About 2 & 1/2 years ago, my mother's Doctor recommended us to take my mother to a cardiologist…read moresurgeon. I found three surgeons, one of them being doctor Luis Castro and the other two from Stanford. Our first surgeon we met was Doctor Castro. He explained that my mother had enlarged lungs due to blood not pumping out properly. After some tests and images that were done, he mentioned that a valve needed to be replaced a couple of other issues that he assures us to be able to correct. He said to my mom: "I promise that you will be feeling a lot better". He was so nice to my mother that my mother refused to meet the other two surgeons and insisted to go with Doctor Castro. Dr. Castro told us that he would be the one performing the surgery and would oversee the progress the entire time. Apparently, they are a cardio team during surgery, which was ok with me. The surgery went well, and Dr. Castro was also very pleased with it. On the second day after the surgery, they took my mother for a walk in ICU. I was so excited to see my mother walking straight and comfortably, very happy with the progress. During the recovery process we didn't see much of Dr. Castro, it was only his assistant whom I don't remember his name. Once this doctor visited my mom and said that he wanted to do a cardioversion to reset her heart rhythm. I was very scared to go through with this. I was given some documents to sign. I told him that I didn't know what those papers were saying, and he said it was ok to sign. He explained to me about the process and assured me that the only thing that could go wrong was the heart won't reset, no mention of a possible stroke. After hearing that I agreed and signed the documents, and I was asked to leave the room while he was performing the cardioversion. After a while he came out and told me that everything went well. Shortly after this process, the nurse who was in our room told me that something was not looking right. I asked her what it was, and she said she believed my mother had a stroke. She immediately called this Doctor; he came over and checked on my mom and said that it wasn't a stroke and left the room. I was so relived. Later as they took my mother for another walk, she stopped walking and she almost fell. They brought a chair and took her back to the room. The nurse called the doctor again, he came and said again that it was no stroke. It was very strange to me that nurse was insisting it was a stroke and the Doctor was denying it. He then told the nurse that my mother should be removed from ICU and placed upstairs in the hospital, and he then ordered the nurse to start the blood thinner medicine. My mother went through cardioversion process while she was not on blood thinner medicine! I told him that my mother had a stroke, and she should not be leaving the ICU, and he insisted that she didn't have a stroke. My mom was picked up to be transferred to hospital above and they first took her to imaging center and from there straight to a regular hospital bed. Later on that day, a neurologist visited us in the room and told us that she had a stroke. That's when I knew that the doctor didn't want to call the stroke while she was in his cardiology department, maybe to protect their reputation! From that moment the misery started, my mother couldn't move from neck down. Doctor Castro visited us in the hospital room, and he was upset about the outcome. When we visited Doctor Castro for the after surgery follow up a couple of months later, my sister and I asked him about what went wrong. He said he wished he was there to not let that happen. Apparently, the cardioversion process may have caused the small clot to move and go to her brain. I don't doubt that Doctor Castro is an excellent surgeon, but he should have been included in every step of the process. This error has ruined my mom's and my life. After 2 & 1/2 years, we are still going doctor to doctor, and have spent a huge amount of money to caregivers, physical therapies, and she still walks with a walker. She is a disabled woman now. She can't cook, take a shower, walk and pretty much she is unable to do all the basic tasks. Because of that she is now suffering from severe depression which the family must deal with. I'm extremely upset that we didn't get any apology or assistance for the errors that was made, not even a call. To make the long story short, their negligence ruined our lives, and someone needs to be held responsible for it. As a doctor, don't promise that you will be there for anyone when you can't. Do people lives mean anything to you? Or is it all about money and your department's reputation?
