Fast forward to March 1st of this year and my son fell and fractured his hip at the growth plate. Our small local hospital didn't feel they had the best qualifications to operate on him being 12 and it being his growth plate so they sent him to the same hospital my mom was at. This hospital is supposed to be our "big" hospital - the one with the trauma center, children's hospital, is a training hospital, etc.
I was so mad at how my son was treated in the ER. They did nothing for him, but leave him on a stretcher in the hallway for hours flat on his back. Our hospital had already done the pain medicine, x-rays, IV, etc. We were told they would decide quickly whether to do surgery that night or the next morning because they knew he hadn't eaten since 11 or so that morning and it was already nighttime. My son also tried for hours to pee into a urinal while laying flat on his back in a hallway because he had received numerous bags of solution at that point and hadn't gone to the bathroom since earlier that day. It took me really standing firm to get the poor boy a catheter so he could finally be relieved and to finally get the resident to come back who said they would operate the next day and that he could have a little bit of something to eat before it hit midnight. It was literally 11:55 or so that night and he told my son to quickly eat and that he didn't want to know if he went a couple of minutes past midnight.
In talking with the attendee the next morning, everything in my gut told me this guy was bad news. I had met him briefly the night before and felt the same way. He said he was going to pin his leg where it landed. My son had the most severest fracture a kid could have. I told him I didn't feel comfortable with that and why weren't they going to put everything back where it belonged. He said there was too much risk in regards to blood flow. I told him I wasn't comfortable with what he was doing, but there was nothing I could do. I knew the blood flow WAS an issue, but the way he was pinning his leg just didn't seem right to me. But...they were the premier orthopedic group and hospital so I trusted they knew more than me.
My son was in and out in 30 minutes or so. A week or so after surgery, I knew something wasn't right. My son's leg was so far turned out and shorter it was awful. My son began to look like an "S" in his back from the way he had to sit. I would call the office and be told he was fine. They do this all the time. I kept telling them I didn't care. Something was wrong. At his first follow up, the doctor asked if his leg had always been turned out that far. We said no and he seemed concerned, but then seemed to brush it off. I also learned at this visit that this guy was a board certified hand and upper body extremist orthopedic! There wasn't anything pediatric about him forget him having anything to do with the hip!!
I got to talk to the mom of a student at my son's school whose daughter had the same fracture a few months before, but the pediatric orthopedic they had still worked there at the time. That was the middle of December. She said that doctor put her daughter's leg back in proper place, pinned both hips, had her non-weight bearing for 3 months and in less than 4 months, she was walking and fine. My son's doctor put him into physical therapy within about a month. After a few weeks, the physical therapist said that she agreed with me about my concerns. She couldn't get my son's leg to a neutral position for anything, he couldn't ride a stationary bike, etc. So I tracked down the doctor that had left who is now at a real children's hospital in a neighboring state and had his reports and scans sent to her. She said if she had gotten him first, she could have taken care of him, but because by this point it had been almost 3 months, she didn't even feel she was the best person to try to help him. So we got referred to another doctor there who has been absolutely amazing.
Unfortunately, we both thought one more surgery would fix him. It didn't. He has now had a third surgery, has a 1.25 inch lift on his shoe because our doctor now could only reclaim so much of his length, etc. He has been in a wheelchair or on crutches since March 2nd. He's endured tons of IVs, blood tests, catheters, pain, and more. It has affected his anxiety and his schooling horribly. Now the doctor thinks he may have no choice but to do a hip replacement next year. My son is only 13. Whether we can find other options or not, it is evident this is going to affect my son now for the rest of his life. I just find it completely negligent that especially for being the hospital they pride themselves as being, that they never replaced the pediatric orthopedic.
Our doctor now said that it appears my son was born with a shallow hip socket, but that the situation was made much worse by his leg being in the position it was from surgery as it caused the bone to knock against the hip socket and flatten it even more. Even if he tried to reshape things, there was no guarantee it would take because the socket itself is in bad shape now. The only way to get around that is to do a pelvic osteotomy which would make things very complicated when the time comes for him to get a hip replacement which seems definite now at SOME point no matter what or to just wait and see what happens in the next year and maybe just do the hip replacement instead.
I just feel like I need someone who knows more about these situations to look into them so that if it is agreed they did do wrong by us that the next family doesn't have to go through the same things hopefully.
Thank you for your time. I'm sorry I'm not more concise. I just want to write the correct people and figured the details would help you guide me.
Thank you again.