Sep
thanks for all the answers that i had from the last question my mum was still in hospital the day that she coughed up the blood clots is the day that they were discharging her.they hadnt done a swallow test after surgery even though they have stated to me that it is routine to do so. all they did the first time that she vomited up the blood clots was to take blood. surely they should have done more than this, rather than leave her until it happend again 12-13 hours later, sure this its self is a sign of internal bleeding. the hole in the main blood vessel was caused by a big gastrointesturnal hemorrhage caused by aortoenteric fistula, along with the aspiration punemonia. this all must be linked together in some way is the aspiration punemonia anything to do with the bleeding. is the fistula anything to do with the surgery. they hadnt done any tests to see if mum had healed right and maybe if they had they (the hospital) might of be able to save her. the surgey that mum had was eosophogus surgery where they lift up the stomach and attach it to the eosophogus. couldnt they have put it up to shut to the heart.
Answer:
Your mother required a post-op swallow study. The only reason for one would be a question about her capability to swallow or to verify that her swallow ability is intact. That's a no-brainer. There was some doubt about her anatomically, physiologically or both. Aspiration pneumonia states it all. Aspiration is the act of inhaling some object or substance into the respiratory tract that doesn't belong there. And, aspiration pneumonia is a very real threat after a surgery anyway, particularly an abdominal surgery. Care is taken to prevent this. It's a post-op complication. Perhaps she aspirated blood.
I don't understand what you mean by “lift up the stomach and attach it to the esophagus”. The esophagus is already attached to the stomach at the cardiac sphincter. As far as the surgical procedure done, I don't know which one was used so I can't comment much on that except to state that I don't think putting the stomach close to the heart is a good idea. The stomach belongs below the diaphragm, not above it. The diaphragm separates the organs in the chest cavity from those in the abdominal cavity. Putting it above the diaphragm places the stomach in the thoracic (chest) cavity and drags the small intestine along with it. No room. It sounds like her aortoenteric fistula was primary rather than secondary. Am I correct? One surgical techinque used is aorta-to-aorta graft with fistula repair done laparascopically. Is this what she had? It depends on exactly where the fistula is located. Primary aortoenteric fistulae are rare.
I'm terribly sorry about your mother and all that she and you went through together. I deeply regret the outcome. If you're looking for closure, you'll need her hospital chart and an expert or two to go over everything that was done and everything that was documented, all diagnostic reports and results, all progress notes by both physicians and nurses. It's possible that all appropriate measures were taken in light of her condition but a chart review will tell the story and you can compare your own recollections and observations to what you find in her chart. If you decide to do this, do it soon before her chart leaves the hospital.