My brother, Jim as diagnosed with gastric cancer 12-22-08. He survived 12 chemo treatments from mid March until the end of Oct with few side effects except for "chemo brain." This made it very difficult for him to be on his own and remember to take his meds but he did it with several reminder calls from me. I was more then willing to do this since being on his own and taking care of himself and his dog, Eddie, was very important to him. The cancer grew back the end of Nov. Thanksgiving dinner was the last dinner he enjoyed. He was not able to get very much in the way of nourishment down from mid Dec.until the the 19th of Jan. He became weak and of course dehydrated. I took him into the ER to get IV fluids and he was feeling much better in just a few days. He agreed to a J feeding tube to continue nourishment and get strong enough to start another round of chemo. The tube was put in on Sun. Jan 25th. On the 26th I went in to see him and he was in considerable pain. I told the nurses there was something really really wrong because my brother never complains. It was discovered on Tues Jan. 27 that when the surgeon put in the tube he perforated the intestine! When I saw him after surgery he as on a ventilator. He had his 73rd birthday in ICU. He never regained conscious and died on Sat. Feb. 7th. I have discovered that at least here in our hospital there is not a procedure in place to make sure when the tube in placed that it goes directly into the stomach wall - one little slip and it can nick the intestine and if not discovered in time the patient who is already in a fragile condition will die from septic poisoning as in the case of my brother, Jim. I know he was in the final stages of cancer but to lose him this way is just not acceptable. I found out there have been 4 other cases besides Jim in the last 5 years (not in this hospital) and probably more we aren't aware of and if this warning will save another family from the pain we've been thru it will be worth it. Make sure there is a method to make sure the tube in placed properly-especially if your loved one is in considerable pain after the procedure. I wish I had. Jim was not only my brother but my best friend and I will miss him forever. The hospital is doing a peer review of his case and we are hoping they will add a new protocol to this dangerous surgery. Jim's sis, Dee