Dementia after discectomy

Thanks in Advance for your responses....

1. My father is in his mid 50's and went in recently for a discectomy. The day after surgery he was feeling great, up and moving. Within a week he was having serious spinal leakage, pain, headaches and had obviously deteriorated to a worse than pre-op condition. We contacted the doctor he said to go to the emergency room, the following day was to be his scheduled follow up appointment to see the doctor.

2. My father, being a Physician's Assistant, was very much against this idea due to the risks involved with infection and the obvious wait times common to emergency rooms. He hung on another night to meet with the spine surgeon the following morning. During the visit the doctor scheduled him a surgery for the following morning and said he " ". They fixed leaks amongst other things.

3. After this surgery he was admitted to post-op recovery. At about 2 am I got a call informing me that my father was acting unruly and that we would have to come down to the hospital to deal with it. After arriving I realized that my father had no idea who he, I, or anyone else was, where he was, what had happened, point blank. He was crazy and dellusional.

4. Now I understand that this is common, they eventually put him in ICU under heavy sedation in order to keep him still and he returned home the following day.

5. After another week or so with little to no improvement in his pain and only a 50% improvement in his dementia he began having more issues with leakage, cramping, inability to find a comfortable state.

6. In a repeat episode of above (2) they went back in. The doctor put him on a strict 10 degree bed position and a 48 hour hospital stay. They have now sent him home. He's cramping severely, taking oxycodone, dyazapam, and tramadol. Absolutely mean, confused, being a jerk to my mother, and refusing to follow any of the protocol required for his recovery.

I would just like some feedback, experiences in these types of situations from others, we are scared and at the end of our rope here, the doctor was short with his explanations after surgery only saying "we have a major problem here"and was on his way to a ski vacation. What are his responsibilities to us? What are our options as far as forcing them to give us more information. Is this such a common thing that they would be so laisez-faire to the family/patient? Failed back surgery syndrome? Any information you have would be greatly appreciated.

sincerely,

a concerned son.