I sent Dr. De Smet the letter below. If anyone has any ideas or help for me, please let me know. I am very anxious to get my hip situation solved.
Dear Dr. De Smet,
I read about you in a book by Patricia Gabriel and on the Surface Hippy website.
I hope you are able to read this email and to respond as soon as possible. I would appreciate that greatly. I have a terrible hip situation.
I live in New York City and I an 53 years old. I was an elementary schoolteacher until I became disabled due to complications with hip replacement surgery.
I had my first hip implant, which was a hemiarthroplasty stryker cobalt hip in 2003. I had fallen and broken the head of the right femur. The surgeon told me he was going to pin the hip and that I would recover nicely. I was only 48 years old. He removed my healthy hip without telling me and sent me home without indicating he had given me a hip replacement. I found out a few days later when I went for xrays at another hospital.
The hip became infected within weeks and the same surgeon removed tissue and gave me intravenous vancomyacin. I had a bad reaction to the vancomyacin and almost died. My skin peeled off and my kidneys failed. I was in the hospital for six months.
I pulled through, thank God.
The hip was never very good. I was always in pain and it loosened fairly quickly.
Last year I decided to have the loosened hip implant removed and to receive a new hip. I chose to go with ceramics because I have fears about metal ions and metal allergies.
The surgeon put a cement abtibiotic spacer in first based on my infection history. However, my blood levels for infection were fine and all cultures from the bone were negative.
The first bag of antibiotics I received (for precautionary measures) caused severe pains in my kidney areas. Nurses ignored my call bells and refused to contact a physician to have my pain assessed.
On ther third day, a resident came to tell me the surgeon wanted to insert a picc line for a six week course of antibiotics. Because I had such severe pains, I refused the picc line. I was afraid of the complications from intraveneous antibiotics I suffered from in 2004.
Because I refused the picc line, a stretcher was sent to my bedside to take me to a psychiatric hospital. I was taken to one of the worst psychiatric hospitals in the U.S. - Bellevue. Although I had a patient right to refuse the picc line, my records reflected that I had a prior diagnosis of ''mental illness''. (I suffered from bouts of depression since childhood. I was never a dangerous or suicidal individual. I went to a therapist for many years to help overcome the depression. I did not exhibit any symptoms at the orthopaedic hospital and had been free of depression for years.) Thus, my past psychiatric history was used against me in a discriminatory manner and, in turn, this jeapordized the outcome of my hip procedure drastically.
I was left at Bellevue for four months without an orthopaedist to speak of. I had no pain specialist and no physical therapy. The psychiatrist and nurses were mentally abusive. When I complained about my lack of medical attention and pain medication, I was tortured with haldol injections and locked in an isolation room with just a mat on the floor. I was unable to crouch down on the mat because of my hip and was left standing there in pain.
The original surgeon never came to see me and ignored all of my phone calls. I left messages for him telling him I was in writhing pain.
The psychiatrist in charge insisted that cement hip spacers can last up to one year. I told him that the pain was excruciating and I felt my bones and muscles in the hip area getting damaged.
After four months I was sent to a state mental hospital where many criminally insane patients reside. I was told I could only go home to my Manhattan apartment if I agreed to use the surgeon who had abandoned me and inappropriately sent me to a mental hospital without necessary surgical follow yp.
I stayed at the state hospital for one month. I have been home three weeks now. My hip is a mess. I am quite scared.
I am supposed to be operated on at Xpecial Surgery next week. I like my surgeon very much. He is from Germany. The only problem is that he is very young and lacks experience. He has only been in practice since 2005. I have heard that he takes on a lot of difficult cases. I don't know anything about his reputation.
My surgeon told me my xrays are very bad and that my case is a disaster. He said the spacer should probably never have been used, and that it was left in too long. I told him I have had bazaar symptoms and have felt physically sick since the spacer went in and he said my body probably had a reaction to the material.
I apologize for the lengthy email, but I felt you needed to know my story to understand how bad my situation is and to know whether you can help me..
I want my life back. I would like to be a high school health teacher or an advocate for the mentally ill. I want to be as athletic and active as possible for the remainder of my life. I can't go through one more bad operation. The hip might end up permanently unrepairable.
I might need bone grafting and I need to know that a surgeon can fix this mess without further damage and by lining everything up as best he or she can. I am interested in the safest biomaterials that are suited for my situation..
Do you think I am making a mistake by using such a new surgeon?
Would you be interested in my case?
Do you know anyone in New York or in the States who is excellent for a situation like mine?
I am afraid.
Please get back to me if you can.
Feel free to either email me or to call me.
Sincerely,
Mary
Topic: Help and Support Needed (Read 5144 times)
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