You Found What?!

Approx 1pm
Some lady from Risk Mgmt at the hospital just came to me & introduced herself. I asked what risk mgmt was & she asked if anyone had talked to me about the little piece of tape they found inside Skylar during the 2nd surgery. I said no. She looked shocked like she thought someone already told me. Apparently she let the cat out of the bag. She walked away.

Jan, the nurse came over a few mins later & asked what she said (sounded like she kinda overheard). She said the Director & Drs were going to come talk to me. I've been waiting to talk to them for like 45 mins.

I feel that nervous/sick feeling. I'm livid. But I know that everyone is human & obviously a mistake was made.  So it turns out that its a really good thing she "needed" surgery again so they could discover the tape.

So risk mgmt is obviously for the hospital to cover their butts. I wonder what my legal rights are in this situation. I wonder if the tape stunted Skylar's progress or prevented her from healing?

And why the hizzell had nobody talked to us before now? When was someone planning on telling us? I think that's what makes me the maddest.  I would like my hospital bill waived now.  I'm feeling some crazy adrenaline!!!  This is really turning out to be the ULTIMATE test!!!  Add self control to the list of things that I'm apparently supposed to learn from this.

Later...

Originally I was thinking that the tape was left in Skylar during the 1st surgery but that wasn't the case.   They think she swallowed it- like it had come loose from her repogal.  Dr. Baldwin said he did tell us after the surgery that they had found some "debris" but Tyson nor I recall him telling us anything like that & if he did, he just said it in such a way where we didn't understand what he meant.  Saying you found "debris" vs. saying "I found tape in her stomach" are two different things. Obviously, if he would have told us he found tape in her stomach, we would have had questions & expressed concern.  He assured me that he did not think it in any way compromised Skylar's healing & that it wasn't anywhere near the obstruction area.  He said if he though it might have at all, he would have a moral obligation to tell me.  He really has no reason to lie since he did nothing wrong so I truly do believe him although there is no way that anyone can prove that it didn't prevent Skylar from healing.  Dr. Baldwin couldn't really explain why the first surgery was not successful.  He said it may have been the angulation of the area which doesn't really make sense to me since we're talking about liquid going down her stomach...how would angulation play a role in that?  I'm going to look into the situation & see if they will work with us regarding our hospital bills.

They're even changing the way they operate in the NICU due to this!  They're going to use longer pieces of tape to prevent it from happening again. That tells me they absolutely know a mistake was made & that they are liable!

(It was a little balled up piece of white medical tape)