[Sacamuelas]

Eagle.. No stories about me personally. However, my little twins spent 13 weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit in New Orleans when they were born. This place was supposed to be THE place for the very early premies.

Anyway, I spent every night and every weekend over there during that time being with the little guys. Overall, I think we received excellent care. But I did catch one thing that would have been a fatal error if I had not been vigilant and well read/knowledgeable about things.

My little boy was on the jet ventilator (400 pulse breaths/minute- really cool device) because he had a persistent pneumothorax in his left lung. They had a chest tube and pleurovac hooked up for the pneumo. Well, they decided that they needed another tube placed farther anterior to drain the lower left 1/3. I demanded that the "guru" pediatirc surgeon come do it even though normally the neonatologist performs such a "routine" procedure. This guy gets there and puts it in. When I get back in, the boy is doing much better. I go home about 01:00 with a good feeling.

Well, the next morning I come back @ 07:00. XXXXXXXXX has not had a good night. AS I get in the NICU, the NP and nurse are attempting to irrigate/unblock the chest tubes from serous fluid accumulated in the tubes. As I am watching I notice that both tubes are connected with a 3 way connector before the main suction hose goes down to the pleurovac.. THe nurses tell me that he has been showing signs of decreased breath sounds in the lung. THey tell me they think the tubes are clogged and no suction is present b/c of it.

Well, I watch them attempt to clean the lines. THey remove one connection (actual chest tube to vacuum hose) while carefully clamping off the chest tube to prevent air flowing back into his lung. Then they place a large gauge syringe onto the chest tube and pull with a large amount of manual pressure to break the clot/while irrigating it with sterile saline preiodically. Sounds good right?

Well, one problem. The hose that WAS connected to the chest tube is laying there on the bed unclamped. It is still connected with the 3way to the other chest tube and the pump down below. EVERY time they placed negative pressure with their syringe on one chest tube, they were drawing air INTO his lung through the other chest tube.

I Freaked out, well professionally voiced my concern! LOL... called over the MD, the shift supervisor,etc. I explained the physics to them. After some initial attempts to convince me that I was wrong the light finally went off in their heads. They ALL fell silent, and the MD admitted I was right.. and they started apologizing and kissing ass. I was VERY pissed.. I found out that he had steadily worsened over the night b/c they thought his tubes were blocked so they had been irrigating/manually suctioning them all morning. THis whole time putting more air into his chest causing it to collapse and therefore lower his O2 sats.

This really scared the sh#$ out of me. I never believed that this kind of stuff happened in good hospitals. Moral of the story, if you or a loved one is going to receive medical care then you should be involved and educated. Never feel bad about asking questions or DEMANDING explanations. I made a few more corrections during their stay but that was the most dangerous one. To all nonproviders, I did not sue or press the matter after it was corrected. We are all human. I wish more people would think that way...

The boy... well, he did just fine after that... and now he is a 11lb 14oz recruit for the TS's early intervention soldier training program. As you can tell, he is a fighter at heart. LOL