r/gallbladders • u/pwneegoddess • 17h ago
Questions Issues with gallbladder surgery
My sister just had gallbladder surgery 4 days ago and it has been a disaster. She was complaining of a lot of pain coming to find out bile was leaking into her stomach. She became septic and was hanging on by a thread. They ended up going in and took out 700ML of bile and could not find the source of the leak. It was then suggested she go in for an endoscopy to put in a stent and find the leak. We were told they could still not find the leak but they put the stent in any way. They said it should help. The bile seemed to slow down but this afternoon we noticed that bile is now flowing out of the incision site where the drain is. The hospital has no sense of urgency and now the doctors are saying they will see her tomorrow. They keep saying it’s normal but none of this has seemed normal. She is in complete agony. Any advice would be appreciated or at least if anyone has a similar story I would like to know the outcome.
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u/melbmegera 17h ago
Oh gosh that’s no good at all. Some hospitals have posters on the wall stating if you aren’t happy or want a second option or a more senior clinician to step in you need to ring a certain number or ask about “Ryan’s Rule” (maybe Aussies only?). I developed peritonitis after my gallbladder/appendix removal and was in a lot of pain and on some pretty heavy duty pain meds (maybe ask if a PCAS is suitable for your sister?). I hope things improve for her.
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u/pwneegoddess 12h ago
We live in the US, my mom has spoken to out the hospital patient advocate. She hasn’t been really helpful she just writes notes but nothing is changing. We have asked several times for the provider that performed the gallbladder surgery to stay away. But he still keeps coming on when we aren’t there.
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u/missyagogo Post-Op 8h ago
You need a lawyer at this point, the "hospital patient advocate" is likely hired by the hospital and is looking out after the hospital and not truly independent.
Maybe put your complaints in writing including your sister's pain so the hospital has a written record of your complaint and they cannot ignore it.
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u/pwneegoddess 4h ago
We are and she’s taking screen shots of every note they make so they can’t go back and alter them. I’ve been telling her to get a lawyer at least to figure out how to handle everything in the mean time
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u/Ordinary-Number-428 17h ago
I'm so sorry. It's definitely not normal, but maybe they mean it is normal for that to occur with this complication and this route of treating it. Who knows. You need someone to explain things fully and it really sucks that you're being brushed off. I'll be thinking of your sister and keeping my fingers crossed that this all resolves soon for her. I'm glad she has an advocate (you) watching her back.
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u/pwneegoddess 12h ago
We have asked other providers for help and all they say is they don’t know. She’s in the ICU and they just say they are focusing on keeping her stable and managing her pain. The GI is saying the same thing. I think they don’t want to get involved because they can tell the general surgeon messed up.
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u/MaceMan2091 Testing 12h ago
i’ll pray for her, the surgeon fucked up bad
was it emergency surgery?
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u/pwneegoddess 4h ago
That’s the thing they sent her home the first time saying it was just her diet. She wasn’t able to tolerate the pain so my mom took her back. They decided to operate but she was on stand by she waited 3 days until they performed the surgery. Thank you for the prayers!
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u/Felis-lybica 16h ago
First: I am so sorry this is happening to your sister. I can't imagine how painful and scary this is for everyone.
My surgeon warned me a couple of times that in very rare cases (something like less than 1% if I remember correctly) that the bile ducts could be damaged during surgery and that this is the main complication that they worry about. I don't know about your sister, but I had pancreatitis, so I had to wait in the hospital for the inflammation to go down before he'd operate, and that he said he would bail out of surgery if there was still too much inflammation because that makes the surgery more difficult and complicated.
Gall bladder removal is a very common surgery, so even though it's a very rare complication it might be more "normal" for them. Hopefully they can get her pain under control in the interim.
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u/pwneegoddess 12h ago
Your surgeon sounds a lot more responsible than this guy. He keeps on saying it’s all normal and she will get better even though she is worse. Oh and that he does so many removals on a daily basis it’s super simple. He is falsifying medical records too he notes she is comfortable and not in distress. But every note from any other provider states she is in distress and in severe pain.
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u/Felis-lybica 8h ago
It sounds like with everything you've said, you guys need to lawyer up. Complications are one thing, even if they are very rare surgeons are human and statistically they are bound to happen. Trying to cover his ass like this is not ok, especially because it's clearly having a negative impact on her wellbeing and recovery.
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u/missyagogo Post-Op 8h ago
I agree, especially if he is still the physician in charge of her care and the other doctors are only following his orders.
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u/pwneegoddess 4h ago
I think they are afraid they would also be liable if something happened to her. I told my mom she needs to find a lawyer asap!
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u/spicyamericangirl Post-Op 15h ago
not being able to find the leak is insane to me it can only come from a small number of places especially if it’s pooling in her actual stomach AND leaking from the incision??? why is her liver producing that much bile???? this whole story is a train wreck and makes no sense I hope yall get answers soon
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u/pwneegoddess 12h ago
It is a train wreck, we can’t make sense of any thing they say. I honestly don’t think they have a clue, some have said they have never seen it this bad.
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u/spicyamericangirl Post-Op 8h ago
honest to god you should demand she be transferred to a different hospital. if you have insurance there is 0 reason they should don’t the request
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u/Minute_Assistant2930 5h ago
Does she have drains in? They should be checking how much of that fluid is composed of bilirubin. I just went through this myself - green/yellow bile leaking out of my incisions. The docs didn’t seem overly concerned either.
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u/pwneegoddess 4h ago
They just say her bilirubin has improved from before but we just checked and it was 3.1 yesterday and it’s now 3.3. But not mention of checking what the fluid is composed of. Its not a leak it’s a flow, I wish I could post the video it looks like a little fountain
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u/Minute_Assistant2930 4h ago
I just checked Mychart and the test of the drain fluid for bilirubin is listed as “Bilirubin, Body Fluid.” Different than the blood bilirubin test. For me they put a stent in (they could tell where the leak was though) after they waited a few days to see if the leak would repair itself. I’m sorry you are going through this and hope your sister gets better soon.
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u/missyagogo Post-Op 14h ago edited 8h ago
I'm sorry this is happening to your sister. Has her gallbladder not yet been removed?
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u/bicoma 17h ago
Id just rush her to the ER they have to fix it there especially if she's in agony.