Hepatitis C

I am angry! To use a saying of my mother's "I am so mad I could bite a 16-penny nail in half".  Learning that Damien has Hepatitis C does make my jaws tight. The AMA personnel usually do a very good job, other times not so much.

1.            Damien suffered a major hematoma on the left side of his brain while in ICU. They were replacing a brain pressure monitor and ruptured a vessel. They said that this sometimes happens but is an unusual event. The doctor that did the procedure with Damien also did the same procedure on five other patients during Damien's stay in the ICU. ALL 5 of the patients suffered bleeding on the brain as a result. This guy was batting a thousand.

2.            Damien was in isolation for three weeks because he had been colonized by MRSA. We had to wear yellow gowns, masks, and gloves every time we entered Damien's room. One nurse would put on the gown at the start of her shift (in Damien's room) and then continue to wear it the rest of her shift - into and out of all her patients' rooms-some aseptic technique.

3.            Damien was hospitalized with having rapid seizures; a 90 second seizure every 5 minutes. He was intubated for an extended hospital stay. This caused stress to the throat tissues and scars formed along and across his vocal cords. Scaring that cannot be removed because it will quickly grow back. This ended Damien's ability to eat solid food.

4.            Damien was identified as having Hepatitis C. Medical procedures are successful 99% of the time. Why does Damien keep falling into the 1% category? Why can't our son get a break?

                a.            Either it took them 16 years to determine Damien had Hepatitis C through all the massive laboratory testing done while he was in all those hospitals.

                                                                                     OR

                b.            Within the past few years, Damien was contaminated by a medical procedure.

It was just chance that we discovered Damien had Hepatitis C. Damien has osteoporosis and receives Forteo injections twice a year. In February. his doctor noticed a slightly elevated liver enzyme score. She requested that we have the blood test run again in a few weeks and send her the report. We visited our family doctor to request the blood work. As a habit, when he requested the liver studies, he also requested a test for HIV and Hepatitis C. He was shocked when he got the results back. The liver enzymes were within the normal range, however the test reported positive for Hepatitis C.  We had the tests run again with the same results. The first test was not a false positive. The family doctor made arrangements for us to see a specialist who treats Hepatitis C. The specialist ordered a liver scan to determine any liver scaring. The test was negative. This is impressive because Damien's liver was damaged during the crash and had to be repositioned and repaired. Evidently, the liver has great regeneration abilities. Damien will be on an 8-week regimen of taking one pill of Harvoni daily. He will then be tested for the presence of the virus at 3 months and 6 months post treatment. If both tests are negative, he will be considered free of Hepatitis C. If 1 test is positive, they will try another medicine. Currently we are waiting (have been waiting since March 2016) to see if and what the insurance will cover.