Nurse tosses kidney and other examples of heinous health care- Page 2

[StockardFan]

Posted: 9/1/13 at 10:40pm

I heard this story a few days ago. Absolutely horrific.

Jane, I'm so sorry your mother had to go through that. No one should ever be treated that way.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/1/13 at 10:53pm

I'm sorry siny, I can't buy your defense of lousy medical staff.

And you do realize that unlike many other professions, you're dealing with life and death situations. I could write a book that would put your hair on end.

thanks Stockard!

Updated On: 9/1/13 at 10:53 PM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 9/1/13 at 10:55pm

siny, I know that to be rue after seeing the nursing home my dad was i before he died. They ran that place on so little cash. The staff were all over worked and sometimes pulling double shifts. It certainly could have been a lot better but it is a branch of our very, very broken health care system.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/1/13 at 11:00pm

I don't think we're talking about the same thing,

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/1/13 at 11:10pm

I've spent a good deal of time in my life at hospitals, both for myself having what was considered the worst case of hepatitis in history, my sister who was in and out of mental institutions, and my mother who was also in and out of hospitals for several years.

I was sick for one year with my hepatitis and in the hospital for four months. Just to cite a couple of examples, half the floor I was on had hepatitis, the other half tuberculosis. The TB's were smoking and the Heps were drinking. the bathrooms were NOT cleaned. The nurse who came in to take my pulse had no watch or other time keeper with her. The man in the next room had a catheter in, and no nurse would change it. When he cried out in the night, a couple of nurses took shelter in my room and claimed they didn't have to take care of the man because they didn't speak Italian.
I had a raging fever, was delerious, and asked for a cold compress, a washcloth, anything to put on my head. I waited a couple of hours and when I got to ask again, the nurse told me they had no washcloths. Mind you, I was deathly ill with 20% chance to recover.

Oh, this whole topic is making me sick. I'm leaving the thread. carry on.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/1/13 at 11:18pm

OH, and before I go, I'd like to mention this.

My regular internist practices in two different well known hospitals in NYC. They are both among the most respected institutions. He told me if I ever have to go in, then to avoid one of them, because of the very poor quality care there.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/1/13 at 11:25pm

One more thing to prove my point - the last hospitalization my mother had before she died, I was there round the clock to be with her. Not only because she was my mother, but I knew I would have to do most of the things the nurses should be doing.

She was on a bed pan. She was finished using it. I couldn't remove it myself, as it took two people to lift her because of a position she was in because of the huge BEDSORE which was never treated.

Anyway, we asked for a nurse to remove the bedpan several times. Mind you, I was able to walk around the halls of the floor, and was able to watch the same large group of nurses hanging out at the nurses' station. they were all hanging out for some time. (no shortage of nurses or overwork, mind you). Each time I passed, I mentioned that my mother needed the bed pan removed. Aside from the bedsores, the bedpan is pretty uncomfortable to be lying on for this long. Each time they said they'd be "right there."
After an hour, I asked to see the head nurse, or floor manager.

Finally they came to help my mother.

Yes, I'm having a meltdown over this topic.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 9/2/13 at 12:34am

Jane I had a run in with the nurses at the now closed St Vincents.

Kevin, my partner was in the final stages of AIDS. The KS had attacked his lungs which where pretty scarred from a bad bout of pneumocystis pneumonia, he weighed 98 lb. He was rushed to the hospital when we realized his blood started pooling in his back.

They rushed him to the ward where they put people who are on their way out. He was still lucid when we got him into his room and into bed. Lying flat he could barely breathe so his sister and I adjusted the bed to an almost upright posistion and found a few extra pillows to prop im up into a semi seated position where he could breathe freely.

Suddenly like a bat out of hell this nurse runs into the room and says: "What are you doing?" and proceeds to lower the bed and remove all the pillows. Poor Kevin started gasping for air. Then she yelled at us, "You are not supposed to do this I am! I will be back in a moment and we will start him on his morphine drip! Three hours pass and she did not return. I found the head nurse and complained. The head nurse showed up immediately and got the drip in place. Bat Out of Hell Nurse was hanging out in the nurses station chatting about what she had just had for dinner across the street.

I was allowed to stay the night, I kept going to Bat Out Of Hell nurse and asked her for things like water and cotton swaps to moisten his lips, more blankets for when he began to violently shake. She never once raised a finger but glared at me, then went on with the other nurses talking about her mannicure and how she was dissappointed to to be invited to this one's Christmas Party or that one's Christmas party. At one point I yelled, "Why the F don't you just do your job?"

The head Nurse came to me on my way back to the room and asked if there was a problem. I said yes there was but I didn't want to discuss it until this ordeal was over. She agreed. Kevin died that night in my arms. We made the funeral arraingements and as I was leaving the ward the head nurse came up to me and asked me to follow her. I did. In the Nurse's station all the night shift nurses were standing in a line. I said, "To all of you who helped tonight, I thank-you, however you, you who were more concerned about your nails or feeding your fat ass or not being invited to Christmas party gatherings then to care for the patients in your charge I have NO USE FOR. When someone comes in here to die, it is your job to make them comfortable! If that means finding a way to hang then from the ceiling by ropes then God Dammit that is what you do!" "I was doing my job." She anwered. "I want your job where I can sit here in the Nurses Station and Gossip all night and tal;
king about what I ate." Then I really melted down.... "Maybe if you laid off the late night large meals and donuts and, oh I don't know, actually worked and got fit Michael would have invited you to his Christmas Party!".

The head nurse met me at the elevator and thanked me. She said I had taught the entire overnight staff a valuable lesson. She said, "Sometimes they have to hear that from someone other then their supervisors.

Two weeks later walking home late from work, I was Bat From Hell nurse outside the ER stuffing her face and smoking, seems she got busted to Graveyard shift there.

Updated On: 9/2/13 at 12:34 AM

[NoName3]

Posted: 9/2/13 at 1:02am

Oh SNAFU, I have such a similar St. Vincent's story when my partner passed in 2003, but there is *always* a Nurse Ratchet. I addressed it head on, and in the end I will be eternally grateful to the ICU staff who for ten days let me stay there, against the rules, nearly 24/7 holding his unconscious hand until his family finally agreed to take him off life support.

Too much pain, too much pain to write you all the details, but I hear you.

Christine Quinn, who accepted 30,000 pieces of silver from Rudin and associates to let that hospital close, rot in Hell.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 9/2/13 at 2:55am

Oh, I will always be thankful for St Vincents allowing me to practically live there during Kevin's illness! They were extrodinary about that! I think it made the staff's life a bit easier. The fact that they let you stay in the ICU is amazing!

[NoName3]

Posted: 9/2/13 at 3:27am

Show up just before midnight with a big box of hot fresh doughnuts and leave it at the floor front desk. They will love you for the show of appreciation nearly as much as for the doughnuts.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/2/13 at 8:55am

Oh yes, NoName, you must give gifts. In one of the institutions my sister was in, many patients had no one who came regularly to check up on them, and they were mostly neglected. My sister was lucky that both her parents were overseers, and they showed up almost daily with gifts for the staff, so that they would take the right care of my sister.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/2/13 at 9:02am

And when I was languishing in Bayonne Hospital with newly contracted hepatitis, due to the wrong anesthesia administered to me for what should have been a 3 day stay, I was in a ward with three other patients sharing the same bathroom. When I brought out a urine specimen and it was the color of black iced coffee, the other patients cried out that I had hepatitis, which I did, but I still remained in the same ward with the other patients, sharing the bathroom. I had 104 fever and was delirious but the nurses complained and filed a bad patient report on me for crying a lot Yes, this happened. Finally, I was RELEASED to go home because I was unwanted for being so sick in a ward where patients go right home and were not a crying problem.
I was released from that hospital and when my mother carried me into the office of the top liver specialist in the state, he took one look at me and called an ambulance to take me right into his hospital, where it was questionable I would recover.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 12:24pm

~ i just read through this thread and as a one-time health care professional i was saddened to read the things that some of you had to put up with from individuals who chose to be in a profession of service, to care for the ill and then chose to turn their backs on their duty and show an utter lack of disregard and compassion.

~ it disgusts me that their are people out there with this kind of a work ethic working in health care.

~ i was an emergency room coordinator for 12 years and i know all too well the stress that comes with working in the health care profession. but that is in no way any excuse to treat people who are in need like animals.

~ i've seen many things in my years working in a health care setting. things that have made me so enraged because i failed to understand why any doctor, nurse, lab tech, radiologist would be purposely rude, indignant and uncaring to a patient when it is their job to care for them.

~ i'm sorry some of you guys had to go through some of the things you went through. but those people who were left to care for your loved ones who did not live up to the demands and requirements of their chosen profession should go find other means of employment.

~ there is a special place in hell for people like that

[SNAFU]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 1:28pm

My favorite story was waiting with Kevin as he was going under for his liver biopsy. The doctor who was performing the proceedure walked by and said "Good Morning Michael!". "My name is KEVIN doctor! I want to go home NOW!"

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 3:59pm

Wow, going under for a liver biopsy? I had several but the doctor simply came at me with a thick needle that was about 24 inches long with a hook on the end of it, shoved it through my body into my lever, and with the hook, scooped out a piece of my liver.

One time he hit a nerve and the pain I was in can not be compared to anything I can think of.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 4:02pm

And thank you for your understanding, Carolos. My whole family may have been unlucky all our lives when it comes to medical and health care, but the horror stories are all true.

I'd be hard put to find many positive experiences.

However, I'm pleased to say that I have all the best doctors in NY caring for me in their own practices, not in the hospital.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 5:20pm

Yeah they put Kevin under, not completely but I guess twilight, he was terrified of doctors and any kind of surgical proceedures. He told me that when there were tubes hanging out of his body then he would give up. They installed a Hickman on Dec 20th, He died three days later. He was a man of his word.

[Jane2]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 5:29pm

oh, I'm sorry, SNAFU.