Naloxone Related Pulmonary Edema and Cardiac Arrest-Patient Study of Mother by Daughter #Narcan
Saturday-September 7, 2019
She is not eating or drinking much of anything and is no longer on any I.V fluids either. Super tired and lethargic and pretty much can only lie there. She feels nauseous when looking at food and rejects it so she is getting zero nourishment as there are no I.V. fluids being pushed. She was drinking fluids last night about 4-8 oz. cups of water and 2-4 oz containers of orange juice and her output from her Foley cath is almost nothing and I am beginning to wonder where the fluid is going. They removed her from taking Lasix to make room for new meds Satolol and Entresto for her Broken Heart Disease and the continued Tachycardia
Tuesday, Sept 3 2019
Arrived at 10 am to register my 75-year-old mother for surgery and she had to pay another 400.00 copays for shoulder replacement
Went into outpatient by 11 am
Surgery by 12:34 pm
She came to the room after 4 pm
When the Anesthesiologist brought her into the room she was relaying info to the nurse on duty and said that she had to give my mother a shot of Narcan to wake her up because she wouldn’t wake up. I questioned her at the time because I knew that was the drug used to wake overdosed people. I joked that I was going to kid my mom about it.
Everything moved fast but I caught a few things that were said. One of them was that the anesthesiologist told the nurse on duty that she had no time to document it yet and so she wasn’t going to see it on her chart yet the nurse said that she was almost off of her shift and then turned to me and bragged about how the flow of information worked at The Med and their teamwork was something I would be amazed by. Then she told me to shake her to wake her and give her ice over the next few hours assuming she would wake up. Try to keep her stirred because she was still completely zonked out and so I did for the next three hours but really if I am honest I let her sleep mostly because I knew she was so tired and we had a long recovery ahead. I did talk to her and give her some ice though.
I took a picture of her monitor screen and as I was trying to focus for another shot on my phone the machine beeped and I could see through the screen on my phone a number that read 220 this was at 6:17 pm. At that moment my mom moaned through her sleeping state and it sort of freaked me out, so I felt bad about taking the pics and stopped, assuming the nurses at the desk could read the read-out that her monitor was showing from their station the same as I could. Throughout the night this beep/moan thing happened more often than not.
We never saw the initial nurse that set her up in the room after that initial setup and was alone in the room for a good while. Once the night nurse made her rounds mom finally woke up and was saying that her foot hurt so bad. So I got up and pulled the covers to expose her leg which had a surgical hose, hospital bootie, blood pressure cuff, and an alternating air pump sleeve for clot prevention. The nurse was upset that both were still going and pulled the sleeve and I pulled off the bootie only to reveal that it was acting as a tourniquet and her foot was completely swollen with about an inch indention where the sock band had been. She was loaded with fluid. I expressed concern and told her about the monitor beeping and the 220 number at that time. She got her bedding cleaned up and tossed an iv bag into the trash that was never administered and the original nurse said she was going to let it run since we paid for it. It never ran. She attached the new bag and administered meds and the night went on from there fairly noneventful other than the spikes in her heart that I was only hearing and when I had to get them to do a catheter on her bladder because she was in abdominal pain.400CC was the amount I heard her tell the other nurse in the room. I was sleeping on the cot next to her by the time they got there and it was her and another dr in a white lab coat doing the procedure together and talking over it. I was in and out but they woke me at that time to ask me if she had a history of heart problems and I answered no and there was a look of concern. The answer was no. I think the rhythms that night are logged digitally in the machine. Better be.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
The next morning we woke up and it is tough and I expected it to be tough because she had a total shoulder replacement. I was trying to mentally prepare for the ride home knowing it would be a tough one but we had prepared and were ready to take on this recovery period hard or not she needed her quality of life back and repairing this shoulder was going to do that. The morning carried on and I was nervous about the car ride knowing how tough it is to get her in a car in the first place but now she was injured with a wound from surgery. Did not matter it was going to happen no matter and I was at least a bit relieved that she had a nerve block that was going to deaden it for about 3 days.
Physical therapy came and went. She had discharge papers ready although nothing was signed and lunch was delivered. I cut up her vegetable medley and she took a bite and immediately began looking for the oxygen cannula. She isn’t an oxygen patient but had it on all night following surgery. I put it on her and she continued to struggle for breath and was begging me for air through a laryngitic voice. I pushed the button on the side on the bed rail (which I later found out probably doesn’t work) then I went into the hall and told a nurse outside of her room that there was an issue and she went down the hall to get my moms' nurse while I went back into the room and pressed the tv remote nurse station button and finally running down the hall yelling for immediate help. The nurse then passed me saying she was coming and I could clearly see the woman was on the phone so I turned back and headed towards the room where other nurses asked what was wrong and I told them that she could not breathe. They then hurried into the room lying her back on the bed. A Dr. came in noting that she was turning blue and her O2 sats had plummeted from 96 to 40 in 5 seconds. She was experiencing Flash Pulmonary Edema
The next thing I know she is a CODE BLUE I am kicked out of the room and they do an EKG and X-ray BiPAP and I have no other idea what else because I was in there. They stabilized her heart and lungs and let me back in telling me they were taking her into ICU. Several doctors at that time asked me about her heart and one came to me with an EKG sheet talking to me about it looks like a heart attack another nurse followed me into the stairwell saying it was pulmonary edema. I told them about the Narcan at that point.
We get to ICU and I get in trouble for taking a pic with them in it. I left to clear out the room we were in and by the time I got back family was beginning to flow in. We were supposed to be home not ICU. Shoulder. We visited and we were told she was stable and she suffered a heart attack and were doing an ultrasound and scheduled a Cath for in the morning. We left for the evening to let whatever just happened to be tended to. Throughout the night her heart rate was out of control and staff were all over her telling her they were in control. Dr. Lichin told her at some point that she had suffered massive heart muscle damage and then later came back saying maybe it wasn’t as bad as it first looked. Backtracking. All the hospital could talk about was a possible pre-existing heart issue condition, talking about the "blockages" she had to have. I stopped the ICU nurse to tell him about getting Narcan in recovery. He said he didn’t know. I spoke to Dr. Luedke at that time and he wanted to know what had happened his knees were knocking in his scrubs when we were talking. I can tell we are being discussed because I can tell I am recognized by the staff. In fact, I was just approached to see how I am doing by a staff member. Heads of departments just stopped by her room to say hello to her. Imagine that.
The next day was the Cath. Dr. Lichin performed at 9 am. We waited in the front lobby for him and when he came to talk to us I recorded his words because we are all traumatized and needed to hear them again. He confirmed that she suffered the results of Stress Cardiomyopathy but there were no blockages that required stinting. No need for a heart doctor but the heart attack had affected the front lower portion of her heart and the damage is severe. It was a heart attack that was caused by a sudden rush of adrenaline. His words. He went on to say that he could not pinpoint the issue and went on until I interrupted to ask about the Narcan specifically and if it would have caused this. He said at that time that yes Narcan could cause this. We said goodbye to mom for the night and left her alone in the ICU. My niece called to check up and they informed her that she was sitting up drinking orange juice and in good spirits, they were moving her out of ICU to another room that takes visitors. So I headed back to College Station for another night in the hospital with her. I get there and she is in a dark room with no pulse ox, no cooling shoulder pad attached, slumped in her bed, and hadn’t been cleaned up in days. This morning the head doctor of the hospital stopped by to say hi and ask if she had preexisting heart conditions. Look at her charts. NO. I asked about her heart and the meds and the damage, plan of care, etc related to her heart and its damage and he said he wanted to talk about the shoulder surgery, not the heart. So he didn’t. We are still here and I know that they want her out of here because she is dying and they don’t want her to be in the facility. Dr. Lichin said the meds that she could take might reverse what damage there is she can’t take because it lowers her blood pressure and as of this morning she is on it. But when we get home she can’t take it if the pressure is too low or where hers pretty much sits. So she can’t even take the stuff that might fix her.
I need her medical records. I need a malpractice lawsuit. They have changed the course of my mother's life for the worse through this mistake. She will never be the same and will require 24-hour care as she is a wheelchair-bound elderly woman with arthritis all over her skeleton. I can look at her and see that giving her something like Narcan would be risky. And should be monitored but she wasn’t. Shift change.
I have pictures and texts through this time period as well as having recorded audio of Dr.’s explanations and deflections. This is medical malpractice on behalf of The Med and Anesthesiologist. I need answers and then some for putting this unnecessary amount of pain and suffering. My mother was my 82-year-old heart failure dementia dad’s caretaker. Now they both need it and I am that person. I can’t even work now. This is unreal. It was supposed to be a 2-week hard recovery from the shoulder. That is what we prepared for.
At 1 pm on Wednesday at the advice of a lawyer, I took my father down to medical records to request her medical records.
Friday, September 6, 2019 -As I sit here in my mother's hospital room on a Friday night watching her sleep and praying she gets whatever rest she needs tonight I am living in a panic, with my mind racing regarding what has happened this week and my heart is heavy with the sadness of the reality of what is to come for us in the months ahead.
This week has been an ultimate nightmare and we are supposed to be with her recovering at home from her shoulder replacement but something went wrong and I will have to wait to see her medical records to confirm what I am pretty sure I already know. She is struggling to live right now and I can see she is not winning. Something miraculous is going to have to happen to get her through this but looking at her I am scared beyond belief. My heart is pounding out of my chest in fear as I see her struggling to cool down in a freezing cold hospital room and seemingly somewhat delirious state going on about not wanting to call for help due to everyone (the staff) were asleep and she did not want to bother them. I could not get her to understand otherwise and called for help. They applied O2 at 1liter a minute then applied a cold cloth for her head and we slept through the night without event other than the staff coming in to pull her up in the bed to help her breathe.
Saturday-September 7, 2019
She is not eating or drinking much of anything and is no longer on any I.V fluids either. Super tired and lethargic and pretty much can only lie there. She feels nauseous when looking at food and rejects it so she is getting zero nourishment as there are no I.V. fluids being pushed. She was drinking fluids last night about 4-8 oz. cups of water and 2-4 oz containers of orange juice and her output from her Foley cath is almost nothing and I am beginning to wonder where the fluid is going. They removed her from taking Lasix to make room for new meds Satolol and Entresto for her Broken Heart Disease and the continued Tachycardia
Thursday, June 30, 2022
Not a day goes by without thinking of this medical nightmare I witnessed my mother going through in the hospital. She has never fully recovered and pretty much lost her quality of life from the medical malpractice she endured. I will never forget or forgive the hospital administration and other staff that were a part of covering up the malpractice. I am a forever picket sign for my mom and others that are at the mercy of hospitals trusting in the oath they swore to. I was devastated to see firsthand my mother being treated as a mistake and something they needed to hide which resulted in her becoming so weak and malnourished she lost her hair and teeth and couldn't stand for months. I think I probably have more PTSD from it than she does because she was so medicated and weak that she slept through most of the 30 days. The experience it etched into my mind forever.
If you are interested in reading more about this horror please visit my website
paigepotpie.com
Narcan-related links:
https://www.verywellhealth.com/using-narcan-naloxone-as-overdose-treatment-4121230
https://www.rxlist.com/narcan-drug.htm#precautions
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5945567/
Her diagnosis from heart cath: