xyster

Hi everyone. My dad passed away a week today and I am naturally devastated. He was 74 years young, big, strong and active. He has never been seriously ill while I have been around and I am 41.

Actually I suppose that is not quite true as he had bladder cancer (non muscle intrusive). He had the BCG treatments for 2 and a half years and the cancer never returned (it was 'only' superficial). The trouble was that in having the treatments his bladder was damaged to the point where he was needing the toilet every half hour or so during the day and and up to 18 times during the night. Although once he stopped the 6 monthly treatments this did settle down a lot but not enough in his view. Also there was always the possibility of the cancer returning. He decided to have the bladder out and have the bag, a 5 hr operation although it is quite a routine op.

There is the background. The cancer did not kill him. I remember him telling me that it wouldn't when he informed me of the cancer. He actually came through the op remarkably well and was soon rid of the tubes etc. Five days after the op early in the morning he felt unwell, was apparently being sick, and had a cardiac arrest. We were told it was probably due to a blood clot but a PM was needed. The PM listed the cause of death as 'chronic rheumatic congestive heart disease' with the op being listed as a secondary cause.

This is where I need some help as he had no history of heart trouble at all. I presume he had a pre-admission check up before the op and his blood pressure etc were ok as far as I am aware. Having looked up the condition I find it is linked to rheumatic fever causing damage to heart valves. All the info seems to suggest there would be symptoms though, like a heart murmur, feet and lower limb problems (he took Iboprofen every day for years for his feet - arthritis he said). I don't know if I will be able to find out if he had rheumatic fever but surely it would be on his medical records, and maybe a link would have been made to his foot condition or extra checks, ECG?, been performed before a major operation??????????

My GP said something about older generation and lack of antibiotics and I think he means to do with the rheumatic fever and valve damage.

Any views would be appreciated so I can get my head around his sudden passing. Thanks.