Had emergency gallbladder surgery, would I have a case against the surgeon....

[Mamamia30]

So I was diagnosed on January 23rd with gallstones after a month or so of abdominal pain issues. On Jan. 24th I had an evaluation with a surgeon who was going to do my gallbladder surgery. Due to his busy schedule he could not schedule the surgery until Feb. 17th (that is 25 days)  As the weeks passed the pain got worse. On Monday Feb. 13 I went into the ER with severe right abdominal pain.  After blood tests and an ultrasound they found a that I had an infection in my gallbladder possibly due to a stone blocking my bile duct (they confirmed this during surgery) So I had emergency surgery on Tuesday Feb 14 in the morning. They also found my appendix to be inflammed so they removed it.  I am so mad that the surgeon didn't make this an urgent issue and made me wait 25 days for surgery, knowing it could get worse. Do you think I would have a case against the surgeon for failure to take care of my health issue in a timely matter?    The surgeon that removed my gallbladder said it was pretty damaged.  I am just upset cause I lost a whole weeks worth of income, my husband had to change is time off and screw up his work plans, and I had to find all these people to help with my kids.
Once I feel better I will be contacting a lawyer for help.

[messymessmama]

I had mine removed 3 days after my baby was born back in 09. Horrible experience and was in the hospital for 3 days after since mine was an emergency. Mine was so blocked from stones that i could barely breath through the pain, they gave me so many drugs when I got to the er that I could barely move my arms and legs and none of it took the pain away and I still didn't have surgery till the next day. Gallbladders and appendix are so unpredictable. Unfortunatly that is not uncommon for you to wait that long to have it removed. I had two friends in a similar situation as well as my sister ad to wait 2-3 months. So honestly I wouldn't waste the time trying to persue something that is unpredictable. I am very sorry you had to go through that it is very painful and not fun! I hope your are doing much better now.

[AmyD12]

Hi,
I just got my gallbladder removed 4 wks ago this coming Friday.  I have been feeling pretty good since until today.  I had some fatty foods and now am paying the price with upper gastric pain.  Before I had the surgery I was wary of having it done, but just wanted to get it out and not deal with pain any more.  I had one large stone, but there was lots of scar tissue that was covering the gallbladder and attached to the liver as well.  Back in 2005 I ended up with pancreatitis, but never had an ultrasound to see if there was anything going on with gallbladder.  If I had known about a simple ultrasound I may have been diagnosed with the gallstone.  The surgeon said that the cause of the pancreatitis could have been sludge.  The large stone was the size of a marble and was most likely blocking the duct.  The surgeon that did the surgery did say to start out with a light diet and that maybe going back to my normal diet would be ok.  It was for a while until today.  I just hope that eating what I ate today will be the only cause.  
Any ways the body is our temple and we need to treat it as such.  We can never predict even if we are healthy diet eating souls what can happen.  Since coming to this board today has made me think if I should get checked out again or just wait it out and just eat healthier since this pain is back, and it feels like before I had the surgery.  
I too wonder if they just did something more back in 2005, then maybe I would have had my gallbladder removed at the time I ended up with the pancreatitis .  Well post gb removal almost 4 weeks and hope this pain goes away...
AmyD12

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

Gall stones can sometimes be silent for many years and are detected by a routine ultrasonogram. On the other hand they can be unpredictable and cause acute symptoms, by blocking the duct or by inflammation of the gall bladder. So, it's difficult to predict, which are likely to cause symptoms.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.

[Smiley2000]

Yip, I am doing great.  That all happened in 2006.  After that I had some other medical problems, but all the trauma has just made me a stronger person.

[Sarsi]

Wow it sounds like you had an awful time!!! Are you better now?

[Smiley2000]

Ps:  I had a terrible time with my Gallbladder-removal to.  5yrs of unexplaned abdominal pain, until someone decided to do ultrasound and found stones.  I had keyhole surgery a few months later.  Went in on the 6 of Sept. 2006 and discharged with drainage bag full of yellow fluid and a lot of pain, on the morning of the 9th.  At home I had to empty the drain-bag as soon as it got to full.  Yellow, oily fluid kept on bumping into the bag and I thought it was normal as Surgeon discharged me with it!  Just after midnight on the 10th I was crying with pain and could not keep up with emptying the bag, so I went to ER and was transferred via ambulance to a Hospital with a Liver Specialist as I had Cholangitis and stones in bile duct and my Pancreas was going to explode!  So I had another operation:  ERCP, infection for 2 weeks and then I started to recover.

I was extremely upset with the way that the Surgeon handled my case, but decided that he was not worth my energy and I focussed on the fact that I was alive and well.

[Smiley2000]

Hi there,

I don't think you should waste your energy, time and efforts on persuing the Surgeon.  Gallbladders are very unpredictable, as are the Appendix, but 90% of the time Gallbladder-removal due to stones inside Gallbladder is elective surgery and NOT emergency surgery.  If you were on a State Medical Insurance, your waiting-time would be anything between 1-2 years.

It is unfortunate that the stone got lodged into the bile duct.  And that is actually not very common and yes, dangerous for you and EXTREMELY painful, I know.  But nothing that Surgeon could have predicted.

Spend your energy on getting well, be glad that you are okay now and enjoy your kids.

All the best and hope you feel better soon.