A trip to the hospital is never any fun, especially if
you’re the patient. They wake you up in
the middle of the night to take a sleeping pill…….wasn’t I already sleeping
when you woke me up? They come in at all
hours to take your vitals, they poke and prod, and they even bring you food
that no one wants to eat (unless you’re in Austin Heart Hospital…….family
members have told me that they have the BEST food). Although you may have a private room, there’s
very little privacy – ie. the gowns they give you to wear barely covers the
front, which leaves the back side for all to view. Let’s just say that hospitals are NOT on
anyone’s top 10 places to visit.
But visiting hospitals is not an enjoyable task either. It’s often freezing, with no way to change the
temperature. Most rooms only have 1
chair……..so if you take along a friend, someone has to stand L Then there’s the noise from outside……no, not
outside the building, just the room.
Many times there are children running up and down the halls, nurses chattering
about the patient in room ???, doctors giving orders, equipment being moved
from this room to that one, and the receptionist giving commands over the
intercom.
Yes, there are many things we complain about when dealing
with hospitals, and most are legitimate.
But all those issues seem very small when you visit the hospital
here. I can’t speak from the patient’s
view, but here are a few observations that I’ve made the past few days.
Our sponsored daughter, Gabi, had an emergency appendectomy
last Tuesday night. It began over the weekend when she complained of stomach
pains. Monday she was picked up from
school and taken to the hospital, where they spent the next 5 hours trying to
figure out what was going on. They
finally determined that she had appendicitis and was sent home……..what???? They wanted to wait and see how she felt the
next day…..are you kidding me? So home
she went. Tuesday aftermoon she was back
at the hospital. Yes, she would need
surgery, but since it was late in the day, they wanted to wait until
Wednesday. When we were told of the
hospital’s decision, I asked if I needed to stay with her during the
night. Answer: no one is allowed to stay
with the patients (unless they are very small children). This child had never been left alone before,
much less in a hospital (something else new to her). Can you imagine her anxiety?
Well, the surgery didn’t wait until Wednesday, but was
performed late Tuesday night. No one was
there…..not because no one wanted to go, but because the hospital wouldn’t
allow anyone there. So what if there was
another emergency that arose? Who would
make decisions for Gabi? The hospital
assured us that they would call if necessary.
I don’t know about you, but me making important decisions when awaken
from a deep sleep is not a wise choice. Anyway,
the surgery went well and the appendix was removed before further issues arose.
Now let’s talk about visiting the sick in the
hospital………..first, visiting hours are from 2-4p. Yep, just 2 hours a day to visit, unless you
are parents (they can visit from 9:30-10:00a).
When you arrive at the pediatric floor, you exit the elevators into a
hallway that’s about 8’x30’ with 10-12 chairs along one wall. You ring a bell at the wing door and wait for
someone to answer. When they do, and
sometimes it takes 15-20 minutes (speed is not one of their requirements), you
tell them who you’d like to see. They
will close the door and proceed to get that person for you. Depending on how the individual feels that
day determines how they will arrive to see you………walking, in a wheelchair, or
on their hospital bed. Yes, the staff
will actually roll the hospital bed into the hallway (with everyone else to be
visited). You, along with 10-30 other
folks, sit together in this hallway and visit.
It really does make for some quiet, intimate conversation. Plus, you can see what everyone else’s
medical issues were. When 4p comes
along, any remaining patients are returned to their room, not to be seen again
until 2p the next day. Rules are
strict!!
On our visit Friday, the nurse informed us that Gabi needed some medicine. Ok, so give her some. No, the hospital did not have it and we needed to go to the pharmacy and purchase it ourself. What?? A hospital without medicines?? Found out that this happens all the time. The one good thing about having to purchase your own is that you’re not overcharged. Today (Sunday) Gabi told us that they ran out of toilet paper in her room and the nurses didn’t have any to give them. Seriously? Well, add toilet paper to the list of things the hospital doesn’t provide. Dacian shared with us that his wife (who is a surgical nurse at this hospital) often has to provide her own surgical gloves, tape, disinfectant, and other misc supplies. Also found out that you must bring your own pajamas – open rear gowns not provided.
So, you thought American hospitals were bad (and some are),
at least they provide toilet paper :)
