Phillip Trotz, 52, had done a simple surgery for his appendix at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) but did not realize it would lead to three other surgeries and to him spending $1.4M.
Trotz, a cane-harvester of Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara was still in hospital two days after the first surgery when his tummy started to swell, causing the stitches to burst.
His feelings of relief that his discomfort would be over, soon turned into a nightmare. He was not sure what was happening and was really scared.
He was taken back to theatre for ‘corrective’ surgery later that day.
He was discharged a few days later after it appeared as though the procedure was successful. But to his horror, the swelling recurred the following night and the stitches were again bursting.
He was taken to the WDRH where he was re-admitted and the surgeon promised to attend to him the next morning.
In the meantime, relatives could not bear to see him in that condition and decided to relocate him to the Woodlands Hospital where another surgery was subsequently performed.
A few days later he was still a patient at Woodlands when the stitches started to burst again and another surgery was done.
He said that it was then the doctors “see the fault” from the other hospital. They also realized that he had an abscess and treated him for that. He was discharged on November 22.
While he prayed for his miseries to be over, his relatives were busy soliciting funds to pay the hospital.
He has to return in February for another surgery that required a mesh to be installed to control the swelling. This would cost an additional $80,000 but he does not have the money as yet and would be grateful for any assistance.
Relatives wondered why the doctors had not installed the mesh even after the second surgery at Woodlands but Trotz was told the “wound had to heal first.”
He is not currently experiencing pain but gets terrified looking his swollen tummy. He also had to be rushed to the Leonora Cottage Hospital after complaining of feeling unwell and of “seeing dark.”
Incisional hernia
A medical doctor/sonologist who saw Trotz voluntarily, told this newspaper that the man had developed incisional hernia, which is a “defect in the abdominal wall.”
This, he explained, causes the bowels to come out towards the skin and is “not necessarily the fault of the doctor.” It is also as a result of an incompletely healed surgical wound or infection.
He said the problem can be corrected “once they [doctors] push the bowels inside, bring the muscles together, stitch it and put a mesh there.”
His wife, Anita said that she too was “frightened” but the doctor assured that the problem was “not life threatening, nothing dangerous.”
Meanwhile, Trotz is finding it difficult to provide for his wife and five children and has to depend on persons to “assist me with foodstuff.”
He said the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) was supposed to provide payment within two weeks but “it is running on to months and on to now I did not get anything… I heard there is some mistake with the claims.”
Trotz is also in the process of building a house with the help from some “Muslim brothers” so he can take his family out of the inconvenient one-bedroom shack they are currently living in.
The construction is stalled at the moment because of a lack of funds to complete it.
