rant-you NEED to take control of our own healthcare in the hosp

[justamouse]

You have to. And if you can't, you need an advocate there. Because hospitals make stupid, stupid mistakes.

 

They have computers that they roll around that keep meds under lock and key, but that doesn't mean that the people making the decisions are making good ones.

 

My Dad fractured T6. Crushed it. He's been in the hosp for 3 days and they JUST NOW took a cat scan.

 

My mother has been asking, and railing, and pushing. Mom starts freaking, and requests an ortho. A real one. Ortho examines him and says gee, these bumps on his back look weird, let's get an x ray.

 

They xrayd it on day 2, with a young tech, late at night, with no one to help him, and they made him STAND.

 

x-rays came back fuzzy, but we don't think they look good. Maybe we should get a catscan, and a consult.

 

They order a cat scan, and an Senior outside ortho is called in. Senior outside Ortho says it's completely crushed. Dad is to be on complete bed rest, neck to torso brace, he's not to move. Gee-this is after nurses and 'hospitallers' have been tossing him around like a bag of chips for three days!

 

This is not the first time something like this has happened to my family. But it just reinforces the fact that as aggressive you would be in protecting your child, you need to be that aggressive with your healthcare. The Senior ortho Dr. said we should be thankful he wasn't paralyzed by all the movement. :cursing::banghead::cursing::banghead:

 

When the one, young ortho was brought in last night, I told her that they had been moving him around too much, and she was all like, "Well, it's good to move him around, we need him up to get it loosened up."

 

Thankfully, the outside ortho tore into all of them.

 

When you walk into a hosp, you must take control of your own care.

[Teresa in MO]

this is so very true. We learned this last year when my dh had a six week kidney stone ordeal. Once in the ER he was having what was later determined a severe allergic reaction to an antibiotic and literally could not move, they were going to send him home. My dd, who is a RN, put her foot down and they finally admitted him. They then put him in a room with another patient which meant we could not stay with him. Again, he could not move a muscle without extreme pain. He also had a stent in and needed help. My dd had worked before at this hospital and insisted on a private room where we could have someone with him at all times. Anyone in the hospital needs an advocate.

[LG Gone Wild]

You have to. And if you can't, you need an advocate there. Because hospitals make stupid, stupid mistakes.

 

They have computers that they roll around that keep meds under lock and key, but that doesn't mean that the people making the decisions are making good ones.

 

My Dad fractured T6. Crushed it. He's been in the hosp for 3 days and they JUST NOW took a cat scan.

 

My mother has been asking, and railing, and pushing. Mom starts freaking, and requests an ortho. A real one. Ortho examines him and says gee, these bumps on his back look weird, let's get an x ray.

 

They xrayd it on day 2, with a young tech, late at night, with no one to help him, and they made him STAND.

 

x-rays came back fuzzy, but we don't think they look good. Maybe we should get a catscan, and a consult.

 

They order a cat scan, and an Senior outside ortho is called in. Senior outside Ortho says it's completely crushed. Dad is to be on complete bed rest, neck to torso brace, he's not to move. Gee-this is after nurses and 'hospitallers' have been tossing him around like a bag of chips for three days!

 

This is not the first time something like this has happened to my family. But it just reinforces the fact that as aggressive you would be in protecting your child, you need to be that aggressive with your healthcare. The Senior ortho Dr. said we should be thankful he wasn't paralyzed by all the movement. :cursing::banghead::cursing::banghead:

 

When the one, young ortho was brought in last night, I told her that they had been moving him around too much, and she was all like, "Well, it's good to move him around, we need him up to get it loosened up."

 

Thankfully, the outside ortho tore into all of them.

 

When you walk into a hosp, you must take control of your own care.

 

 

:glare: :glare:

[Garga]

Yup. I haven't had to deal with it first hand, but I've heard plenty of stories from my friends.

[Moxie]

Yes and you get to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege :glare:.

[Veritaserum]

:grouphug: ITA. My severely disabled brother was hospitalized while my parents were out of town, so they asked me to go check on him. I had to basically throw a tantrum to get a doctor to write orders for his seizure meds. If he doesn't get his meds on time, he'll have a seizure. If it's a bad one he can aspirate on vomit and get pneumonia. That happened the last time he was in the hospital because they were late getting his meds. I had to keep saying that over and over. He got his meds over three hours late and thankfully didn't have a seizure, but I was mad. I refused to leave until I saw them give the meds. It was close to midnight and I got there at six.

 

Then the night nurse didn't give him morphine. :glare: I specifically taught her his pain cues before I left. When I came back the next morning I was told he didn't get any pain meds and had a rough night. :banghead:

Edited December 1, 2011 by Veritaserum

[Mommyof4ks]

Yes and you get to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege :glare:.

 

Yep, if we had made the same mistakes that were made with our son; CPS would have removed him from our care, and no one at the hospital will even apologize. The thing is if you put up too big of a fuss, even if you are right, they call security on you and your loved ones are left alone to suffer. It is a no win situation much of the time. I upset many people over the years my son was in the medical world, and I have never been more thankful to be out of a place in my life!

[Joker]

I'm so sorry about your dad! I, too, have learned you have to basically threaten them sometimes. My mom had her second fusion surgery last year and was in an incredible amount of pain. They sent her home with Oxycontin (sp?) and it did nothing. We had to park ourselves at the hospital and refuse to leave until a scan was done. The hardware they had just put in had collapsed and she was trying to walk around with broken back bones. :glare: They didn't even apologize.

[Harriet Vane]

:grouphug:

[momacacia]

Yup. One big reason I've had homebirths.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

I'm so sorry. I'll be praying for your dear Dad. :grouphug:

 

Our family has learned this too, the hard way. Nobody, but nobody goes into the hospital without the rest of us scheduling a 24/7 presence.

[StephanieZ]

Yup. Hospital staff negligence killed my dad. (Confirmed, admitted after much legal wrangling.) I had been nearly physically removed from the ICU 10 days prior (by a chaplain!) b/c I had been insisting on staying with him. If I had been with him when the PT and OT left him (massive stroke victim) unrestrained in a chair . . . I would have caught their mistake (due to two nurses failures two record the doctor's standing restraint order). Instead, Dad was alone when he fell, hit his head, and ultimately died from the brain injury after about 7 more days of agony and $200k in surgery.

 

Needless to say, when my mom was in the hospital for a SX a few years ago at John's Hopkins . . . and we had prearranged and prepaid for a private room (so that I could stay there 24/7 until she was discharged) and then they tried to put her in a semi-private room . . . I had absolute fits. I told them that the ONLY way they would get me out of her room was to have me arrested and physically removed, and that if they did that, I'd have MY lawyer in court for an emergency injunction as fast as they could spell HELL NO I AM NOT LEAVING.

 

No matter how good the doctor, how good the hospital, etc, mistakes happen ALL THE TIME. I will NEVER allow someone I love (unless they are 100% mentally there and unmedicated) to be in a hospital w/o someone by their side 24/7. If I couldn't do it myself, I would hire a private duty nurse. Absolutely nonnegotiable.

 

FWIW, I love doctors. I have plenty of medical friends, and dh is a vet. I am not anti doctor . . . This is just reality: if you want the best possible outcome, you MUST have an advocate at your side.

[justamouse]

Ugh, all these bad stories. :grouphug:

 

When I had ruptured my disks, they had me on a gurney for 8 hours, never took an x ray, and wanted to send me home with Tylenol. Not that I could have even walked. :glare:

 

It scares me for people who don't know better, who take the Drs at their word.

[justamouse]

Yup. Hospital staff negligence killed my dad.

 

Oh God, :grouphug:

[zookeeper]

So sorry about your dad! When my mom was in the hospital with an allergic reaction to Dilantin, I made sure someone STRONG would be there at all times. She would have agreed with you that the moon was made of cheese at that point. They didn't stay on top of her fever meds and it would spike to 105 very fast. Made me furious!!

 

GRRRR... I'm so angry for you!!

[Moxie]

It scares me for people who don't know better, who take the Drs at their word.

 

Yeah, we really struggle with my grandparents who are still of the mindset that doctor=all knowing god.

[Carol in Cal.]

Yes, it's crazy. I went to the emergency room once, barely breathing from asthsma/GERD/allergic reactions, and they wouldn't let me have water to sip to keep from coughing and having my throat close up completely, but also not any medicine. And people who were not able to give me meds kept coming in and trying to get me to tell them what was wrong, over and over, for 'teaching' purposes. Even though I couldn't talk without, again, risking a major coughing spell that probably would have left me with at trach tube.

 

Thankfully, I am very assertive. When I finally got to a doctor, he did all the right things, very very well. But it was pretty scarey to sit there and wait for him for so long, so precariously breathing.

 

ER's are terrible places, and not everyone who works there has compassion or a sense of responsibility for their patients.

[Ellie]

:grouphug:

 

Hope things go better for your father now, bless his heart.

 

I took Mr. Ellie into the ER once with chest pain. Mr. Ellie, slightly older than middle-age guy, having chest pain. CHEST Pain. The guy who had quadruple by-pass surgery. ER staff just look at him. No one moves. I tell them he's had open-heart surgery and is having chest pain. I thought I was going to have to climb over the counter to get someone to finally move. :glare: (No, praise God, it wasn't a heart issue.)

 

Yes, you absolutely have to be in charge of your own health care, and sometimes you have to be That Patient.

[Tarreymere]

I worked as an RN for years, even travelled to work in hospitals across the US. You don't want to hear the stories I can tell........

 

But you can believe me that I don't let people I care about near health care people of any kind without my direct supervision. Even just last night Dh and I went to donate blood. The tech took Dh's blood pressure with the regular size cuff (he needs the larger one since his arm is fifteen inches around in the bicep) and told him that his blood pressure was sky-high and he needed to go to the ER. I told her to use the bigger cuff, and she told me there was no such thing in existence and insinuated that I was crazy and that Dh should go jump in the car and drive himself to the ER.......:huh:

 

I've told the kids to just shoot me if I ever get to the point of needing to be hospitalized, it will save time.

[Maeintx]

This thread is scaring me a bit. My dh is having surgery friday a.m., only after I insisted on a MRI 2 weeks ago. I'm seriously rethinking the plan to leave him alone at night at the hospital.

[kalanamak]

 

They xrayd it on day 2, with a young tech, late at night, with no one to help him, and they made him STAND.

.

 

 

There is a saying (not apropos here), "Death begins in Xray."

 

Luckily your dad isn't ancient. Ortho is tough on the over-80-on-many-meds folks. We speak of FOOBAs. Found On Ortho Barely Alive.

[hmschooling]

My husband in an RN and I hear about this sort of thing ALL THE TIME. He is sooooo fed up with it. Fortunately, he's one of the good RN's...there are some that make you wonder how they got through nursing school.

 

My oldest has Brittle Bone Disease. At 8months old I suspected a fracture so took her for xrays. They were messing with her and felt she had fractured her hip. So they got this plexi-glass thing to press her foot against and keep it flat and in line while they took xrays of her entire hip/leg (little bitty 8m old legs means pretty much lower body was xrayed. So after all this pressing her foot down and turning it by griping her leg and all that and making her cry in pain, IT WAS HER LEG...RIGHT WHERE THEY WERE GRABBING!!!!! I was beyond angry...plus they made us wait in the er for nearly 8 hours.

 

Another time DD was in the hosp with high fever (106) and unknown infection. They wanted to start her on IV antibiotics but I stopped them b/c it was one she's allergic to. The nurse said it's what the doctor ordered and he had her chart, so he already knows. I told her NO and she did it anyway. DD started swelling and breaking out. Had doc come check on us and I griped at him for that and he said had he known..and that the nurse is getting written up. I think she was actually fired. Must have not been the first time for her! Nurses have a job and part of it is to catch the mistakes the docs make..seriously. DH has to all the time.

 

Anther time...she was in for a week and had an iv. She was a toddler, not talking much. She was saying the IV hurt and I told the nurse. She said it's not meant to be comfortable. :/ I kept pushing them to check and finally a few days go by and it infiltrates...when they took it out to change it, the nurse that put it in hadnt put any gauze under the plastic piece that touches the skin before taping it down and it rubber her skin raw to the point of having deep wounds that were scabbing around the iv thing. Another nurse, same hospital. Horrible.

 

The biggest one...One time a few months after the fracture, she was obviously not herself, and was getting lethargic (compared to normal)...so I drove an hour to take her in to Ped. They said push fluids, which I had tried without success. Sent us home. Went back two more days in a row with same problem and got sent home even though I KNEW she was getting worse but they said she was fine just b/c she'd respond and was looking around the room. But she didn't move, she wasn't normal, wasn't well...I was her mom and knew what was normal. So the next day she's way worse. A limp noodle in my arms and the receptionists won't even look at me. They ignored me for half an hour while I held my limp child barely able to open her eyes. A nurse walked through a couple times, and the next time she stopped and pushed her way through the lazy receptionists and asked me loudly if they'd helped me at all. Told her no and she asked what was wrong...I told her DD hadn't had a wet diaper in 24 hours and I'd been in 3 days in a row only to be sent home everytime...she immediately ran my to the back, got a different doctor to look quickly, and we were personally escorted to the front of the triage line at the ER and taken immediately to a room. Later learned she was so dehydrated that had I listened to them once more and taken her home or not brought her again, she'd have died most likely. That nurse saved her life. But the idiot nurses and doctors almost let her die...had I not been her advocate, well...I wouldn't have my 10yo.

Edited December 1, 2011 by hmschooling

[Susan in KY]

I once went in with severe hemorrhaging (seriously bad, I was losing a lot), and the nurse told me not to worry because I had "five buckets of blood" in me.

 

??? Really? Then they told me I should be careful because I was quite anemic! I laughed at the doctor and said, "Ya think? Maybe I don't have quite five buckets left!"

 

Grrr.

[elfgivas]

the best one liner we've discovered, delivered calmly and with full eye contact...

 

"i'd like you to put on the chart that we requested "x,y,z" and that you refused".

 

followed by

"thank you for ordering "x,y,z". how can we help with that?"

 

and then

 

"i see our client hasn't received "x,y,z" yet. how can we help that happen?"

 

my dh, bless him, once offered to go and fetch the oxygen i needed. it had been three hours since the previous one ran out. he finally very calmly said, "either she needs it or she doesn't. if she needs it, then i will go and get it. if she doesn't need it, then please call the doctor and have the order removed". ten minutes later, oxygen....

 

sigh....

[justamouse]

It's so frustrating these stores aren't unusual.

 

Mae, if you can be there, do everything within your power to be there every minute you can. Move heaven and earth to be there.

Edited December 1, 2011 by justamouse

[Lizzie in Ma]

very true, never ever leave them alone

[Murmer]

Yep have to be an advocate...dd was in the hospital for some testing...she has a severe milk allergy no milk products not even baked...I go to order her dinner and the person on the other line say pizza....I said are you kidding me that has cheese she is allergic to milk...the response yes I see that but the computer says she can have pizza....my husband brought her dinner that night and breakfast the next morning...couldn't trust that the hospital could give her food that was safe. I was shocked thinking the hospital would be the one place that she would get a safe meal...but I guess not. Showed me how vigilant I have to be all the time.

[angela in ohio]

We have a rule in our family that no family member is ever alone in the hospital. Someone even stays the night and sleeps in the chair next to their bed. I think everyone should have an advocate with them at all times.

[kewb]

Definitely need an advocate. And for certain, try to avoid going into the hospital near a holiday.