Update and OT vent

feeder3565
on 10/7/11 12:51 pm
Less then 2 weeks out of my drain-less TT, hernia's repaired, and adhesion take down, I found myself in the hospital last night. Not for myself. My father who lives with me and is 80 yrs. old fell going from the garage to his apt. attached to my house. I think he was doing the south-side shuffle and tripped on a step. He had a bad cut above his eye, and his index finger was cut very badly. My friend drove me and my father to the emergency room. I am still very weak and can not left or push him in the wheel chair. The brand new hospital we took him to seemed to have a shortage off staff to help out with this, so wait until my friend parked the car and came back and got us waiting on the curb. Good Lord this should have been my first clue not to go in there. 

My father has very good insurance. He had just had a hernia repair done less than 2 months ago and had been off his blood thinners, Thank God for that because they let him bleed in his bed for 3 and a half hours. We went in for a fall and to stitch up the finger and have the eye looked at and to see if any damage was done to his hernia. Blood work-EKG-Cat Scan-EX-Ray of hand and over 3 1/2 hours later doctor wants to discharge him. 

He laid in this bed and could not get up to go to the bath room and after peeing on himself twice I had to ask the nurse for a bedpan. I also asked the nurse why has no one looked at my fathers hernia or cleaned his head and finger wounds. We are waiting for the doctor to clear all the testing and no need to poke around any more than need be. 

After wheeling my father all over this hospital for these different test, with his wounds wide open, he was so mad he wanted to go home and asked to leave. At this point the doctor came in and declared that although his test all came back fine, it seems that his finger was so badly swollen he could no longer stitch it back together and it was going to have to heal on it's own. It will take a long time for this to heal and although this is bad and did need to be stitched there is just no way we can do it now. Any questions? Yep, you bet. I need to see you in the hall way, my father has been under enough stress.

So what you are telling me is that you let my father be here for almost 4 hours, ran up his insurance, Wheeled him through this hospital with open wounds, Pissed himself because no one was answering the call light, could not unzip his own pants and when I asked for a bed pan it took a hour to get one. You can no longer stitch it together and it will take long to heal and be very pain full, you already have him discharged and you have not even cleaned his wounds, but the nurse was going to do this after you left the room. You have put my father at high risk for infection and although I do not know your infection rate at this hospital I will by tomorrow and I will be talking to someone over you about what took place here along with pictures of his cuts. You have him discharged and never have looked at his hernia-groin area to see if any damage was done even though he said it was hurting him. His reply, give me back the discharge papers, nurse write out prescription for 5 day antibiotic, lets go back in and check out his groin, bring him back on Saturday and we will see how it is healing. Redo new discharge papers. All the while telling me MR. ---, is not the only person in the ER and we are short of help. Why did you not say that when we came in? We would have went some place else I asked. We are not allowed to do that, Oh I said,  but you are allowed run up his insurance and not clean or treat wounds, funny how this works.

Very nice nurse who did finally clean my fathers wounds gave me the name of who I needed to see and talk with as she too said my father was treated badly. Could they not have put it on ice? Cleaned his wounds when he first came in? Put him in a hospital gown with a bed pan at the get go? gave him something to relief the throbbing? It was wrapped with no butterfly band-aid, no brace. I asked for the brace and something for the throbbing. Got them both, only cost my father maybe 6,000 for this whole side show! 

I btw, am also doing the south-side shuffle. Shuffling through life very slowly, tire very fast, and last night took so much out of me. I am still in shock with the PS. Just can't find words to describe my new body, so I say nothing at all. I will say if you are at a normal BMI and seeking a TT, might want to check into a drain-less one. Less pain, Less swelling, heal faster and no drains! It is unbelievable.

Dipped to 123 again, but have bounced back to 133. Still have great restriction and am living on power shakes 5 a day. Will be glad when I can eat more. Missing the food. I can feel that I am able to take in a little more each few days. Peanut butter crackers, pretzels and peanut butter, tst and peanut butter, and a egg at times.   
     
kramer5
on 10/7/11 2:13 pm - Washington, KS
I'm so sorry to hear everything you and your father went through.  That was ridiculous.  There's no reason why they couldn't have been stitching him up while waiting on test results.  They know that there's a limited amount of time to stitch and once they're past that they can't do anything.  Being short on help is their problem, not the patient's.

I hope both you and your father feel better soon and I hope that something comes of your speaking to someone else at the hospital.
Dawn
    
Diane Davis
on 10/7/11 3:12 pm
Karen, I'm so sorry your Dad and you went throught this.

Don't let it drop, something needs to be done.  This was uncalled for.
 My  is Jewels.  Love her very much!            
LuckyLibrarian
on 10/7/11 11:55 pm - Plumerville, AR
My mother would call that a CF, but I'll just say it- what a cluster fuck! I am so sorry that you and your dad had to go through this. I hope you get something done, some kind of resolution. Do you think it is possible to wait for the swelling to go down and then stitch it? Did they even consult plastics? I think the PS on call should have made that decision.

Kristen
"Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation." - Walter Cronkite

(deactivated member)
on 10/8/11 3:34 am - Yorktown, VA
You need to speak with (and file a formal written complaint) with the hospital administrator.  I'd also contact your father's insurance and make them aware.

I'm glad your TT went well!  Isn't it amazing to have a flat tummy?
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