Barry ... I've got to share some of my ghastly-but-true adventures with hospitals.
Almost 3 years ago (March 06), went in the hospital for a "routine angiogram" to see why I was short of breath. During the angiogram, the cardiologist poked a hole in a vein/artery/whatever, and I was rushed into emergency open heart surgery. I had been taking Plavix ... blood thinner ,,, and they could not stop the bleeding. 18 units of blood transfusion later, they got it under control. When I was released 3 weeks later, I had slurred speech and other symptoms, which have now been diagnosed as ALS. I'm sure it was there before, but did not have noticable symptoms until this mess-up in the hospital.
Two years ago, during a routine colonoscopy at an out-patient clinic, I was given excess fluids during the procedure (I heard nurses talking about this later, which is why I know what happened. If you lie on a gurney with your eyes closed, people think you don't exist.) The excess fluids triggered congestive heart failure. The clinic did not have a working EKG marchine ! There followed a frantic ambulance ride to the nearest emergency room. After I'd pee'd out all the fluids they'd administered, I was fine. Drove home 14 hours later.
After that, in a "routine" operation on my ear, during which I was supposed to be awake, they knocked me out and I woke up with EXTREME vertigo and extremely worsened speech. It's never recovered.
December before last, I was rushed to the hospital with respiratory failure. This was before any neuro diagnosed. The ER did an angiogram (again with the angiogram), during which "something happened" and I started bleeding into my abdomen. The doctors did not realize this, and were frantic when I went into shock. Don't know how long it took for them to notice I was bleeding out into my abdomen, but it was a while, and it was "touch and go" they told me later, until they spotted the problem and managed to stop the bleeding. This resulted in almost three weeks in the hospital (over Christmas) until I was released.
Fortunately, my tube installation went smoothly. I guess you got all the SNAFUs on that. Lucky you.
I think you're absolutely right about ALS patients being more sensitive to meds. I sure am. All these were supposed to be done in twilight sleep, but the meds put me under.