This Week's Discussion: Help Me Get On the Oprah Winfrey Show!

How can I get the stories about the lack of good healthcare out to the public? How can I get the stories out about all the injuries and even deaths that are occurring in the hospitals? How can I relate to the public all the stories I have gathered about how the nurses in power are not telling the truth about their allegiance to their hospitals, the allegiance which is contributing to the injuries and deaths of patients in the United States but which is "saving" their job!

The issue in the operating rooms is mainly about cheap labor, a warm body, anybody! These "bodies" think they know it all and by the grace of God goes the patient. If the patient is lucky, she or he will have a competent Registered Nurse in the operating room with them! This Operating Room registered nurse is called an OR RN Circulator, would you feel safe IF you went to the Intensive Care Unit and not have a RN to take care of you! The same goes for the Operating Room, beware, do not enter into the Operating Room until you ask, "Who is my OR RN Circulator?" Do not enter the operating room until you ask," Will my OR RN Circulator be there with me for the entire length of my procedure?" If the answer is "NO," then run and run fast!!!! Go to another surgeon and another hospital who values YOUR life by hiring an educated, registered nurse who every minute of your care is using independent, professional judgment, one who is not trained in skills but is educated in skills!

Start asking, who is cutting out your saphenous vein (called "taking down") for your heart bypass?

Ask who is going to hold your heart?

Ask who is pushing the scope, as even a colonoscope can rupture your bowel if that person who is advancing the scope is not educated / trained in how to advance the scope up the colon!

Ask who will be pushing those "wires" through your femoral artery to your heart?

Ask how many rooms your surgeon will be working in at the same time, leaving YOU under someone's else care? Whose care? Anyone can delegate authority but no one can delegate responsibility!!!

Many people in power have no clue as to what goes on in an operating room! I must say YOU would be horrified in many cases!

Also, just because someone is nice does not mean that they are competent!

Many in the operating rooms are on the job trained! Some have a short course from an accredited school and some from a non accredited course! The scary truth is that MOST states have NO clue as to WHO IS WHO in the operating room and WHAT THEY ARE DOING I.E. their role on YOUR case! The federal government (Medicare / Medicaid) know as CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) mandated that ALL staff names be placed on a patient's permit as well as who would be doing what i.e. their role their job on your case!!!

As for me, and then one never knows, I want my operation to be done by my surgeon! However, in my messed up neck procedure, perhaps an on the job trained staff might have done a better job and I would today NOT HAVE A METAL NECK PLATE JUTTING INTO MY THROAT, MAYBE I WOULD NOT HAVE CHRONIC NERVE PAIN IN MY ARMS nor torn shoulders, MAYBE I WOULD NOT HAVE NEEDED CORRECTIVE SURGERY!

I was in so much pain in my arms recently, that I just got up out of bed and wrote a letter to the one chief of surgery and cc'd it to a group of others at the hospital where my messed up surgery took place! Here it is: later I received a note from a hospital patient rep saying they "regret" my "dissatisfaction," no "sorry," from the hospital or from the surgeon, just regret!!! The surgeon merely stated, "I make mistakes too."

Here is my letter:

Dear Dr. [omitted]:

How are you?

I am addressing my letter to you because I presume that you are still the Chairman of the [omitted].

I want to, first hand, state that my letter is not meant to be mean-spirited in any way.

However, because I just met an old friend the other day and because she stated to me that, "You look good, I thought to myself perhaps I would share with you and et al, that "looking good" does not equate to "feeling good".

I want to give you a synopsis of my current health status. My purpose of this synopsis is to encourage the surgical staff to make some changes in their operating room practices. Up to now, I was taking it for granted that "someone" did do an RCA (root cause analysis). I know the CRNA's did a case study of my "case." However, I was told that there was no post-op incident report done about my issues, if a patient had neck surgery and the patient awoke in PACU with excruciating bilateral arm pain, I as a nurse who used to work in a PACU area, would have done an "incident report."

Scenario A: Anterior Cervical Discectomy at C4-5, C5-6 with implant, and plate and six screws: Awoke screaming with bilateral arm pain. Screamed for days. Burn on left hand. High blood ammonia. Could not open eyes for days because I was so weak (nurses kept telling me to be happy and open up my eyes!) Upon taking oral meds I choked on many of them. I remember refusing some of my meds. (Staff not answering my call light when I needed to get out of bed to go to the bathroom BUT because the rails were up and I was too weak to climb over them, I had to wet the bed, is an issue I already had discussed with Mr. [omitted] via e-mail).

Scenario B: I literally cried and screamed for weeks because the pain in my arms would not subside. The pain was excruciating i.e. the feeling of being torched and stabbed at the same time was difficult for me to handle. During the times when the pain was relentless, I had thoughts of suicide. Only thoughts of my grandchildren kept me from ending it all at that time.

Scenario C: Time does heal some wounds but time does not heal all wounds. I had to quit OR nursing because even though the sustained pain i.e. the duration of my bilateral arm pains lessened, I could no longer keep a smile on my face and pretend everything was better. All the physical labor on the job like pushing a case cart into the room or positioning a patient and etc. were beyond my physical capabilities.

I cried like a baby by the time I got home across the mountain after work. I also wrote a lot of e-mails to my surgeon in the middle of the nights asking, "What is wrong with me?"

Scenario D: Much later after I realized that something was amiss, and after consulting two chiefs of neurosurgeons at two other hospitals, and having multiple tests performed, their conclusions validated all my complaints.

I am petrified to have the surgery that is recommended. I am petrified beyond belief i.e. plate and crews need to be removed and further decompression at C5-6 level, large osteophyte still impinging my spinal cord.

I was told by my attorney that he was told that my issues were just "risks" of surgery. Well, one of the "risks" of surgery, a metal implant, is actually protruding into my throat. Two barium swallows and fiber optic exam proved that issue. So now being a nurse, the thoughts of an occurrence of asphyxiation on food one day or even a perforation of the implant into my throat haunts me every day, I have to accommodate every day. BUT I am petrified to have it removed and more so after one of the surgeons told me, "it will be a dangerous procedure."

(A cabinet maker would not get paid if he mal positioned the hinges on a cabinet door, even one of the six screws was never put in flush with the plate, my fear again, can this screw perforate my esophagus because in an anterior position of surgery, that is where the screw is present, underneath the esophagus. I wonder to this day as to who did my surgery?)

Then there is the ever present pain in my arms, all day I experience pain in my thumbs, in my wrists, up the arms along a track of 3-4 inches.

Then there is the pain in my shoulders. I had no shoulder issues pre-op. An orthopedic surgeon ruled out that my pain was indeed not coming from my shoulders. Results, after surgery and tests showed a left full rotator cuff tear and a right partial rotator cuff tear. Now almost all my ADLs cause me pain. Nighttime brings more pain because each time I turn in bed and happen to lie on either shoulder, I wake up with excruciating pain, not to mention that the pains in my thumbs, wrists, and up my arms wake me up also. Not much fun trying to sleep on one's shoulder blades all night. My shoulders themselves hurt almost continuously.

(There needs to be a mandate that when arms are wrapped in Kerlix and traction applied before that Kerlix is tied to the operating room table to assist the separation of the vertebrae, that actual weights are used so the actual weight of the force is known.)

Then there is the bulge in the back of my neck that comes and goes.

Then there is the issue of Bacitracin irrigation that was used on me. I am allergic to PCN (my allergy was noted pre-op and yet I had the BACI irrigation).

Then there was the burn on my left hand post-op, we both know about monopolar and bipolar cautery. The only way I could sustain a burn is if there was a break in the circuit or if I was directly burned with a Bovie pencil which is unlikely since my arms were at my side away from my neck and wrapped with Kerlix. I treated my burn with antibiotics for weeks.

(Bovie issues need to be reviewed)

This list is not complete but I am tired, catnapping is what it is all about now for me. I never get a full night of rest any longer. At one time my husband used to call me "horizontal Helen." Meaning the moment I laid down to sleep, I was out for the night!

So, yes the statute of limitations has expired and yes, I look OK, but I never feel good, I'm tired and my inherited post-op risks of surgery keep me from picking up my great granddaughter or vacuuming or pulling weeds and etc. I am grateful that i don't have cancer or some other terrible disease BUT constant pain is not pleasant to live with day in and day out, and then someone says, "Helen you look good" and then even though I try to be a good Catholic, I ask the Lord, "Why me?" And the Lord says to me, "Get back to your BLOG, Helen, and quit complaining".

In conclusion, I really do hope that someone has made some changes in the Operating Room in regard to "patient safety issues." I wasn't a perfect nurse but I gave meticulous care and I was tough (but nice) when I enforced meticulous care. In my 33 years, I never had a patient incident! The ironic thing for me was that even before I told OR management that I was retiring, I received an "Outstanding" on my yearly state evaluation in 2007. I did not get a chance to enjoy my raise.

Blessings,
Still a passionate patient advocate,
Helen French RN, BSN

www.operatingroomrnwatchingoveryou.com

Please turn on your audio, watch the video and read my BLOGS.

I am one of many thousands who have been injured, what can we do to educate the public and force those in charge to be responsible and to also force them to take responsibility!

Blessings,
Helen, watching over you.

I just watched over my sister. That "experience" to be shared with you next!