Complaint Review: MEETH MANHATTAN EYE EAR & THROAT HOSPITAL AND ITS RECOVERY ROOM DIRECTOR AND THE TWO NURSES

In the recovery room, after extremely difficult & delicate surgery to repair the vault of my nose (using cartilage from my ear), a nurse named "Dawn" insisted on changing my drip pad, although I assured her that nothing was dripping, and I could breathe perfectly! However, she insisted and persisted, and she began to try to grab at the tenacious tape to get a grip on it. I started to tell her to use oil to loosen the adhesive slowly, but before I could get the sentence out, she grabbed the end of the tape and YANKED -- BUT SHE WAS ONLY TWO INCHES FROM MY NOSE, THE SURGICAL SITE!!!

Her strong fist FLEW INTO MY NOSE, THE SURGICAL SITE, AND HIT THE THIN, SHARP, RIGID splint on my nose,PUSHING the cartilage batten that had just been created all the way into my septum. I have not been able to breathe out of that nostril for over two years!

After that nurse punched me in my nose with great force against the left side, and as I was yelling at her, she then YANKED the tape off the other side, displacing the other batten on that side as well, and ruining hours of a fine surgeon's work, which now has to be repeated.

IN AN ATTEMPT TO COVER UP this horrible incident, the nurse on my right (who was partnered with Dawn) motioned for Dawn to leave the room, while this nurse then quickly administered an unauthorized bolus of a controlled substance into my IV TO TRY TO KNOCK ME OUT so that perhaps I would not recall what had transpired.

Although the chart notes indicate that I was wide awake, alert, and articulate at around 5:30 PM, the approximate time of this incident, somehow, mysteriously, I was so knocked out shortly thereafter that I didn't wake up for 8 hours and had to spend the night in the hospital where I didn't wake up until 2 AM!

In their attempt to hide what had happened, the nurses never alerted my surgeon (I emailed her as soon as I returned home and she was shocked) and they never entered the incident into my chart notes. The hospital has tried to ignore and overlook the entire situation, but I need to have the surgery repeated to correct what the nurse did, and I need this cleared up first.

The records will show a missing bolus of a controlled knock-out substance, and the records will also show that Ms. Hyper Nurse "Dawn" was celebrating her birthday on June 19th, the day she was so hyper she was practically bouncing off the walls. Her supervisor should never allowed her to attend to me or any patient in a delicate condition.

I now have a "cauliflower nose" on the punched side. I am guessing that Dawn had some special treats for her birthday lunch that rendered her incredibly hyper and far too hyper to be around such a delicate surgical area. She should never have been attending a patient in a delicate condition.

The other nurse broke every law in the book by administering a controlled substance to me without my doctor's orders, and she compounded this by not entering her actions into the chart notes. She also should have informed the surgeon of what had transpired.

I'd like to know why an "alert, awake and articulate" patient suddenly became blotto! Although I have been in touch with the hospital and New York Hospital authorities and the NY Attorney General's Office at various times during the past two years, begining with the day after the surgery, I am in the process of filing criminal assault and battery charges against these two nurses, since it seems I've got to start somewhere. I am so angry and frustrated by this. It seems for my next surgery, I will need to bring a physician and a lawyer along with me, to observe and note what is going on!

How does a hospital get away with something like this, without any reprimands? Why should I now have to go under AGAIN to fix what had been perfectly done surgery? And why should insurance pay for this, when it was the hospital and the nurse's fault?

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Bergen County, New Jersey
U.S.A.