ICD Trauma & Guidant Software glitch
Hi, my first post here, my name is Jaci, my hubby Scott & I live in Tri Cities Wa, he is 40, just got a Guidant ICD on May 1 at Sacred Heart in Spokane, WA. On May 15 his local doc here accidentally brought the defib down to 125 from 185, his defib went off on May 18- 7 times, we got ambulanced to Walla Walla Hosp, they could do nothing for him there, they had no idea in the ER what to do with a Guidant Pacer/Defib. Apparantly there was/is a guidant computer with the necessary software in an office right there at the Hosp in Walla Walla and they could have helped him but they (in the ER) did not know it was there, when they called the toll free Guidant Phone # Guidant should have told them one of the necessary units is right there, they have reps in the areas also so they could have sent a Rep to interrogate it. After a few days I emailed Guidant asking them where are all these computers located near us and they had no idea that there was one in that Hosp we were in nor did they know accdg to the gal who answered my email that we had one here in our Doc's office, when I asked here where are the closest ones she said Spokane, that is not true and that is quite a distance. We thought my husband was dying, they never told us it can go off repeatedly. We did not even know at that time why it was firing non stop. So they airlifted him to Spokane to Sacred Heart, I could not go along, I had to drive 4 hours by myself up the back country roads, lost out in the middle of nowhere and I was afraid when I got to Spokane, if I found Spokane that he would be dead, so was he convinced of that. His Mom flew in from Seattle, I called her and she said "should I come?" and I said "yes" thinking it may be the last time she gets to see her son. I called his Dad, he immediately left home in Tri Cities & drove up. Still no answer that night as to why this was happening. It went off 4 times the next am, then finally a few hrs later interrogated it and learned that it was set wrong, they said they were sorry, reset it & sent us home. We both have gone thru so much trauma since then, he has not been the same, he is so high anxiety, he is scared to death every time he feels any emotion, good or bad. I am 41 yo, healthy up until then, I went thru so much trauma just watching him & I was so scared, they never told us it can go off more than once. I came down with fibromyalgia, as of then I had chronic pain, went to Doc after Doc after Doc and they all said Fibromyalgia, I had to quit my job (or be fired) and I had a career I have been in for many yrs and loved it.l have never recovered, emotionally we are both a mess, I am basically disabled now, I have not worked since June 1. We just want our life back, is what we have gone thru normal??? How do others deal with this? As a result now of my stupid fibro I have hypothyroid, IBS, Insomnia, Migraines, Anxiety Attacks, High Cholesterol, Cracked teeth....all of these conditions were not present before. Our Ins would not cover psych help for dealing with this horrible event and our new sudden financial situation due to me being housebound ever since then. Okay, so now here is the whopper: We just learned that the reason it all heppened was a software glitch, that even the legal dept at Guidant was in on this catastrophe and a lot of software engineers got hung out to dry as a result of the software having this strange problem, it reset the defib # with no one knowing it could, not even the Dr doing the interrogation. My husband is now on zoloft and xanax and we cannot even begin to put our life back together. My hubby has to leave my son's sporting events and throws up due to anxiety and we cannot any longer attend social functions because of the paralyzing fear. Fear on his & my part of him going thru that again and dying. He does not even make enough to support us & our 8 yo son, we had to have my income. What would you do if you were me?
The fact that it clearly was their software glitch just makes me furious, we have lost so much & our lives will never be like they were.
Needless to say we are not very trusting of the device, the software, Guidant Co, the Dr's, anything related to this, we feel so let down & misguided. We do not have a support group anywhere near where we live, I have looked & looked.
Jaci
From:
onthegreen@owt.com
