Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Trying to give ME heart failure!

Well, they are still going to do the pacemaker but we had to have a bit of excitement first.

On Ron's wrist band it clearly says he's allergic to Vancomycin. On his chart it also clearly states that. When the PA for the cardiologist came in, she said the infectious disease doctor (Dr. Hartmann) had ok'd the pacemaker and ordered Vanco for him.

I said - hold on, he has an allergic reaction to Vanco and should not have it. His kidney doctor has said if he ever had it, it should be given very slowly and he should have Benadryl first. She said, well Dr. Hartmann said he could have it. I said Dr. Hartmann is not his primary infection doctor and he doesn't know Ron.

She left to go check with him again and when she came back she said he had ok'd it and to just give it slower. The nurse came in with 50 mg Benadryl that she injected first and then followed with the Vanco. They even slowed it down from 250 ml to 150 ml drip (not sure how that computes).

Less than five minutes later he said he was sick. I pushed the call light and got the nurse aid who was going to take his sugar (he'd had a low sugar a bit earlier). I said it was not his sugar, it was the IV. I left to go to the nurse's station and found only a student nurse there. I told her that he was sick and having a reaction to the IV drug.

By the time I got back to the room, the aid was calling his nurse. I walked in and he had collapsed back into the chair with his eyes open but fixated. His pupils were huge and he was totally unresponsive. I honestly thought he had died that quickly.

They called for a critical care team to his room and literally within seconds his room was filled with people from all over the hospital, including the cardiologist. They flushed and then pulled the IV line and started a new one.

Several of them told me he probably shouldn't have Vanco ever again. Duh... if they had listened to me in the first place he wouldn't have had it this time.

I don't ever need this kind of excitement again. EVER!!!

They are here to take him for the pacemaker now so I sure pray that things go more smoothly this time around.

1 comment:

Humayraa said...

Oh my goodness! What a scare! That was grossly irresponsible of the hospital! I'd consider suing!