My stepdad went into the hospital on Aug 24th to have open heart surgery (Mitral valve/Aortic valve replacement and coronary bypass). The surgeon was made well aware of his issues of poor circulation in his legs and previous strokes as well. My stepfather came out of the surgery and within a few days developed gangrene in his feet. The doctors determined he had developed Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia and Thrombosis(HITT) which led to him having to have his legs amputated just below the knee. A few minutes prior to him being taken for the amputation the heart doctor came in and stated "we should have thought about this" in reference to his legs. A few days beyond this, we recieved a call stating that his blood pressure had dropped drastically and he was not going to survive. Sadly this did prove to be the case. We were told it is possible that a clot from his diagnosis of HIT had made it up to his heart. We have yet to have an autopsy to get the actual cause of his passing due to financial burdens. My questions are, would his heart surgeon have been in the wrong for not addressing his circulation issues prior to the surgery? And provided we are able to get the autopsy and it does come back as a clot from the Heparin we’re aware we’ll have that to work with. But if we’re not,even tho my stepdad has passed would we still have a case with the HITT leading to his amputations?

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I was just curious because I have been looking around the internet and the only contraindication was that heparin produces heparin induced thrombocytopenia. What’s the real reason behind this?

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the patient was on heparin and warfin for deep vein thrombosis…what would you expect the doctor to order

1) flush with normal saline
2) discontinue the warfarin

i am stuck! i see both sides of this. helppppppppppp

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