QuestionWhile I was hospitalized for a c/section with my 5th child, I had what seemed to be a cold. My records show that I did tell them I had it for about 3 weeks.(and it was obvious). During my post-pardum hospitalization I was complaing of cough, with green mucus, and pain in my rt back, around my rib cage. Medical records also show that I had sinus tachycardia (that they did an ekg for) and sporadic fever. The bloodwork also shows elevated WBC from even before the c-section that persisted until I was discharged, and low lymphocyte count, also started from before the actual surgery. They gave me robotussin and I was told to take more pain medication.
About a week after I was discharged, I could barely breathe and the pain in my ribs was unbearable, and I was still taking the pain medication, the Dr even called in a re-fill. I went to an urgent care facility and was diagnosed with a large left and medium rt pleural effusion with a-typical pneumonia.
I was again hospitalized for 2 weeks, and had a thorosentesis and a thoracatomy with removal of up to 18% of my lung.
I am tryin to use this as a learning experience, so my question is, how common is post-operative pneumonia, and is there anything that should have been done differently?
Thanks so
AnswerHi Kristen,
Post-op pneumonia is a common risk of surgery in general. I think this had probably started before your surgery though and the surgery didn't help at all. Perhaps you should have had a chest x-ray in the hospital where an earlier diagnosis of pneumonia would have been probable. With an earlier diagnosis, you may have been able to be treated medicinally. I hope this helps!
