The First Time I Showed Up For Surgery
The staff of the surgery center asked if I had anything to eat or drink since midnight the night before. I explained that I had about 6 oz of water to take some medications 6 hours earlier.
I further explained that Kathy, the nurse, instructed me to take my usual medication, and it would be ok to have a small amount of water to take it.
The information Dr. Gonzalez’s nurse Kathy gave me was against the surgery centers policy. My surgery was postponed and we got up at 5:00 that morning for nothing.
The Second Time I Showed Up For Surgery
The day of my surgery, the surgical staff asked a number of questions, similar to the ones asked by Dr. Gonzalez and his staff. One of the questions was if I use a CPAP machine (a machine that assists those with sleep apnea where people stop breathing when they are asleep) to which I answered yes. The same answer I gave to Dr. Gonzalez and his staff.
The surgery center had no record that I had sleep apnea, and appeared not to be prepared to handle a patient with sleep apnea.
The surgery center staff told me point blank, that they would probably not do surgery on me (which would have postponed it a second time). They had to speak to the anesthesiologist, and it would be up to her.
I learned sometime after my surgery that had the surgery center not double checked the information they received from Dr. Gonzalez’s office, there could have been serious complications up to and including death.
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