Life can be very uncertain. I've become very aware of that this last year with my bypass operation. So, yesterday when I read about St. Francis Hospital in Hartford being put on a one year probation for multiple violations, I was stunned, because this is the same hospital I had my operation in.

But there's more. Here's a breakdown of the timeline:

May 18: Patient at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center sustains brain injury following a "catastrophic" failure involving a pump used for cardiopulmonary bypass during heart surgery.

June 5: I have my bypass operation. There are always risks involved in any operation. But I did not know that the same pump that had the catastrophic failure had put back into operation just days after May 18, without any inspection, or report to authorities that it was back in operation. In other words, they could have used that same pump during my operation. That is the device that circulates the blood while your heart is stopped. It supplies oxygen to the blood as well. It is all that is keeping your body alive during the operation.

June 18: Patient dies.

July 2: St. Francis voluntarily suspends non-emergency cardiac surgeries at the recommendation of the state health department.

July: Suspension lifted after state determines the safety concerns had been corrected; investigation continues.

Thursday: State places St. Francis on probation for one year, citing numerous violations.

This is the formal document of probation issues against St. Francis.

It's hard for me to understand how things like this can happen at a well funded hospital like St. Francis. It's not like I chose them. In our area, when your general practitioner (your doctor) recommends testing, he will send you to whatever network he is associated with. I was sent to a cardiologist who happened to be associated with St. Francis, so that's where I was sent for the operation. If I wanted to go to Hartford Hospital (another hospital with a great reputation for heart bypass), I would have to request a different cardiologist.

It was strange at work yesterday. I had people come up to me and say, "My God Bill. When I read that article, I thought of you and how lucky that you are still with us." I am lucky. That guy that died could have been any of the bypass patients. Things can go wrong in any operation. The pump stopped in the middle of the operation. It can happen. But what I find unconscionable is the fact that they put the defective pump back into operation just a few days later, without repair, without inspection, without making a formal report.

HARTFORD - The surgery was supposed to repair the patient's heart, but more than five hours into the procedure, something went wrong -- a "catastrophic" failure of the pump meant to keep blood and oxygen flowing through the patient's body. The patient sustained a brain injury and died a month later.

But that wasn't the only thing that went wrong at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center after the device failed, according to state health officials.

Under federal law and hospital policy, the hospital should have notified the federal government or the device manufacturer of the problem, but that did not happen, according to an investigation report by state regulators. Hospital policy called for the device to be impounded and for the director of clinical engineering to be notified without delay, but he wasn't told for more than two weeks, the report said. And, it stated, the device itself was put back into use within three to four days, even though it had not been examined by the required staff. [...]

Regulators also cited problems with hospital facilities, inadequate preventive maintenance of medical equipment, and a lack of evidence that staff evaluated the neurological signs of a patient who fell out of bed and sustained a head injury. The patient later died. (source)