Poor Patient Management

I have a patient who i have been involved with treating over the last three weeks of my general surgery placement who has been poorly managed by surgeons and has had to undergo intensive rehab to regain as much functional mobility as possible. He is currently mobilising with a barietric WZF roughly 30m with 1 x standby assist, independant with bed mobility and requires 1 x assist with transfers.

Mr GM is a 44 year old man who intially went to a private hospital to have a gastric banding surgery performed at the time he was 150kg. Unfortunately the operation was not successful as the lap band had perforated the stomach. Post op complications often occur with this surgery, roughly 25% lap band surgeries have post op complications. As a result Mr GM developed sepsis and was transfered to ICU spending a month there then to a high dependency unit prior to admission on the ward. During his time in ICU Mr GM developed a fibular nerve neuropathy of which now he has limited sensation in his left foot. He has been mobilising with the physio everyday on the wards using an arjo sling to assist with transfers and to act as a support whilst retraining gait. Even though progress has been slow, this patient has been extremely determined and in the span of 3 weeks has gone from being completely dependant on the sling to being able to STS independantly, roll in bed independantly and mobilise with S/B assist and WZF. We have been extremely proud of this patient considering all of the barriers which have stood in place of him making progress.

In a team meeting i was really upset when i heard how the surgeons spoke of this patient. It was as though he was a hinderence and they didnt care about the progress of his rehab. I witnessed my supervisor get into a minor argument with these surgeons on the patient's ongoing progress and hopeful discharge in the next two weeks. They were not interested in his need for a specialized brace for his foot. If a patient is under 120kg they are eligible to receive rehab from the rehab hospitals such as OPH. Basically the surgery team wanted to lie about his weight (report he was under 120kg when he is 144kg) and move him on his way. Has anyone else experienced something similar when the medical team are reluctant to even deal with a patient and try "handball the problem" to someone else. I know this is a major generalisation to make but it really upset me that this patient's efforts nor the PT's were recognised.