A Jacksonville family says a routine surgery spiraled into a nightmare \u2014 one they believe could have been prevented.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve now filed a formal complaint with the state, alleging severe neglect at HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n The family says 68-year-old Mirta Castillo went in for what was supposed to be a simple gallbladder removal in late October. Video and photos taken before the surgery show her smiling, surrounded by family, and enjoying good health.<\/p>\n But her son, Jose Mangual, said everything changed almost immediately after the procedure.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been hell. It\u2019s honestly been hell. That\u2019s the best way I can describe it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n READ: Man arrested, accused of abusing \u2018elderly male patient\u2019 at Orange Park hospital, Clay deputies say<\/a><\/p>\n Mangual said the problems started with an error during surgery.<\/p>\n \u201cHe perforated her bowels. Nobody caught it for two days,\u201d Mangual said.<\/p>\n He said the delayed detection led to sepsis \u2014 a potentially fatal infection \u2014 and ultimately the amputation of his mother\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n \u201cThe minute I saw her come up from surgery with no arm, I lost it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mangual filed a formal complaint with Florida\u2019s Agency for Health Care Administration.<\/p>\n He showed Action News Jax a stack of hundreds of pages of hospital records.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n He said the documentation doesn\u2019t reflect the lack of care and compassion his mother received.<\/p>\n \u201cWe walked in and she had feces on her, feces under her nails. On her face. It was horrible. It was really neglectful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Castillo remains in the hospital and is now clinging to life. Her son said she is scheduled for her 12th surgery on Friday, to remove more of her arm.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital provided the following full statement:<\/p>\n \u201cWe know hospitalizations are difficult for family members and we value loved ones that act as advocates.<\/p>\n \u201cOur leaders are consistently meeting with the family to discuss their concerns and to answer questions.<\/p>\n \u201cOur colleagues have dedicated their professional lives to caring for others and we all feel for the family during this difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n The family is now facing a bleak Christmas, with the mother and grandmother who lit up their lives still in the hospital.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Jacksonville family says a routine surgery spiraled into a nightmare \u2014 one they believe could have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[21368,25272,116,118,117,45427,44708,45428],"class_list":["post-81679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-florida-orange-park-hospital","tag-formal-complaint","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jose-mangual","tag-mirta-castillo","tag-routine-surgery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}