Carlton Cook, a bright, happy-go-lucky father of three, is now confined to his hospital bed after a hospital ordeal that his wife, Janet Potter-Cook, has described as “a 27-day hospital nightmare.”
Potter-Cook is sharing her story after her husband, a Hampton man, suffered severe complications following a medical emergency. In late September, Cook initially believed he had the flu. He seemed fine after visiting a doctor and a clinic, but his condition worsened.
By the following morning, his face had swelled severely. He was taken to the ER in Hampton, where his wife recounts that doctors found a rare, flesh-eating bacterium through his nose and neck.
“What am I going to tell my kids, what am I going to tell my family?” Potter-Cook told 13News Now.
He was sent to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where his wife noted he would undergo at least twelve surgeries.
Potter-Cook’s concerns escalated during this period due to what she described as nurses leaving her husband unattended for multiple hours.
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She also reported issues with his equipment, including machines not being properly plugged in and fluid bags leaking.
“I called my mom, I called his mom. Honestly, all I could do was try and get them to get there as soon as possible,” said Potter-Cook.
Her husband was in so much pain that he had to be restrained to prevent him from pulling out his breathing tube, yet he still managed to reach it. According to Potter-Cook, staff rushed in to attempt reintubation through his nose, despite his chart advising against it.
She noted that doctors had decided a week prior that reintubation would need to be done through a tracheostomy in his neck, as the nasal route was no longer an option.
“It was a lot, and just sitting there waiting, waiting for somebody to come and tell you that they screwed up, or that everything was done correctly. I needed somebody to tell me something,” Potter-Cook stated.
She said a doctor was able to perform a tracheostomy through the neck, but not for nearly 20 minutes.
A doctor successfully performed a tracheostomy, an incision into the windpipe, through his neck. However, according to his wife, Potter-Cook, this crucial procedure was delayed for nearly 20 minutes.
Potter-Cook told 13News Now that the incident occurred just before 4:00 a.m. Despite the urgency, she did not receive information about his condition or the doctors’ account of what happened until the following morning.
She explained that it felt like a forever waiting game.
“In total, he was without sufficient oxygen for 15 to 20 minutes. Honestly, what it felt like was nobody read his case,” she explained.
Now, Potter-Cook said her husband was not declared brain-dead, but that he had suffered significant brain damage from the lost oxygen, and was told by doctors he may never talk, walk, or move again.
Sentara spokesperson, Dale Gauding, provided a statemnt to 13News Now, which said:
“Federal privacy laws prohibit hospitals from discussing any specifics about patient care. We can say that complaints about the quality of care are thoroughly examined. Patient advocates and risk managers invest time and effort with patients and families to ensure that complaints are addressed promptly and concluded fairly.”
“And I still haven’t heard anything, so they have my number, they have my husband’s number, I carry his phone on me, nobody has contacted me about any of that,” said Potter-Cook.
Cook has since been transferred to Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital, where, according to Potter-Cook, he can now blink. Her hope is that he will eventually recover sufficiently for them to transition him from the hospital to in-home care.
While Cook was at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Potter-Cook faced the difficult decision of whether to continue life support and his fight for survival or end his suffering.
She recalled a message he had written on a whiteboard, which he used for communication while still conscious: “I just don’t want to die.”
Potter-Cook finds strength in the message, which she believes shows her husband is still fighting and wants to continue his battle.
She is determined to fight alongside him, staying at Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital from open to close every day. She passes the time by his bedside, reading him stories about their children’s daily lives or playing music from their shared favorite playlist.
She hopes that, eventually, he will pull through.
“He wrote on the board, I just don’t want to die, and I kept reminding myself of that, and I knew that he would want me to fight, because that’s who he is, he’s a fighter, we’ve always fought together, ‘against the whole world,’ as he put it, ‘you and me against the world,'” Potter-Cook recounted.
Potter-Cook told the outlet that they have retained legal counsel and are evaluating their next steps.
She emphasized her desire to advocate for other families, hoping to prevent the “mistakes” that impacted her husband from recurring. Potter-Cook noted that she has not yet received any updates or findings regarding the Sentara Norfolk General Hospital investigation.
Currently, a fundraiser has been established to support Carlton Cook and his family.
