April - and finally unburdening my heart

Apr 16, 2010

I have only lost 7 lbs in two months, as I am eating emotionally and have been ever since my sister lay near death after her sleeve surgery in the new Jerusalem clinic.  We went with such high hopes, Linda, my daughter and another friend we met on line.  I was shocked at the new facility, so tiny - so crowded, so not what I had expected.  Linda was last of six procedures that day, at 10 pm at night.  We had been there all day waiting.  She was sent back to the recovery house along with my daughter and friend, less than 24 hrs later.  I saw no medical staff  from my previous trip there when I had my sleeve back in September.  I was appalled that the previous patient coordinator/driver, Ricardo,  now seemed to be in the operating room, assisting!   No one there had any medical certification  except for Dr Almanza and Dr Lopez (anesthesiologist) I found out much later.  Linda suffered from "gas" pain we were told, when she was in such pain Wed, Thurs and Friday, and was too sick to go home on the Friday as planned.  Long story short she had a nick high up in her stomach near the esophagus, and all the fluids etc she had after Xrays on the second day, were collecting in her body and poisoning her.  Because no one had medical training, no one caught on to that fact even though fluids gushed out when they removed the drain, (by the housekeeper) on day 3. I recently found out as most of you know by now, that Betancourt's medical licence is bogus - making us all wondering what else is there that is not on the up and up.  So we depended on this "Dr" to help Linda BUT I took her out of there ready or not first thing Sat am for the long trip home to Edmonton (for her) She was admitted to hospital there in the wee hours and an emergency operation followed.  She was in septic shock, in major pain, had a collapsed lung, & was severely dehydrated with ensuing kidney failure.  They discovered over a liter of pus in her body, and after four hours of surgery, they packed her incision and had to open her for the cavity washes another 5 times over the course of two weeks.  Linda lay near death as the infection raged through her body.  Many weeks later when they took her off the ventilator that was assisting her to breathe, she was finally let out of critical care, and then we knew that she would probably make it, IF the infection could be reigned in.  If not, she could  be disabled for life.  Fortunately, she became infection free later in March and has had a stent surgically implanted in her esophagus as the holes from the infection are not entirely healed.  We are still waiting to see if that is going to allow her to stop being dependant on intravenous and tube to the gut feeding.  Then comes the task of getting food in the normal way, as to date she has not been able to have anything to eat or drink by mouth in all these long three plus months.  Others like her also are too sick to tell their stories or too angry and bitter.  We will never know how many, but we find some reports as to the complications coming from this facility and Emmanuel the previous one.  More than normal  rates no matter what the coordinators say.  Two in a 2 day period while we were there.  Russian roulette anyone?  
Linda is still in the hospital - can you imagine what that would cost  you in the US?  She still has two more surgeries to undergo, a skin graft and a hernia repair over the incision for the cavity washes.  She has no job, no income and will likely be unable to work for months and months more.  I will still recommend the sleeve for weight loss - however, just not there.   Please see my picture albums for a picture of Linda and I March 17th in her room at the hospital.  And the heart-breaking ones of us all smiley and looking so forward to their "sleeves" Jan. 11th.  Feel free to PM me if you need any more clarification on any of this.

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