Simple Procedure Nightmare

Kyle was scheduled for a simple procedure on Tuesday to take out his old pins from his halo and put new pins in. His doctors wanted to do it in the OR under anesthesia. So the day started off with us getting at the hospital early and waiting in the pre-op room for 2 hours. Kyle was very nervous about the surgery and I kept telling him it will be an in-and-out procedure. He said he did not want a tube down his throat, he did not want a catheter, and he did not want to stay the night at the hospital. I assured him that would not happen. But.....

I knew something was wrong based on how long it was taking. When the neurosurgeons finally came to tell me what happened I was beyond upset.

Four hours after they took him to the operating room we find out major issues occurred while Kyle was in surgery. Kyle had a bad reaction to the anesthesia and wasn't breathing. The anesthetist had to take life threatening measures. Major domino effect-one thing lead to another trying to save Kyle. The anesthetist told us (three days later) he was afraid Kyle was going to die in the operating room. So while the anesthetist tried to pump oxygen into Kyle his lung popped a hole which made it collapse and leak air.

My husband and I immediately went to the PICU to see him. It was chaotic. He was tied to the bed and shaking and kicking like crazy. He had a trachea tube so he couldn't talk or scream but I could tell he was trying to. I yelled at one of the P.A.'s. I said something like 'what the hell, I'm so angry'. The anesthetist who popped Kyle's lung came over to me and tried to explain what happened but I wasn't listening. I immediately went to Kyle's side and kept calling his name. Kyle didn't recognize me and I don't think he knew what was going on or where he was. Several nurses and doctors were at his side doing their thing, hooking him up on machine after machine. I started crying and I yelled, "Is his brain ok?" Nobody answered me, they just gave me a terrible stare.

IN THE OPERATING ROOM

Kyle was suppose to just be given anesthesia through a mask and the whole procedure to change his pins was to take 20 minutes. But Kyle's oxygen level was dropping so the anesthetist decided to open his airway. The anesthetist tried several methods that wasn't working and at some point Kyle became critical where he wasn't breathing. The anesthetist and his team took drastic measures to get Kyle to breath and while they were manually pumping oxygen into him they believe over pressure caused a tear in his right lung. So his right lung collapses and the air starts to leak into his body. Another surgeon then had to put a chest tube in Kyle to vent the trapped air. At this point, they weren't sure if Kyle suffered any neurological damage.