Forced detox

[VAbritt]

Just to preface I am a patient not a nurse, but Ive been fighting for years now to find out what happened to me. Now I feel as if Im nearing the end due to weakness, breathing issues, et al. just 4 days ago i awoke unable to draw a breath due to pulmanary edma/COPD. During my ordeal the VA kept me in a cma on a constant ativan drip along with 112 other piggybacked IV's My Vein collapsed and the called my wife for permission to put a shunt in the mamalary artery(the IV went bad and caused MRSA) Thats when she was able to find me. While I was out I was tube fed sown the wrong pipe and debeloped non viral double pneumonia. I have nightmares of being buried alive due to being unable to breathe properly while I was out. While I still had atotal blackout they said at UC I was going into swizures as the didnt give me ativan because they didnt know I was on it at Cinci VA. I couldnt talk and didnt know who i was and they brought in speeech paths, gave me a spinal,cat and MRI(which I was out for) I remember talking to 4 drs form CDC Atlanta asking me about travels. I had an undisclosed raging infection(the MRSA wasnt known-just a scab on my arm) This was in late sept early oct 02. Since then Ive been unable to breathe properly. Chronic intractable pain from my legs being tied to the gurney and a ruined heart. Heres my tale/ If anyone cant tell me anything Id love them for life!

Heres how it started. I had serious chest pains, so my wife called an ambulance to take me to Middletown hospital. They stabilized me,did an angiogram and I had a 96% blockage. I had the transport me to the VA for the angioplasty(done at UC). Thats all I know until I awoke almost 2 weeks later.The rest of this I got from my wife. I was supposed to go to the Va for observation for 2 days snd then go home. Well I sort of disappeared. My wife kept calling and they said I was having complications and wasn't allowe visitors. After about 3 days she bulldogged her way into the cardiac stepdown wing. I was laying naked, just a sheet draped over my groin, in the middle of the hallway. My legs were tied to the gurney and I had about 12 IV bottles going into me. She asked what was going on. They said they didn't want to tell her but her it was. They were keeping me unconsious with atavan to detox me from dangerous narcotucs. There was heroin found in my system. My wife sayed they were nuts. I didn't do drugs. They called her a liar and said she was trying to cover up for herself as well. Well middletown hospital gave me morphine to stabalize me after my heart attack. She demanded the VA to release me, they said no, she had no power of attorney. And anyway, with my heart condition they had to get me off the herion for my own good.

As I said, I woke up, about a week after this point. Due to all the complications my health is ruined and a long life is not too likely. Not too cheery, since I just turned 52 in September.

When I got out, I called every attorney in the book. All were interested until I said VA. The said sorry about my luck.. If anything you would think I could get a major lawsuit for violating my civil rights. No such luck.

While I was unconscious, they were tube feeding me. The got the tubes reversed so I ended up with a double non-viral pnuemoniam. After all was said and done I couldn't breathe propperly. I went almost a full year with out sleeping, If I laid down i couldn't breath at all. I kept getting hospitalized, and they couldn't figure out what was causing it. Because I had cold sweats to ge along with loss of breath, my primary care doc at the va wanted to put me on psyche med. He said I had anxiety disorder and pacic attacks. Finally Kettering hosptal nailed it down. Congestive heart failure. .The VA had kept me at a coma level with an atavan IV. While I was unconscious I had another heart attack due to a blood clot. Thats why, eventually I woke up, they had to detox me from the atavan, in order to ind out what was wrong with mr. While I was out they sent me back to UC for another heart procedure. It took them a week to wake me up, I kept going into shock due to the amount of atavan in my system. When I awoke, I couldn't talk, didn't know who I was or where I was. My legs were in agony and I couldn't control them to walk, . I didn't even recognize my wife. he cardiologist at UC could only guess how long I was oxygen starved due, while unconsious, to the blood clot. But it reduced my heart function down to around 20%. These days its all I can do to walk around the house. I'm in constant pain due to permenant nerve damage in my legs. I can't eat due to problems swallowing. Tests show noting...

Sorry if this sound confusing. The time I was conscious was a blur. What I know is from my wife.

For 4 years the VA said ther was no reason for me pain so I see an outside doctor. They told me about rsd caused by heartattack.

britt

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

sounds like you have been though a lot medically. not all practitioners are medication and pain managment savy, hence our foum to educate nursing porfessionals on this issues. experience really is the best teacher.

per our terms of service we can not offer personal health advice.

reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome (rsd) is also known as complex regional pain syndrome (crps). rsd / crps is a multi-symptom, multi-system, syndrome usually affecting one or more extremities, but may affect virtually any part of the body. although it was clearly described 125 years ago by drs. mitchell, moorehouse and keen, rsd / crps remains poorly understood and may go unrecognized....

[color=#330066]making the diagnosis of rsd / crps

the diagnosis of rsd / crps can be made in the following context. a history of trauma to the affected area associated with pain that is disproportionate to the inciting event plus evidence at some time for one or more of the following:

• [color=#330066]abnormal function of the sympathetic nervous system, e.g., abnormal changes in skin blood flow, sweating or goose flesh.
  
• [color=#330066]swelling.
  
• [color=#330066]movement disorder.
  
• [color=#330066]changes in tissue growth (dystrophy and atrophy).
  

http://www.rsdfoundation.org/en/en_clinical_practice_guidelines.html#diagnosis

excellent info from the international research foundation for rsd / crps: reflex sympathetic dystrophy clinical practice guidelines