July 2007

Spouse Saver

My wife just had a nephrostomy tube, (a tube that drains the contents of a kidney into a bag which is attached to your leg), inserted by her doctor early in the morning of the day that we left on a trip from Salt Lake City, Utah to Denver Colorado. Denese, (my wife), was extremely uncomfortable the whole trip and her pain was increasing.



We arrived in Denver at midnight and went to sleep. I was startled at 2:00am when my wife was screaming in pain! We rushed to the hospital! The doctors couldn't figure out why she was in so much pain until they looked at the bag attached to her leg. The doctors scrambled to find a screwdriver when I told them my wife had only emptied the bag once during our whole drive from Utah and it was only partially filled at that time.



After about five minutes of waiting, I remembered that I was carrying my Leatherman on my belt. I quickly opened it and used the Phillips to turn the drain valve to the fully opened position! Apparently, the doctor who installed the nephrostomy tube had only slightly turned the valve, so her kidney was not draining properly. When the doctors finally returned empty handed, I showed them what I had done and they were extremely relieved. They told me that my wife's kidney was filling up like a water balloon and she had only a few more minutes before it exploded inside her body and killed her. Thank goodness I never go anywhere without that very special Fathers Day gift, The Leatherman Tool.



Lyle R.

Mesa, AZ