Sorry to hear about your ordeal.
Anaesthetists - like all doctors - have a duty to not subject you to unnecessary risk and to keep you safe. All medical intervention has some risk, and general anaesthetics whilst generally considered safe, are full of potential harm.
Your preop assessment identified reasons that put you at a higher risk. It is important to investigate and treat these reasons to keep you as safe as possible. As your procedure is not an emergency, there is time to do this.
You asked why could they not just put up a potassium drip and then proceed. There are two problems with this:
- IV infusions of potassium are not without risk. There are the risks of venous cannulation, putting up the wrong fluid by mistake, overdosing you with potassium, overloading you with fluid - particularly if there are concerns about how your heart is functioning.
- The cause of your low potassium has still not been identified, which may have other consequences.
all this risk is balanced about the risks of not doing this. Your team has determined that these risks are not outweighed by the risk of postponing your hysteroscopy.
If you had a car accident and internal bleeding, your would have to have surgery and so the team would just have to accept the risks of your low potassium and proceed immediately. If you fell over at home and broke your ankle, then you might need an operation within a few days so the team might give you the potassium drip, as there would be time to do that but not fiddle around with your medicines or have lots more investigations.
Finally, not being fit enough for an anaesthetic does not mean you have to stay in hospital. It depends on the reason why. If you had either a bad cold or a heart attack you would not be fit for an elective operation. if you just had a bad cold you wouldn’t be in hospital anyway, but if you were having a heart attack you would.
Hope this all gets sorted out soon.