Hi, my name is Paul Arnold. I first set up a fundraiser for my friend Tom Thurmond about 2 years ago. This is an update. A lot has happened in the last 2 years, and most of it is not good. He has been in the hospital 14 times and had 8 surgeries.
He first went to the hospital in December of 2023. He had multiple X-rays and tests done, and they determined he had a large abscess in his abdomen. They told him they couldn't get to it with a needle to drain it, so they put him on antibiotics and sent him home after a few days with prescriptions for multiple antibiotic's.
He only got worse; the antibiotics only made him feel sicker.
After a few days of not getting any better, he went to a different hospital, and they were able to get to the abscess with a rubber tube placed inside his abdomen, which had a bulb on the end of it, which drew out the pus from the abscess through the tube and into the bulb. The wound had to be emptied many times a day as it suck out all the pus that had been slowly poisoning his whole body. He was also put on antibiotics and was in the hospital for 2 weeks. They wanted to transfer him to another hospital nearby, where they had a colorectal specialist who could treat the other problem he had, which was diverticulosis, and also a fistula that connected his colon to his bladder. They couldn't find a bed that was available at another hospital at this time, so he was sent home with the plastic tube and bulb still attached to his abdomen and had to empty the bulb about every few hours after he got home.
A few days later, he tripped and fell, and the tube came out a few inches from his abdomen, and there was some blood that was now draining into the bulb. He was very alarmed by this and was also in pain.
I took him back to this hospital, and he was x-rayed and told everything was alright with it, as it could have come out even a few more inches and would not have caused any harm. But they kept him there in the emergency room area, and he was there for almost 2 days, then they transferred him to another hospital at 3:00 in the morning by ambulance to this other hospital.
The next morning, after he arrived at the hospital, a colon-rectal surgeon came into his room and told him what the situation was and what needed to be done. He had a bad case of diverticulitis, and he would need to have a temporary colostomy to let the infected part of his colon "rest.” He also had a thing called a fistula - which is an abnormal connection from the colon to the bladder. So they had to operate and divert a section of his colon onto the left side of his abdomen - he would have to have a bag attached to collect wast and this would only be for 6 months and then it could be reattached to the rest of his healed colon and then he could go back to using the restroom in the normal way - no more bag...back to normal after the infected part of the lower colon had healed...he had this surgery and when he woke up from it there way only minimal pain and a bag was on his left side which he had to empty several times a day. The fistula was also corrected during this surgery. About a week after the surgery, he was released and went home with antibiotics to help cure the infection. This was February 2024. He arrived home and was doing pretty well, at least as well as could be expected.
About 3 weeks after coming home, we were on the way back to his house, and a car hit us from behind. It wasn't that bad of a wreck, but we were hit from behind, and this caused his stoma to prolapse somewhat. It came out about 2 inches, and it was not until he got home that night that he noticed it, and then it started to hurt. A few days went by, and I took him back to the hospital where he had had the surgery. The same doctor who had done the previous surgery did a new surgery to place it back in. A surgical error was made, and he was not able to pass anything out of it into the bag. The surgeon had accidentally sealed that part up. He was in much pain and had to go through 2 more surgeries in that same week to correct this, so that he was now able to pass waste into the bag. He was in a lot of pain after these surgeries.
He was sent home once again with antibiotics to take.
A few months went by, and it prolapsed again. Took him to the emergency room, and they were able to reduce it with sugar. Went back home
Not long after this, it prolapsed again and was hanging out of his body a little more than before. went back to the hospital.
This time, the doctor performed a laparoscopic surgery with a mesh, and it was now back in place. This was the most excruciating surgery out of all 8 surgeries he went through.
He was sent home about 2 weeks later and did pretty well for several more months.
The doctor who performed all the previous surgeries moved out of town, and a new surgeon was assigned to his case. He went to see her for an office visit, it was scheduled for him to have the final surgery in October 2024. His colostomy would be reversed, and he wouldn't need the bag anymore as the upper colon would be reattached to the bottom part, which was now pretty much healed.
Before this final surgery was performed, his colostomy prolapsed again, and I took him to the hospital. They were able to get it back in place with a process of putting sugar on it. They gave him antibiotics, and he was there for only about 1 /12 days and was still in pain...they released him on the 2nd day, and he really needed more time in the hospital to recover from this. I went and picked him up from the hospital, and he was really upset about it. For some reason, during this particular hospital visit, they were very rude about it... they should have called the surgeon who was going to reverse it to come in and see him. He later found out that if the surgeon had been called, she would have gone ahead and performed the reversal surgery at that time... so this would have been reversed correctly right then.
When Tom was home after a few days, I took him to the hospital that had put the bulb and tube in his abdomen when he had the abscess.
He was sent to the emergency room and was given medication for his pain.
He was transferred to a room later that day, and his sister and brother-in-law came up to see him.
He does not even remember them coming to see him. His brother-in-law went to the nurses' station and told them he was not even able to form a clear sentence. The nurses told him that it was because he was on strong pain medicine. He really didn't need that much medication because his pain when I took him to the hospital was only mild.
He doesn't remember seeing any of the doctors there or talking to them it's all blank because of all the meds he was on he was not was coherent to make any decisions he doesn't remember signing any papers or talking to the doctors, the only thing he remembers is he woke up and his colostomy was not on the left side of his abdomen anymore it was now on the right side which he later learned was now called an ileostomy, and nobody came and told him what had happened. A couple of days after this surgery he was in his hospital room and the nurse was there and the doctor walked past his room without even stoping and briefly waved and the nurse said that was the Doctor who did the surgery - he didn't even see his face the doctor didn't slow down or come into his room to see how he was doing or to tell him anything about the surgery he had performed on Tom - nothing was told to him - he knew nothing about what had happened - that his whole colon had been removed - which he later found out was totally unnecessary!
He was sent home after about 6 days at this hospital. He had a different type of bag on his right side that waste was caught into. But he kept having problems with this new bag as it would not stay on him - it kept leaking out waste fluids onto his abdomen and it had an acid in this waste that was spelling out onto his abdomen and eating away at his flesh.
He ran out of these bags as he kept having to replace it almost every few hours and had to lay in bed all day because of the pain.
Because of this I took him to a different hospital about 5 days after he had come home from the other hospital. He was taken into the emergency room and given pain killers - his stomach was all red with sores from the leakage of the bags.
They finally put him in a room and an ostomy nurse was assigned to him. The nurse said the bags the other hospital had put on were not the right type of bags as he now had an ileostomy and not a colostomy.
he needed a 2 peace bag...she put medicine on the red rash that was all over his skin and piece of large flesh type of bandage over the rash area and a new 2 piece ostomy bag that would not fall of of his body - but stay in place to collect the waste and would not fall or slide off of this body. He was taken very good care of at this hospital and the rash was healing up very quickly. The ostomy nurse showed him how to apply this 2 piece ostomy bag and he now had no more trouble with it. He was sent home about 5 days later.
About 2 months later he went to the clinic at the hospital where he had the first surgery. The other doctor that he had met back in feb 2024, this was the Doctor that was now taking the place of the first surgeon who did the first surgery on Tom, she was to do the reversal the ileostomy back so he would no longer need a bag on his abdomen to collect waste, but would be able to go the the bathroom like he did before, but she told him because of this surgery done at that last hospital and because he only had 6 inches of colon his quality of life would not be as good as it would have if hew had not had this unnecessary surgery and he would now have to deal with having chronic diarrhea and wear a depends undergarment because he might not always be able to hold it till he could get to the bathroom. And he would have to take anti-diarrhea medicines.
So his new doctor told him that when he went to that other hospital they did not tell him any thing about the surgery where they removed his colon, he just thought they changed his stoma from my left side to his right right side. But that was not the case that Doctor at the “bad hospital” had totally removed his whole colon - 6 feet of his colon was removed unnecessary. He was left with only 6 inches of colon!
He was in total shock!
Fast forward 9 months later he went back to the good hospital…sorta of good…to have the final surgery which was to reverse the ileostomy back so he could now sit on the toilet go go to the restroom like he did before - only now that he only had six inches of colon left it would not be “normal” - if only that doctor at the other hospital had not jumped the gun and removed his whole colon! He would not have had to wait another whole year with this ordeal, and he would have had his whole colon and would be able to go the the restroom just like he had before…this was the plan from the beginning but he fell into the wrong hands of that doctor at the other hospital!
When he awoke from this last surgery he was in some pain…but not as severe as before…he was in the hospital for about 7 days and was sent home.
It’s been rough for him, some days he just docent even eat at all so he doesn’t have to deal with the constant going to the bathroom and the pain of having a sore bottom. He has to take imodium before he eats, it helps but still he has to deal with having burning diarrhea even when he takes any anti-diarrhea medicine. Now he has a double hernia and has to go in for another surgery but the doctor wants to get his blood pressure to a normal reading before he can proceed to surgically repair this double hernia. So he spends a lot of time in bed because he has to ware a hernia belt to hold his hernia in place because it protrudes out. One time it popped out and would not go back in and this was an emergency situation and I had to rush him the the hospital and he was there for over six hours and was not released until they were able to get it back inside him.
So now he waits to have this surgery done - but they have to get his blood pressure down, so the doctor says, before they can proceed with the repair. His house is falling apart and he does not have the money for any repairs plus the hospital keeps sending him bills…it not much that they are asking for many couple of thousand dollar…which they don’t deserve! - because of all the mistakes made. If he can get enough donations he could get his house repaired and livable again. He even has a rodent problem now in his house…he has never lived this way before. He’s 66 years old now and still can have a happy life getting his house livable again and having a car to get around in would make all the difference in the world for him…he would like to have a dog again! His dog gypsy passed away about 5 years ago leaving a big void in his life that he has never gotten over. He would like to adopt another dog and maybe a cat too.
He would like to get back to his writing and photography. Please help if you can, even many small donation can add up and would be enough to get his life back on track. My friend Tom has a lot to offer I’d hate to see the rest of his life go to waste. He just wants to be happy again, and if your willing you can help make this happen for him. Thanks, Paul Arnold
