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Question: Can a doctor perform detox on someone is they have cirrosis of the liver?

(Posted by: Jovanne on 2010-03-06 12:29:22)

Can a doctor perform detox on someone is they have cirrosis of the liver? my step farther had a hernia for about 2 years now. it got to the point were it was so painful that he had to go to the hospital, doctors told him he had to have emergency surgery or else he would die because the hernia was sitting on his intestine which they stated would burst if the hernia wasn't removed immediately. so they surgically removed it but noticed he had a lott of alcohol in his system, because he drank quiet a bit in his life and he loved to drink. which means he must have drank that day or thenighte before his surgery. so doctors decided to detox him right after his surgery, now correct me if im wrong but i thought a person was suppose to recover from a surgery before hand. they never gave him a chance to recover from surgery and put him into detox immediately. and not only that but he should have gone through therapy before any type of detoxification. supposedly as told by the doctors he hadcirrhosiss or the liver and when they detoxed him his body was not able to get rid of the toxins that were trying to be push out of his body because of the supposed cirrhosiss. so to make a long story short, his liver was not able to filter the toxins and he died :'- ( honestly this does not seem right to me and if he had cirrhosiss the doctors should have known that if they took tests to make sure he wasHealthyy enough for the detox. now correct me if im wrong but this is defiantly medical malpractice in my eyes! and they placed death upon a person that would have survived with just surgery. if anyone knows they answers to any of this and feels like this i wrong please feel free to comment with mature answers only. thank you everyone. ***r.i.p step dad/ esque/ pook*** you will always be missed.

Posted by: TweetyBird on 2010-03-06, 13:47:09

Forgive me if I sound as if I'm contradicting you. Alcoholics & others with drug/ substance addictions will necessarily "detox " after an emergency surgical procedure. Post-operatively, your step-father was probably transferred to a critical care unit, perhaps ICU. Alcohol withdrawal is managed with an established protocol for alcohol withdrwawal syndrome or AWS. Patients are given pain med, Ativan and thiamine. You should be aware that alcoholic patients have a 50% mortality rate. What kind of therapy is it you think he should have gone through first? There's no therapy that comes first. There is only do or not do. Your step-father would not have been allowed alcohol as an in-patient and therefore initiating an AWS procotol was not only justified but medically necessary for a man who would have been having physical and psychological symptoms AND was post-op on top of that. Your step-father created this situation, don't forget that. Alcoholic cirrhosis is the most serious type of alcohol-induced liver disease, and is the leading cause of death among chronic alcoholics. And alcoholics neglect their overall health. Nutritional status tends to be poor and there are usually vitamin/ mineral deficiencies. Poor health equals poor recovery. I rather doubt your step-father had the physiological resources he needed to recover. "supposedly as told by the doctors he hadcirrhosiss or the liver ". "supposed cirrhosiss. " Does this imply that you have doubts as to whether he actually had cirrhosis?? Given his drinking history, I expect he did indeed have cirrhosis (scarring of the liver). I can't tell from this how extensive it was but drinking heavily over several years almost always causes liver damage. Even 3 drinks a day, every day, can, over time, cause damage. Your step-father's liver may have been too far gone by this time. He may already have been in liver failure. Most likely it was not that "his liver was not able to filter the toxins and he died " because of anything that was done or not done in the hospital. More likely his death was a culmination of everything he'd already done to this liver, his health and himself over the years. The added stress of emergency surgery may have the last straw. Do you truly understand what detoxification is? Detox is the process of getting the alcohol or other drugs out of the addicted person's system and getting him or her physically stable. This was absolutely necessary in your father's case. It's a well-known fact that alcohol delays healing and healing was needed after your step-father's surgery but his body was already working with a deficit. Especially when cirrhosis is present, detox becomes even more imperative to prevent further tissue destruction of the liver. Of course his liver wasn't functioning the way it should have been but taking away the substance that caused the damage that prevented it from functioning could not possibly kill him. There's no guarantee that your step-father would have ultimately survived with "just surgery ". Besides, an alcoholic requires more than the usual post-op care. Alcoholism complicates everything! It affects not just the liver but the brain & the rest of the central nervous system, the blood, the heart, the lungs, the digestive system, the kidneys, the skeletal muscles and the endocrine system. Your step-father could have had ongoing, undiagnosed problems in one or more of these areas. I can't help but have noticed that nowhere in your posting did you refer to your step-father as an alcoholic. I also notice that you haven't put the blame squarely where it belongs -- on your step-father's shoulders. Your step-father made some bad choices and poor decisions when it came to himself. So you may be in the denial and anger stages of grief, but whatever, you need to have your grief acknowledged and addressed. My sincerest condolences to you and your family on your loss. I hope you will able to move through the remaining stages of grief. A grief counselor could help (and, yes, there's counselor for everything, seems like). My friend, you do not have the makings of a malpractice case. A first year law student could tell you that. The hospital has well documented facts on its side. I hate to see you waste your money but if you truly believe a legal consult would be worthwhile, go ahead with it. Find your peace by accepting the fact that your step-father was an alcoholic, had his share of problems and chose his own path. Then remind yourself that he was also someone important in your life and worthy of your love.

Posted by: Baa Baa on 2010-03-06, 20:39:57

Tweety gave you an excellent answer along with a very good detailed explanation on cirrhosis and alcoholism. Your stepfather had multiple problems that came to a crisis with his hernia. Having a hernia problem is quite common in people with advanced cirrhosis due to a lot of fluid retention which just worsens over time. What did you expect these doctors to do about him being an alcoholic and facing a surgery in such poor health? Do you think they should have given him alcohol in his IV's or something? No, they don't do that. There are drugs they can give him that will prevent seizures, etc. that occurs with detox. They aren't going to give him booze that would only continue to poison his liver which is already severely damaged. I think you would have had a lawsuit if that were the case, if they did not detox him when he went for surgery. Drinking more alcohol or not detoxing him would have only made the liver work much harder because it would have to try and filter the alcohol on top of everything else. Your stepfather left the doctors no choice. He had advanced cirrhosis which carries with it so many problems that are too numerous to list here. The liver has over 500 functions. It's not unusual for people with cirrhosis like your stepfather had to die from something like this when they have a crisis. They can die from internal bleeding from varix that burst. They can develop massive fluid retention which can become infected and kills them. And they can die from something like a surgery that needs a healthier body than they have to survive a surgery that must be done to try and save their life. The doctors did exactly what they were supposed to do and there is no lawsuit here for a windfall of money. Nobody killed your stepfather and he did not die from treatment he received from any of these doctors. He died because he made a lot of poor choices in his life that destroyed his body long before this surgery came up. It takes many years of heavy drinking to get cirrhosis. The surgery was the final straw in which he could not survive it due to his poor health. Sorry for your loss, but no one is responsible for his death other than himself. So sad, what a waste since it could have been different if he paid attention to the warning signs much sooner and quit drinking.