Prostate Biopsy Complications: Understanding Risks & Sepsis

Question
Hi Margot,
I will try to be as brief as possible. My ex father-in-law was admitted to the hospital 17 days ago, following a prostate biopsy. He was under the assumption when he went to the dr. that he was only there for a follow-up, but was told the room wasn't 'ready' and to come back.  The next day he was admitted to the hospital for sepsis. We were told that he had ecoli. He was having problems breathing and was retaining fluid, so they medicated him, inserted a breathing tube and paralyzed him. He was put on antibiotics.  We were then told they had not administered the correct one.
Five days ago a trach was inserted and he was taken back into surgery because the surgeon 'nicked' something and they had to cauterize it. Today we were told that he has another infection and when I went to the hospital, there was a blood-soaked towel on his neck. I was told by the nurse that she was told not to touch it. He's on periodic dialysis, has a feeding tube and a colostomy. He was being given Heparin yesterday, but stopped today.
I guess my question to you is:  How is it possible that so many problems can stem from one procedure? Also, it appeared to me that he was either bleeding for a long time and no one attended to him, or he's bleeding excessively.
Are problems like this common with prostate procedures?
I'd appreciate anything you can offer.

Answer
Hi Kaye and thanks for writing,

Wow - this is like a horror story! Blood clots are a common complication with prostate procedures so Heparin is given to thin the blood to avoid this complication and this could obviously cause the blood loss you saw around his Trach.

Obviously I am not familiar with the details of his medical history, but from what you have told me, it sounds like his care has not been handled well.

At the very least I would request a conference with the Head Nurse or Medical Clinician to discuss his case - you should have someone in authority explain everything that's happened, what the current treatment plan is, prognosis and expected outcomes of treatments.

I hope this helps and I hope your ex-FIL is better soon.

Margot