Pulmonary hypertension
in Health ·
granitenomad16 said:Look, speaking from firsthand experience here—and trust me, I know what I'm talking about—you can actually end up with pulmonary hypertension because of a nurse's mistake. I’m telling you, it’s possible. I’m a nurse myself, and I ended up developing pulmonary hypertension because of a mistake made by another nurse... It's a weird situation, right? But honestly, I don't think the nurses are entirely to blame—it's not like they were taught how to avoid this specific thing in nursing school or anything...
So, most of you probably know that when you're getting IV therapy—you know, those injections or infusions—they use IV catheters or cannulas. And as anyone who’s been through it knows, those things stay sitting right there in your vein after the first use. Now, even though they’ve been using them in America for over 20 years, I could never find a single shred of medical literature before July 2011 that actually laid out a protocol for maintaining those multi-use cannulas left in the vein... nothing. Then, in July 2011, an American nursing education journal finally published this piece detailing everything about cannulas, including the actual instructions: you’re supposed to flush the cannula immediately with diluted heparin to stop a clot from forming inside. See, if a nurse disconnects an infusion and doesn't apply pressure to the vein above the cannula with their finger, blood just surges out under pressure until they cap it off... and boom, you’ve got a clot that makes the cannula completely useless. If you flush that thing with diluted heparin right away, you don't get the clot. Anyone who’s ever been hooked up to an IV knows how nurses will try to "fix" a clogged cannula by forcefully flushing it with saline—I mean, I’ve seen it happen! They did it to me, too, even though I begged them multiple times just to swap the cannula out for a new one. Well, because I decided to push back against that kind of practice, they basically kicked me out of the hospital on the spot... which was wild, considering they had refused to discharge me earlier that morning because I still needed more tests. Fast forward to the next day, I'm at home trying to get out of bed, and suddenly—bam—a pulmonary embolism hits me. For a split second, my breath just hitched and I felt this intense, sharp stabbing pain in my chest that wouldn't quit. It was all caused by just one single clot that happened to be big enough to do real damage. It makes you wonder, though... what happens to all those patients who have clots released into their circulation over and over again? Most people don't even recognize the feeling of an embolism happening because nobody ever tells them what to look for. This was my first time being hospitalized in my life, and since I was at a facility where I didn't work, they didn't know me—and it ended up being a near-death experience for me. I had just moved to the States from abroad, and I used to work at a hematology clinic... even though we flushed the cannulas, it was common knowledge that sometimes they just weren't cleaned properly. I actually had plenty of chances to see it firsthand while clearing out clogged cannulas myself. And let me tell you... those clots can get pretty long. Like, up to 5 cm long...
So, after dealing with all these symptoms for eight months, I finally dragged myself to the doctor... and let me tell you, it took another entire year just to get prescribed Martefarin. It was an absolute nightmare navigating the medical system—honestly, there were some seriously dark moments while I was bouncing from specialist to specialist. Most of them just flat-out denied that an embolism caused by a cannula clot was even possible. I tried to wrap my head around their dismissal, but things went south fast when doctors actually *did* see evidence in my tests supporting what I was saying, only to shrug and basically say, "Sorry, I can't help you... go find someone else." It got so bad that I ended up being involuntarily committed to a psych ward because they wouldn't accept my medical findings—and then, through some forced psychiatric evaluation, they slapped me with a personality disorder diagnosis just because I wouldn't back down about my own clinical results. It’s surreal, really... I’m just incredibly thankful to God that I finally ran into a doctor who actually had a heart and gave me the treatment I needed. But even with that, we all know this disease is progressive and there's no cure. You can probably imagine how much of a weight that puts on you...
It’s honestly bizarre watching nurses flush out cannulas that are clearly choked with clots—acting like they aren't making a massive mistake—but what's even weirder is that the doctors actually back them up... claiming our bodies just have this magical ability to dissolve a clot instantly. Well, newsflash: that's not how it works. This is exactly why patients who end up with an embolism because of this practice don't get treated properly, and they just suffer through chronic thromboembolism and pulmonary hypertension. In my opinion, only a tiny fraction of patients actually get diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension once it hits the advanced stages—and usually, they call it "idiopathic," which is just medical speak for "we have no clue why this happened"—while most people just end up with some other diagnosis or, you know, die suddenly. For instance, back when I was a patient at Jordanovac Hospital, there was this woman admitted from a town outside of St. Louis who had been treated for anxiety for five years straight, only for Dr. Samaržija to finally diagnose her with pulmonary hypertension. I ended up leaving... I don't know how things turned out for her, but I know she was headed for an emergency lung transplant.
I really hope sharing this helps anyone else who’s been screwed over by this same mistake... and I hope my colleagues take a long, hard look at themselves and stop these lethal procedures. It’s just heartbreaking, especially since the healthcare oversight commission here in America doesn't even consider flushing a clogged cannula to be wrong—or maybe they just don't want to take the blame for it.
This is exactly what my mother went through. She was hospitalized back in month five, only to be discharged in a truly precarious state, exhibiting all the classic symptoms of PH that everyone somehow managed to overlook, despite her being in a specialized pulmonary hospital. As her condition steadily deteriorated, she ended up in the ER during month seven, where an echocardiogram finally revealed a high PH level of 65. Instead of addressing the root cause, they just managed the symptoms with diuretics and sent her home. It wasn't until month ten that we finally connected with a true specialist—an exceptional physician who identified that the PH was actually caused by pulmonary emboli. It seems highly probable that she suffered an embolism back in month five while she was still under hospital care. She has since started on blood thinners, and honestly, she seemed reborn after just two days on them. Her PH levels remain elevated for now, but we are waiting two months to evaluate the medication's full impact. If the numbers don't drop, her next step will likely be a prescription for Viagra, provided insurance approves it.