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Periocarditis

On November 20th of last year, I was feeling pain in my chest and after getting to the
hospital was told I was having a heart attack. The doctor said that one minor "diagonal"
artery was blocked and all the main arteries were clear. He put in two stents to open
up the artery and I went home a week later.

Within 24 hours of being home, I was feeling terrible - like a really bad case of the
flu. By the time I arrived at the cardiologist's office, my BP was dropping and I was
losing consciousness. I was stabilized at the hospital and then transferred to
another hospital to be put in the care of a thorasic surgeon, who opened up
my chest and took out "a liter worth of fluid & puss from around the heart". I was
under sedation for 2 weeks with complications including pneumonia, fever, and
blood clots. After that they took me off the ventilator and I slowly came back
to myself. I was treated with IV antibiotic until they felt the infection was gone.

My question is this: Is it a possibility that the stents caused this infection?
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Avatar universal
Thanks for the input kenkeith. To answer your question, I was given no option - to quote the thorasic surgeon - "you have two options - I can do nothing and you're going to die, or I can open up your chest and try to clean out this infection".

Mitch
Helpful - 0
367994 tn?1304953593
The more probable cause of infection was the hospital environment (one of the greatest hazzard when hospitalized) and/or the standard of care was not properly followed.  I doubt very much the stents per se will cause an infection...more likely the cath was not properly sterilized, etc. if the infection happened during hospital stay.  Sorry to hear of your problems after a stent implant.

Were you given an option of medication to open (dilate) vessels and avoid an interventional procedure?  
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