breast mutilation via dialysis catheter placement
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I've never seen anything written about this, so maybe it is just a few certain doctors at my hospital. I work in an acute dialysis unit in a major hospital in Houston. We frequently initiate dialysis on patients with newly inserted dialysis catheters. There have been more than a few female patients who arrive in our unit with their new Tessio catheters, and when the gown is pulled back to reveal their access, I have been shocked to find catheters that exit so low on the breast that it is purely mutilation. The first such catheter that I found like that, exited the lady's body within the areola!! I was horrified and instantly moved to tears. The poor patient had no clue as she was still a little groggy from the anesthesia. I called the nephrologist to come look at it and told him that he might want to rethink who he refers his patients to for their catheters. The CV surgeon made some lame excuse about the drape and the way the breast falls when the patient is supine, but this lady had very small breasts. I later heard that the surgeon got "called on the carpet" for that case, but there have been other cases on women who had large breasts, small ones, it doesn't seem to matter. Strangely enough, all these women, with the exception of that first one, dismiss the wrong done to them and say things like, "Oh, Dr. So-and-so saved my life once and I wouldn't want to cause any trouble," or any number of other sad excuses. The general gist of it is that they don't want to make waves. How DARE these so called surgeons rob someone of their sexuality that way. How on earth have they gotten away with this time after time and not had the socks sued off them? If these ladies were my sister, mother, aunt or loved one, I would run them so fast to a lawyer it would make my own head spin. One of these witch doctors is married to a nurse manager at the hospital, and I even called her to come look at one of the patients (She and I used to work together in the ER) and she agreed that it was mutilation. What avenue do I have to be an advocate for these patients? Have any of the rest of you had any similar situation and how did you deal with it? I just get incredibly angry when I see these women treated that way. What do you think?
Suzanne
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