What does it mean?

Sorry to hear about your difficulties experienced at the hospital. This website may help if you don't get satisfactory results from your formal complaints (scroll to bottom right)
www.jointcommission.org/

I check the label on the heparin I use in Dick's PICC line. It is not any off the brands named as contaminated. I also asked the provider if they were sure it was not on the recall list.

Dick has started Chemo for his MDS and one of the side effects to watch for is blood clots.

Julie i got a DVT related to my second surgery and was put on heparin for 7 days thru a central line and then i had to be on coumadin (warfarin) for 6 months...blood work weekly until proper levels achieved of the drug. I had to watch my K intake but they say not to alter your diet..they will alter the drug...but i really wanted to be on as low a dosage as possible to keep my blood thin. From what i understand the clot actually does not dissolve..it eventually just hardens and attaches to the wall of the vein.
I received a notice from the FDA that lots of Heparin are being recalled www.thestreet.com/story/10405522/1/baxter-expands-heparin-recall.html
I'd make sure they were not using an old batch.

Her long stay in the hospital is due to the fact that they gave her Heparin into her port but missed the port and it went into her muscle. She is all black and blue all over her chest and underarms. They have her working with a physical therapist to try to fix their mistake.

Camelia, I wish there was some way we could help. It sounds like you have sought relief from the highest level of the hospital and have gotten nothing in return. As Karen suggests have your Mother sign a release of information for all the records from this month and get the copies. Here I found the Patient Care Representative little more than apologist for the hospital. Sometimes the Charge Nurse for the shift was helpful.

Blood clots are serious. I think the goal is to have them dissolve and not have them lose in the blood stream and I'm not sure how they accomplish that.

I think there are at least two different ways they give heparin. When we have been in the hospital for surgery or for extended periods they gave us shots of heparin in our abdomen. That did leave bruises. My husband has a Central Line and he has to have 5 cc of heparin in the line everyday to keep the line free of clots. So I don't know what accepted medical practice is to get rid of blood clots that already exist.

What reasons are you being given for your Mother's long stay in the hospital? Julie

Camelia,

I am so sorry about the problems you are having at the hospital. It is bad enough that your mother is so ill, but to deal with incompetence on top of it is maddening!

My father was in the hospital and the nurse/ or aide came in to draw blood. They must have been called away because they forgot to take the tubing off of my fathers arm. I arrived Hours later to see it still attached and his arm completely blue! He never regained the strength in it and was in hospice a few days later not complaining about his breathing, but complaining about how much his arm hurt.

Beleive me I know how mad and upset you all are! I have been there!!!

If you call your insurance company and tell them what happened, and they determine that it was hospital error they will not pay, and you will not have to either. There is not much that can be done about the time your family including your mother have had to stay at the hospital, except possible sue, & settle with the hospital. The fact that your mothers days are limited, and that she had to spend so many of them in the hospital unnecessarily may give you a good case. Talk to the Risk Management Office at the hospital, if you don't get the answers you are seeking, I would talk to an attorney. Make sure to get all of her records first. They tend to get altered if a law suit is threatened....You will know if you have a good case if the attorney doen't ask for a retainer. That is a good way to tell if your case has merit.

Karen