complications of hysterectomy

[d_naiken]

Dear sir,
I have assisted a total abdominal hysterectomy opf a 49 yrs old woman.the surgery was a difficult one as the patient had a myomectomy done 3 yrs back.therre was lots of adhesions but the rotine abdominal hysterectomy went on well.before closing the abdomen a lavage was performed and bowels checked.on the 2 day post-operatively the patient was pyrexial and was on claforan i.v ,flagyl i.v, gentamycin i.v
she passed stools,abdomen was not distended ,bowel sound were present.she was discharged on the 5th day postoperatively afebrile.she was admitted 2 days later in a govermental hospital with a diagnose Faecal peritonitis.a surgical intervention was performed but she died 4 days later.
Sir/Madam, kindly please do tell me what are the posibilities and which complications arouse after the abdominal hysterectomy and was it a medical negligence from the gynaecologist
with thanks
dr naiken

[Med Help]

Please note that this forum is a patient-to-patient forum and therefore is not able to offer medical answers to questions posted.  However, we did ask a board certified gynecologist to offer suggestions for you to consider, which are:

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Dear Dr. Naiken,

There is too little information to comment on medical negligence from this note. A more careful review of the operation note, the hospitalization and care in general would be needed.  Also, it would be important to understand why the patient died 4 days later, what was done to prevent it and why it happened any way, even though she was brought back to the hospital?

Infection is an unfortunate common complication from surgery. Even cutting the intestine can happen and does from time to time during surgery.  However, if it happens, the surgeon must realize it and repair the cut. We do not know why this patient got an infection.  It isn’t possible to know what happened in this case without all the records from the hospitalization.  It also matters if the patient was ill at the time of the surgery or had some type of medical problem that contributed to her death such as ulcerative colitis, appendicitis, or diabetes.

It is always sad to lose a patient after surgery or for any reason, and 49 years old is certainly a very young woman.  Whether this occurred due to negligence or was due to terrible bad luck cannot be determined from this brief description.

Machelle M. Seibel, MD
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[Donna49]

I am surprised that the doctor has not consulted with other doctors at the hospital or nearby hospitals?  Where did this surgery take place?