How long after surgery does it take for infection to set in?
I am writing a novel and one of the characters gets an infection from the Whipple procedure. My question is how long it would take for an infection to set in. Is it likely for an infection to set in within 8 or less hours? What are the signs of an infection? Can a patient refuse drugs to treat the infection? If the patient refuses drugs on religious grounds and the resident doctor is treating the patient in SICU, would the resident doctor call the attending doctor for further help?
Just so you have an idea of my scenario…Oncologist treats patient with advanced pancreatic cancer. The Whipple procedure is performed. Doctor goes home. Patient suffers from an infection overnight and the resident doctor calls in the attending doctor. Attending doctor decides to go with the patients wishes and won’t give her the drugs to treat the infection. Resulting infection kills the patient.
Is that a likely scenario?
Thank you for all your help!
A few more details – hopefully, Denisedds, you can help out more with this one!
My doctor character is known for taking on all the patients that no one else will because his main character trait is empathy. The hospital is located in the boonies, so his patients don’t really have a choice. Most of them are poor farmers who can’t afford going to the big city every day, so they can only to go to him or one of his co-workers. If his co-workers refuse the patient, my doctor will pick them up. His patient is Haitian Roman Catholic, but she doesn’t trust western medicine and trusts only God to heal her.