Delaware Top Blogs

Monday, April 11, 2011

Hospital red alert!

So Mr Charm broke his femur, and was taken to the hospital, where they set his bone. They made three neat little incisions--arthroscopic, don't you know. We have a view of the river this time, which beats last time, when we had a view of a cemetery.

However, Mr C has a roommate who is deaf, and confused. The nurse who was attending him raised her voice in an effort to make him understand. And what a voice! A fine Wagnerian soprano which caused the bedpans to rattle. Really--it was an assault on the ears and the nerves.

This hospital did not have a guy riding a huge floor polisher, but of course we were there on the weekend, and maybe their floor polishing man works Monday to Friday.

However, they did make a serious medication error--one that I've corrected several times, but which persists on the hospital database. Tomorrow I will talk to the doctor. I will not shriek! I will not shriek! No! Will not...

Could I be fated to enter the Guinness Book of World Records as the person who had two relatives murdered by hospitals in one month?

I asked my uncle many years ago what the date was when doctors started curing more patients than they killed. He looked pained and said he wasn't sure we had passed that date yet.

I will calm down. Have a cup of tea. Serious sedation is called for. Where are those beta blockers?

2 comments:

Kitten said...

Oh, my sympathies Miriam. I was the guard between my husband and the sometimes shocking incompetence (do they even _read_ the charts?)when he was in the hospital.

A continuing medication error seems like it would both scary and very frustrating. I'm glad you get a chance to vent here so as not to commit mayhem and violence upon the next person who gets the same thing wrong.

Anonymous said...

Geez, Miriam.

My best wishes to Mr. Charm, speedy recovery (so speedy that infection will be late to touch him)