat to be in the upper 80% range. This is low but that is where they live. She said her husband was normally in the 60-70% range? That is deadly low. If I was his nurse, I would have (and any nurse would have) put him on O2 at a low rate of 2L/min. on a nasal cannula (NOT A MASK) and certainly not on 100% 02 (100% O2 requires a doctor's order). Also a COPD patient in the hospital should have his arterial blood gases (ABG's) monitored. This will indicate whether or not the patient is having a ventilation-perfusion mismatch. Meaning, it checks to see if the oxygen he takes in matches the carbon dioxide going out. In poor Annie's husband's case, he had more oxygen going in than carbon dioxide going out. It should be a top priority for nurses and doctors to listen to family members, as they know their loved ones BEST! I wonder if this man is on oxygen therapy at home. I am surprised he can live at 60-70% O2 sat.
The nurse probably inflated the catheter balloon inside the prostate before it entered the bladder. She would have met some resistance, but ignored it. A nurse should NEVER inflate the balloon until urine appears in the catheter tubing. This is evidence the catheter has reached the bladder. Once urine appears, the nurse advances the catheter even more, just to make sure. This is nursing 101! That nurse should be fired and/or sued for malpractice.
This couple certainly should not have to pay for the hospital bills as a result of this nurse's incompetence. Now this poor man will have scarring in his prostate, causing the urethra to narrow. Also indwelling catheters often cause UTI. Older people do not show the normal symptoms of a UTI such as fever, pain, and burning. They become confused and not like themselves. Annie should keep a close eye on him depending on how long ago this incompetent nurse inserted the catheter. "