Father recently passed away / Stents

[dstratt]

Approx 4 weeks ago, my father had to have 2 cardiac stents. The after the procedure, he was sent home. Two days later I rushed him to the hospital (5 minutes from my house), he was in full cardiac arrest and pulmonary shock. The doctors told me blood clots had formed in the stents resulting in a 100% blockage. They asked me if my father had been taking aspirin, I told them no, he was on Plavix, and no one instructed him/me about taking aspirin. The doctors cleared the blockage and replaced the stents... but my dad never woke up. After 2 weeks on life support, his body gave up the fight.
Is this an inherent risk with stents? I'm still banging my head on the wall wondering if I did something wrong, or if I had known about the aspirin, would he still be here today.

[dstratt]

To Flycaster305  and ed34: Thank you very much for your response. It felt good to read what you both had to say. My mother died of pancreatic cancer, and there was a clear reason for her death. We had 8 months to accept and prepare for it. Dad was a little different... I brought him home thinking he would be better in a day or two, never expecting what would happen. I guess the acceptance is just a part of the healing process. It's hard to believe that just a few little Aspirin tabs, if I had known, could have made the difference.
Thank you both again for the kind words.

[ed34]

I agree you did nothing wrong at all, the health professionals should have told your Father to take the Aspirin. It's a normal reaction to feel guilt over a close loss, but you mustn't feel responsible in any way. You are not a cardiologist.

[Flycaster305]

First and foremost, I'm sorry for your loss.

You did nothing wrong.  There probably is no real answer to what happened.  To give yourself peace of mind, I'd suggest you get a copy of the procedure report, discharge directives, and all records that detail the history of your father's hospital stay.  

From a personal perspective, I've had eight stents inserted, plus both a pacemaker and finally bypass surgery.  Shortly after two of the stents were inserted, I had an event labeled a heart attack, a blood clot had blocked the artery between the two stents.  I was taking Plavix and aspirin.  It is suspected that artery between the two stents spasmed creating the problem.

I've read posts on this site for a long time, and have seen posts critical of doctors who prescribe both Plavix and Aspirin, and other posts critical of taking one without the other drug.  Taking both Plavix and Aspirin was a huge problem for me when I had to have emergency bowel obstruction surgery as I had a bigtime bleeding issue.  In my opinion, there isn't a reason to question what happened, and you shouldn't blame yourself.  
Keep us informed.