Pleural effusion

[D0n49]

My Mum has not had an easy time of it since her heart attack in March; triple heart bypass, cardiac tamponade, AF, low BP, haemotoma resulting in debridement and VAC. Further to her second discharge she became increasingly breathless, and she has just had almost a litre of fluid drained from her lung.

Firstly I am concerned about how the process was carried out; her lung was drained without the use of ultrasound guidance, then a couple of Nurses who had never removed a lung drain before took the drain out without stitching the hole/simply placed a dressing on her back and no final chest x-ray was taken. Am I overreacting please?

Secondly, she is now back home and her breathing doesn't seemed to have improved. She is constantly tired (more than ever before) and is still breathless. Is this to be expected considering all that she has gone through please?

Thank you

[Hidden]

Hi Donna - I'm really sorry to hear that your mum's had such a difficult recovery from her bypass surgery. I definitely understand your concerns about her lung drain and the lack of X-ray afterwards, so it might be worth having a chat to PALS about this and get some feedback from the medical team nhs.uk/chq/pages/1082.aspx

Her breathless is obviously quite concerning too - are you aware of any echocardiogram/ultrasound scans that have been done on her heart? Sometimes after a heart attack the heart muscle is quite damaged and this can cause breathlessness. So if this is the case on top of the problems with her lungs it would explain why she's so breathless.

You might also want to have a chat to the surgical specialist nurses at the hospital where she had her surgery to see if they have any advice for you or results they could discuss. If you'd like to chat things through with one of our helpline nurses then you can call 0300 330 3311 Monday to Friday 9-5pm.

I hope this helps.

Take care,

Chris

[D0n49 in reply to Hidden]

Dear Chris,

Thank you for your kind and detailed response. She had an ECG and chest x-ray the day she was admitted to have her lung drained, and had an Echo the week prior. She does have a follow up appointment with the Cardiac Registrar in a couple of weeks when she is scheduled to have another chest x-ray so I just don't know if we can afford to wait until then.

I think part of the problem is we expected the drain to resolve her breathing problems and now it hasn't it has hit her pretty hard and understandably she gets moments where she is really low :,(

Thanks again for listening and advising!!!

[Sina-6491 in reply to D0n49]

You poor thing, it must be really hard on you too.

You could also call the cardiac ward your mum was on. Over the weekend if it feels like it isn't improving. But definately on Monday, you should call them.

They will realise from your call how anxious you are. So I am sure they will advise & put your's & your mum's mind at rest.

Think of you & your mum,

Jo xx

[D0n49 in reply to Sina-6491]

Thank you for your support Jo. I won't deny this has been tough, but I am so grateful I still have my Mum alive

Trying to convince Mum to go to our GP tomorrow, but I think she is just frightened of having to ever go back to hospital.

Thanks again, take care xxx

[Twobells]

I have pleurisy after triple bypass in April, still breathless, but pain just under rib cage been on three lots antibiotics. I went back to hospital and had X-ray which showed a shadow on my left lung, then had a CT scan which confirmed it, also had physio to teach by breathing techniques hope this helps. It can last for months. Sorry