Days with Debi

There are some things in this that world never ceases to amaze me….Six months ago, my 75-year-old mother accidentally fell at home, and broke her elbow and a second bone near the elbow. She was in excruciating pain and needed surgery to repair this damage. Following surgery her orthopedic surgeon explained to her and my sister that during surgery he had removed a piece of the bone that was splintered off saying that it wasn’t necessary for the arm to function with it, and put in a rod or something in her arm. He discharged her from the hospital with some pain pills and sent her home wearing a sling for two weeks to mend.

Mother’s arm remained swollen and refused to heal, she has been in constant pain, and unable to use the arm. She returned to her surgeon three more times complaining her arm wasn’t healing. The doctor continued to insist this would take time, and to be patient. He never bothered to order any further test or anything. I don’t know why he didn’t; perhaps he felt an X-ray or an MRI would be too costly for someone with just Medicare for insurance.

Because I live in 1,200 miles away from my mom, it’s hard to help take care of her long distance.

Fast-forward six months -- Meanwhile I’m still encouraging mom by phone to find another doctor for a second opinion, to get the frail swollen arm checked out. Finally, with her medical records from her first surgery in hand, she sees a new orthopedic surgeon for a second opinion. After examining her, and running a series of test, X-rays, and an MRI, this doctor insist she immediately have another surgery explaining the test reveals the arm and elbow are both still broken, and that no bone was ever been removed and that no rod had ever implanted. Gasp!

Mom had surgery again yesterday, and I’m happy to report this new doctor has her all fixed up, and she’s sporting a new cast from her fingertips almost up to the shoulder. She is in pain as expected, but we’re confident she will now heal, as she should.

This new doctor is quite confused over the previous physicians documentation of her medical records of her first surgery and even suggested she may want to consider checking into legal action on this. For the life of me, I cannot explain why this first doctor documented things that he obviously did not do. I’ve of the opinion this is simply mind-blowing malpractice, and not sure what she should do next.