Colonoscopy concerns military spouse

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) - A military spouse claims she was not sedated during a painful colonoscopy at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth Jan. 24.

Kimberly Rew called 10 On Your Side for help because she felt her emails and calls were ignored by hospital officials.

"I felt everything," Rew said. "I felt every inch of that thing inside my body."

Rew went to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth for a routine colonoscopy, but the procedure still gives her nightmares.

"In my dreams, it's not a device, it's knife every time," Rew said. "Everything is the same. All the people are there."

Rew said she remembers, in graphic detail, every movement of the doctor's scope. She said she repeatedly screamed for the doctor to stop, but he kept going.

"I begged that man to stop," Rew said, fighting back tears. "I have been through so much already."

Naval Medical Center Portsmouth can not address Rew's case specifically, because of federal privacy laws. But a doctor did tell WAVY.com how the procedure typically works.

"Usually repetitive calls for stopping does not happen, because we change what we're doing," said Dr. Andrew Gentry, of Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. "We make them more comfortable."

And, remembering the process, in the detail Rew claims she can, is not normal.

"After the procedure, I'll talk to them [patients] and say, 'Do you remember anything?' They don't remember a single thing," said Dr. Gentry. "It is very uncommon to remember."

Rew sent in a formal complaint in the days after the surgery, but feels her repeated calls and emails to the hospital were not taken seriously until 10 On Your Side got involved.

"I seriously believe that this was going to be put under the rug and they were going to move on," said Rew.

Her reason for sharing her story is simple.

"I'm not here to make money or anything like that," said Rew. "My goal is to make sure this doesn't happen to somebody else."

Rew also wants an apology from the doctor who performed the surgery.