infection after hernia repair with abdominoplasty

[Guest guest]

On 6/18/02 I entered Tufts N/e medical hospital for a hernia repair (

Shirkora) surgeon prov ided his expertise and as far as I can tell nothing

can indicate that any negligence was done to me by him. Unless you can

deternime otherwise. My second elective surgery performed by (Dan

Delvecchio) was an adominoplasty with lyposuction. Postop care was placed in

the hands of Proger 7, and I was discharged on June21 with fever and smelly

leakage from eitherthe stitch line or one of two drainage tubes. the

compression garment that i was required to wear during postop had bloody

spots centered over the incision lines.

On june 22, my f-irst visiting nurse to my home placed an emergency call back

to ne medical center to indicate that my wound areas were smelly -some skin

had turned black and my temp was up to 101. I was admitted by the on call

surgical resident. I am suppose to get discharged on 7/17. I am left with

one big open wound that will require the wound vacumn that will increase the

healing process from the inside out. Has anyone else had this problem and if

so, please advise me on what I must do from this point on to increase the

healing process. My apetite is terrible, and I have no taste buds will this

go away. Should I get a lawyer or what can I do to prevent this from

happening to anyone else.

Dr. Delvechio has maintained a vigilant avoidance, I have seen him twice in

the 4 weeks I have been here, and on those two occasion he was always in the

background with his medical residents. Thanks for your feedback.

I am home now hooked up to a vac machine that is closing the wound up from

the inside out, I have a terrible tightness above the open wound area and

hope all of this will begin to loosen up. If anyone has any thoughts about

how to help heal my self both physically and mentally, I would appreciate

hearing from you.

I thank God every single minute for giving me a chance to ov erc\ome this

terrible ordeal.

Patty

53 yrs young

gastric bypass 5/99 no complications

[Guest guest]

Sorry to hear of your experience. I have two comments. First, the

incredible tightness is normal after the abdominoplasty. I thought my skin

would burst for weeks. Even now, 8 months post-op, the interior muscle is so

tight. Kind of like having a girdle on all the time For the first month

post-op the skin was tight, but that has eased up.

With respect to " should you get a lawyer " - do you have reason to believe

malpractice was committed? Did they leave a sponge inside? Was the incision

not closed? With surgeries such as these it is not unusual for infection to

occur, and for the incision to need to be opened to let it heal. It's

unfortunate, but not unusual, and not necessarily malpractice. The only

thing you've described that I found odd was that they would send you home

with smelly discharge, which almost always means an infection!

Kate

[Guest guest]

Sorry to hear of your experience. I have two comments. First, the

incredible tightness is normal after the abdominoplasty. I thought my skin

would burst for weeks. Even now, 8 months post-op, the interior muscle is so

tight. Kind of like having a girdle on all the time For the first month

post-op the skin was tight, but that has eased up.

With respect to " should you get a lawyer " - do you have reason to believe

malpractice was committed? Did they leave a sponge inside? Was the incision

not closed? With surgeries such as these it is not unusual for infection to

occur, and for the incision to need to be opened to let it heal. It's

unfortunate, but not unusual, and not necessarily malpractice. The only

thing you've described that I found odd was that they would send you home

with smelly discharge, which almost always means an infection!

Kate