Tonsil surgery gone wrong

[darco]

Wow, poor kid...routine tonsil surgery with mention of sleep apnea....not allot of info but it should be coming...

http://goo.gl/UnLNL3

[ems]

It's horrible! I've been watching it on the news.

[JDS74]

About 30 years ago I met a young women who had young children who had a tonsillectomy and just bled out and died.
This happened a few months after I met her on a busniess trip. So sad.

Sometimes the method of stopping the bleeding after this type of surgery just fails. If the patient doesn't understand what is happening and fails to get to an emergency facility, the bleed kills them as apparently happened in this case.

[sleeplessinaz]

I did see that on the news. Don't think it anything to,do with her apnea - she bled out.so sad.

[eeckel]

What a tragedy! That poor family not only an explanation but also justice.

Back in July my appendectomy went wrong when the surgeon cut my colon. I ended up with an infection and a colostomy. I'm now recovering from a surgery to reverse the colostomy. I have a malpractice attorney initiating a suit.

I have to wonder how many surgeries go wrong?

[krstms]

That is so sad. It breaks my heart. I also am very angry at some of the comments people are making. Everything from her apnea was because she was overweight to she should have been told to extend her neck to get rid of the apneas. These idiots don't know her medical history or what she had tried in the past. The overweight comments tick me off too because my daughter was diagnosed with apnea at seven. She was and still is rail thin now that she is 9. They did the camera up her nose and saw that her adenoids were huge. They removed them and the apneas went away. I myself have apnea and believe I have had it most of my life. I think it was there even as a child due to symptoms I had even then. I am overweight now but wasn't until the last few years and I am 33. I wish people would quit commenting when they don't know what they are talking about. Her poor family. They will definitely be in my prayers.

[ems]

Sometimes the method of stopping the bleeding after this type of surgery just fails. If the patient doesn't understand what is happening and fails to get to an emergency facility, the bleed kills them as apparently happened in this case.

This child WAS in an emergency facility... a hospital! That is what makes this so terrible.

[Janknitz]

Kids with Noonan's syndrome (genetic disorder) often have narrow airways AND enlarged adenoids and tonsils. Some doctors prefer to remove tonsils and adenoids before deciding if CPAP is needed, but NS kids also have bleeding disorders that can make this seemingly simple surgery dangerous. This case made me wonder if this poor child had some unrecognized genetic issue.

[kteague]

Used to work the front desk in an ER. We were instructed any post tonsillectomy bleeding was to be priority status. When these patients arrived at the ER, everything shifted into high gear. It was explained to me that it could quickly become life threatening. I was in the room and watched the panic once as the surgeon was frantically struggling to get the bleeding stopped on a teenage girl. Doc was cussing and throwing things and the nurses didn't even care. They knew it was a harrowing moment. That girl survived. So scary and sad. Don't know a thing about this news story, but sometimes things just go wrong even when nobody has done anything wrong.

[icipher]

Here is a better link

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/17/health/ca ... isqus-area

I had my tonsils out when I was 14. I remember waking up and hearing the doctors telling my parents that I swallowed a lot of blood because they hit an artery and had to cauterize it. Scary stuff. I can't believe she was not monitored more closely. You cut out a bunch of soft tissue inside someone's neck there is risk for serious bleeding.