Peptic Ulcer?

[tamborine]

45y Son had a camera down his gullet & PU diagnosed. He is on antibiotics & Omeprozole. Food intake is now more comfortable but has bile & foam frequent sputum.

How serious is his ailment & is it curable?

[Sqad]

I am not sure that i understand your question, but here goes tambo.
I presume that H.pylori has been identified in which case there is at least a 90% cure rate with antibiotics and H pump inhibitors ( Omeprazole)

As for the bile stained sputum.....I doubt very much that it is bile stained, but may be rusty coloured which may indicate a chest infection or a chest infection that is resolving.

[tamborine]

Thanx sqad. He brings up foam & has to spit it out almost every 15mins. He says its from his stomach but not his chest. He smokes.

[Sqad]

OK tambo.......if he is sure that it IS coming from the stomach that would indicate that the ulcer might be blocking the outlet valve of the stomach which can happen with peptic ulcers.
At the moment....no big deal as the bile reflux should settle as the ulcer heals.

[ummmm]

No big deal, eh?

Lets hope the ulcer doesn't burst and kill him!

And before you dismiss me, Sqad, my friend had an ulcer burst, he attended the hospital, they dismissed it, he died, they brought him back to life, he got 250k in compensation...

No big deal though!

[Sqad]

ummmm....thank you again for your personal and irritating contribution..........."no big deal" was referring to the importance of bile in the "sputum".....not the presence of the ULCER.
Thank you again.

[tamborine]

As he is under his doc & hospital, am hoping the ulcer will heal with medication...how long that will be I spose is a guess. Constant dash to spit bothers me.

Thanx for input & happy xmas

[Sqad]

No problem tambo and to reassure you about a previous post, perforation is unusual, or even rare......i have forgotten the incidence, but it is certainly less than 10% of ulcers..........1 in 10.
Same to you....harpy Xmas.

[SIRandyraven]

Just curious :- When you win compensation from the NHS, do the NHS have insurance for this type of claim or does it come from their budget to run the hospital ?

[ummmm]

I don't know, I'd assume they'd have a budget for this type of thing.

[SIRandyraven]

So it ends up costing everyone then.
Aka £250,000 less in the budget to provide services to sick people.
If it was a rich FT listed company I sued and won comepensation from, then I would be happy to make the fact know. But if my gain was at the cost of a public service such as the NHS and the money was from its budget, then I would see it as blood money. Ask for an investigation and admission of guilt and changes to,prevent it happening again yes. Making a financial gain from what happened , Nope. Unless they had insurance for such.

[Sqad]

Sir Randy....you have summed it up admirably.
Compensation comes from the NHS budget and that means you and me as taxpayers.
I cannot imagine ANY insurance company agreeing to cover NHS negligence costs...the premium would be prohibitive.

[ummmm]

Andy - Just because it's the NHS it doesn't mean people shouldn't be compensated for NHS mistakes. The NHS missed the problem on numerous occasions and as a result he's lucky to be alive. He didn't decide the amount he was compensated. That's how much 'they' thought it was worth.

What about the stories, albeit rare, that you read where a doctor has amputated the wrong leg? Should the patient not be compensated?