The past couple of months have been a roller coaster. I’ll try to be brief...
At the beginning of July my husband has a tooth abscess and was pushed backwards and forwards between dentist and doctors. He eventually was admitted as an emergency as he couldn’t open his mouth. The tooth was removed via his neck and because he was on blood thinners he bled heavily. ( he has pacemaker). This eventually healed ( although they cut through lymph nodes, so he’s lost full control of lips on one side), we were away for the August bank holiday and he felt v tired and lethargic. He went to his gp’s on the following Wednesday. Gp thought it was as a result of fluid around heart ( they had removed a diuretic he was on, during tooth incident). So gp put him back on diuretic and did blood test.
Thursday he had phone call at work to say go straight to A & E as his iron levels were extremely low. ( he always was on the anaemic side). Got there at 6pm ( he felt fine at this time), he was admitted onto ward before he saw doc at midnight. Doc thought GP had been over zealous. And thought it was probably caused by blood lose during teeth episode. Said that he would give him ct and endoscopy in morning to rule anything else out. In morning I get text from hubby to say they had now decided to give an iron infusion instead. Was told this would take 4/5 hours and he could go home afterwards. Late afternoon they start infusion. I get there later to pick him up but infusion still running. Took 7 hours. As it’s a fair distance to travel I waited and they discharged him late on the Friday night. They discharged him with vomit buckets as they said he’d feel sick ( he did). He slept ok but the next day felt washed out and stayed in bed watching tv.
In early hours of Sunday morning, he woke me up unable to breath. Called 999. Blue lights to hospital. There I was told he probably wouldn’t survive the night as he had acute liver failure and kidneys had stopped working too. Heard the resus doc saying he had been given an overdose of iron.
Long 3 days in critical care and then 10 days in a gastro ward ( awful place). They did ct scan to rule out anything ‘nasty’ and then said they didn’t really know what caused it. It could have been antibiotics or a arthritis drug ( only been taking a couple of weeks), but they didn’t think it was the iron. ( his rheumatologist disagrees). Anyway, they all appear to be covering their own backs.
We are now 3 weeks post discharge... sent home with a diuretic and omprozole . Told to contact gp. ( they haven’t a clue). No follow up from liver consultant.
He is now down to normal weight but still not well in himself. Tired, weak, no energy or appetite . Think it’s going to be long road. ( has now lost job as he was working on short term contract).
So... is it normal to be thrown out with no follow up?
Can an iron infusion cause liver failure?
Can I request to see his hospital notes?
What should we be doing? ( we have tried contacting consultant with out much joy).
Feel we have been spat out, not sure what to do.
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To give your husband an iron infusion that lasted 7 hours without first doing tests to determine if his liver function was impaired because he had recently been on a course of antibiotics and had been taking an arthritis drug (which almost certainly stressed his liver) was arguably medical negligence.
The infusion of iron probably overwhelmed his liver because his liver function was already impaired and if the hospital didn't check this before pumping iron into him for 7 hours straight and then sending him home with vomit buckets it was negligent. A day later your husband suffers acute liver and kidney failure. The hospital will most likely claim that it was a co-incidence and hope that you won't take it any further.
In the US medical mistakes is the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. Your husband no longer has a job because of how sick he is and he may have suffered permanent damage to his health and possibly even be permanently incapacitated and unable to work again. You should consider seeing a lawyer that specialises in cases of medical negligence.
Quoting from Dr. Melissa Palmer's Guide To Hepatitis and Liver Disease:
"Excessive iron in itself can damage the liver and may lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer."
"... people who supplement their diets with too much vitamin A or iron can actually damage their livers. This can occur even in people who have normally functioning livers. So, you can imagine what too much of a good thing could do to someone who already has liver disease. Don't add insult to injury! The toxic effects of too much iron are also demonstrated in the liver disease hemochromatosis—a disorder of iron overload."
Are you in the UK? If so your hospital should have a PALS - Patient Advice and Liaison Service who should talk to you and help review your husbands care. nhs.uk/common-health-questi...
They will probably be your first point of call at this time.
Based on what you wrote in your first post your husband has a case for receiving compensation for the damage the hospital likely caused to his liver & kidneys. You won't get any help from medical system if the hospital caused your husband's problem. See a lawyer and explain that you believe that the hospital was negligent and see if he agrees that you have a case. I believe that you have a case. If you can't afford a lawyer there are ones that only charge if they win and the first appointment is free.
I would think that it is more important to get your husband's health issues sorted out before you get bogged down with litigation. You need to see his gp and get him to sort out his continuing care. An urgent referral to a heptologist would be my first choice.
This is why I suggest you contact PALS at the hospital (as detailed above). They can mediate and sort things out. I agree with GrandmaDylan what good is it getting bogged down accusing hospital of negligence before the health issue is under treatment.
Doesn't help with getting treatment plan into place does it? Grrr. What has your GP said about a treatment plan? Is your hubby going to be under a specialist? If not maybe GP can refer.
No good having developed this condition, had poor hospital treatment then dumped.
See GP and see what they say. Sorry PALS didn't help get treatment issues sorted.
GP only works 2 days a week ( they all appear to do other ‘specialty areas’ out side of the practice) , so hard to get to speak to him. Seen him once and one telephone conversation. Ordered blood tests and that’s about it. He just said we should have follow up from consultant- well he hasn’t. Even sent a letter, nothing. Beating head against brick wall. It’s like he doesn’t need a treatment plan.. maybe he’s fine!
After I was told that I would be waiting several months to see a gastroenterologist I contacted the gastro teams Secretary and asked if any of them did private work. One of them does and I arranged a consultation for that evening! It cost £180 but I have very limited medical cover with simply health who paid 75% of it. Even if I didn't have the cover I would have seem him as it was money well spent as he then put me straight onto his nhs list and arranged a CT scan and a capsule endoscopy. If you could do the same I wouldn't hesitate. Take care. Deb
Update- after being told by my GP that the Gastroenterologist had signed my husband off ( hadn’t heard from him since before discharge nearly 3 months ago), he had a phone call to say they had a cancellation at 9am yesterday and would like to see him! Could it possibly be because I sent a letter of complaint and requested all medical notes? ! Who knows. Anyway he was repeatedly apologetic and blamed a junior doctor for not arranging follow up.
Long story short, they now want to do tests and we have the beginnings of a plan. I queried the cause of the liver failure and said I still thought the iron transfusion could be the culprit. He said possibly and flipped through notes to see how much he was given- he couldn’t find the medication list and said he’d look later.
By coincidence my husbands medical records arrived yesterday too. So over 100 pages printed sheets ( most recent) and over 1000 pdfs on a cd, going back to the 80’s. Only asked for the last 4 months!
Anyway, the notes regarding the iron infusion are missing. There are admission and discharge but nothing in between. ( they may be lurking on the cd as only part way through, but only seems to be old stuff on there).
We did however find the discharge notes from resus ( we were never given those), and the last line reads “ New deranged LTFs indicate Fe induced hepatic failure “.
What happens if they have ‘lost’ the notes I’m after... is that an admission of guilt? Will be on phone Monday morning....
Glad your letter of complaint has restarted the ball rolling.
Absence of the particular notes regarding the iron transfusion sounds like either a c*ck up in recording therefore some negligence or an outright attempt at cover up - either way very dodgy and worth pursuing.
The resus discharge note doesn't cover this up, there is no beating around the bush language like 'suspected' or 'possible'. It clearly states that the "New deranged LFTs indicated Fe (iron) induced hepatic (liver) failure".
Someone has some further questions to answer for sure.
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