Update, my husband walked out of the hospital...:(

706 Views 22 Replies 10 Participants Last post by KarolH, Jan 8, 2009

KarolH

Discussion Starter · Jan 6, 2009

Hi Everyone,

Chuck is home but was not released by medical staff, instead, he walked out of the hospital on his own and is home now. What took place in this hospital yesterday, in my humble opinion is appalling and unimaginable!!!

The sequence of events went like this...

Yesterday morning at 7am they stopped his IV fluids and pain meds as he was going to be having the MRI done at 12pm noon. He had nothing by mouth and the ambulance service was picking him up at 11:15am to take him to the facility to have the test done.

At 10am he rang the Nurses bell to because he wanted to know if he needed to drink any contrast for the MRI procedure.....she never came. We rang the bell again at 10:45am.....she did not come. I walked down to the Nurses station to speak with her and she was with another patient so they told me they would send her down to the room. She never came down and Chuck was taken out for the test. Obviously he did not have to prep with a contrast drink.

He had the MRI/MRCP done at 12 noon. It took one hour and then he returned to the hospital to wait for results. The GI doctor told him earlier that morning if the test came back ok he would be allowed to eat soft food. At 2pm we inquired about the test results and the nurse told us the results were not back yet. Again at 3pm and 4pm and still, no results.

At 6pm I called over to the facility that did the MRI and spoke to a girl named xxxxx. I asked her why the results have not been forwarded to the hospital, she placed me on hold. She came back and said xxxxxx, the MRI technician told her that the radiologist did not read his films and that they would have it done right away and faxed over to the hospital within 20 minutes. I am unclear as to why the Nurse was not proactive in making that call herself??? I should not have had to do the leg work to get results.

Once Chuck got back to the room they delivered him a tray of clear liquids that consisted of Ginger Ale, Cranberry Juice, Jello, Rasberry water ice, soup broth and hot tea. He explained to the Nurse that he can not have these things as he is insulin diabetic and it will make his sugars go crazy. He let them know that his Endocrinologist told he never to have juices, sodas, etc... The Nurse had a Nutritionist come up to speak with Chuck and she said, "Sorry, nothing I can do because this is what they have written for you to have in your chart". So, all Chuck was able to do was drink water. In the meantime his sugar level is dropping and he knew this by the way he was feeling. He rang the Nurse to let her know but again, she never came to the room. The Nutritionist did tell Chuck she was not aware that he was diabetic.

The man that shared the room with Chuck had doctors/surgeons coming in through out the day and there was a lot of mention that they thought this guy may have MERSA, a highly contagious thing and so of course Chuck spoke to his Nurse and requested he be moved out of the room next door where there were 2 open beds........He was told NO!!! Mersa patients are supposed to be isolated and I am also immune compromised but the Nurse really did not care. At one point a surgeon by the name of Dr. xxxxx told Chucks room mate that he could give him lidocaine, numb the area and drain this giant boil on this mans leg right in the bed.

When the Nurse would come in to give Chuck and his room mate meds she never washed her hands between dealing with them nor was she gowned. If you have Mersa or they think you have Mersa........You should be gowned, gloved and masked. I now wonder how many germs were spread from this man to my husband, and ultimately to me.

After the dinner trays were delivered to the room the Nurse came in to give Chuck medicine. Chuck looked at the medicine and asked the Nurse what it was and she replied, "your heart medication". Chuck is not on heart medication so this Nurse almost gave him someone else's medication. Chuck told her that this was not his medicine and said, "you need to start looking at your charts". He told her again that he was not getting fluid by IV anymore and he needed a tray with clear liquids that were diet since he was diabetic and felt his sugars were now getting pretty low. SHE DID NOTHING!

At 6pm Chuck told the Nurse he wanted the attending doctor to come see him and wanted to make him aware of all that had gone on along with getting results of his MRI report so he could get soft foods into him to bring his sugars up. The doctor never came. At 7pm Chuck demanded again to see a doctor and also got a copy of the MRI report given to him. He told the Nurse he wanted his sugar level checked as he was not feeling well at all by this point. She gave him a copy of the report but never checked his sugar level. Finally at 8pm things were getting bad and clearly no one gave a damn. He told the Nurse he could no longer wait for a doctor and asked her to remove the IV from his arm, and she did. He left at 8:15pm.

When he got home I tested his sugar and it was dangerously low at 35. He was confused and very disoriented. I gave him orange juice immediately and his sugars started to come up.............it was very scary. He was sweating profusely and very shaky too.

We were not home 20 minutes and the phone rings. It is a woman by the name of xxxxx. She said she was the charge Nurse and asked if Chuck was at home. I told her he was and that he was in bed. She said he needs to get back here immediately to get the IV taken out of his arm. I told her the Nurse took the IV out of his arm and she said that she did not have any report of that.

So I proceeded to ask her if she had report of the fact that he was almost given someone elses heart medicine, that he requested sugar free drinks and received nothing, that he requested to move to another room due to possible Mersa and was denied, and that his sugar when he got home was 35. She was not aware of any of this................WHAT A SURPRISE!!!

She told us that because he walked out of the hospital without medical release that she has to report it to our insurance company and they will not pay the bill.....we will be responsible. I let her know that if he stayed they would have killed him and due to their negligence he had no choice but to leave. I promised her I would file a major law suit against them if the bill came in my mail box.

Chuck has put out phone calls to his pcp, GI doctor, Endocrinologist and his case manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield (our insurance company) and he is waiting for them to call back so he can tell his side of the story. As for the MRI report it was not able to rule out a pancreatic tumor so now he will need more testing done, something his GI doctor will have to order for him. The Pancreatitis is calmed down thanks to IV fluids but moving forward I would NEVER go back to that hospital again!!! I don't think I would even send a laboratory rat there.

Chuck, as sick as he is, was treated like a worthless dog and no one cared to listen to his concerns. Clearly with a sugar level of 35 his concerns were more then valid and it is a shame that any human being is treated this way.

I just hope my son is a better Nurse with more compassion for human life. Communication is key here and sadly there was none in this case. I will keep you posted as to how we progress moving forward and I continue to ask for prayers that he does not have a tumor in his pancreas.

So this is so long but I wanted to keep you all in the loop since you have been so gracious to send prayers our way. I love you all and appreciate the support.:wink2:

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