Praise Report for Kathy 8/29 - Wooo! My day started at 4:50 AM when I received a call from Kindred North. The lady said that Kathy had been sick multiple times through the night and appeared to be bleeding around the new trach they had put in yesterday and they were sending here to the ER at Community North Hospital. I hurried up there and when I got there Kathy was totally unresponsive. Her eyes were fixed and unblinking with no movement whatsoever. She kept throwing up and most of it was meal solution with a little blood mixed in. She was very congested in her breathing and we initially thought she had aspirated some of her meal solution (drawing something into your lungs that you have vomited from your stomach is very easy on a trach and very dangerous). One of the MD's had the nurse hook a low pressure suction to her feeding tube and they started removing the remaining meal solution and all the gas that had built up in her stomach. This stopped her throwing up and she started to get better and coming around a little. As time went on she started responding better and better. They did stomach and pelvis xrays to make sure she wasn't bleeding, which she wasn't. They were possibly going to do a broncioscope to examine and vacuum out her lungs if need be. I don't think they did that as she was breathing with no more rattles, lungs appearing clear.
I want to Thank her daughter Tiffany for being there with me. It really helped having someone else there instead of being alone.
They really haven't said what happened yet, but we had the same thing happen at UofL when they first started tube feeding her. I think the nutritionist totally dropped the ball and either gave her a solution that she was allergic to or had the feed rate too high for her to process. Further, they did not do timely volume checks (this is where they draw out the meal solution at specific times, measure it, then put it back in. This gives them a good idea of how much the food is being absorbed. UofL had this completely dialed in for the 10 days or so before Kathy left. I got the phone number for follow up care and it was a simple matter for the hospital to send a request for those food records. I am waiting to ask the Kindred nutritionist about why she didn't do that. Kathy is spending the night at Community North. Not sure what will happen tomorrow. I will be going up
again in the morning and should have much more info. Please pray for protection as well as healing for Kathy. And Thank You all for the prayers! I am sure that is what has sustained her. Be so glad to get that trach out.