What is Wrong with People?

I know you don't always get the best care all the time. And I know hospitals are understaffed and overwhelmed, even more so in the winter months with accidents and people slipping and falling, etc.. But the care my grandmother got yesterday (during the day - by the end of the day we were better) still has me seething!

My poor grandmother fell yesterday morning in her bedroom trying to put on her shoes and called me just as I was pulling into my parking spot at work (after it took me an hour and a half to get here in the snow). Any of you folks who live in New England are well aware we've had more snow in December than we have in the past 37 years and it just keeps on coming, yet no one knows how to drive in it. But that's a story for another day.

I left work, drove home, called the ambulance from when I was almost there so we all showed up at the same time. I didn't want to take a chance and try to get her up even though she said she was fine - just wanted to be on the side of caution. She was taken to a local hospital for X-rays, etc.. and they said it would be a while. So I decided to go back to work for a few hours so I could get some stuff done.

Around noon I call to check on her and they tell me she has to come home, she didn't break anything and frankly they need the bed. So much for having some compassion for an elderly woman who fell and yes, may not have broken anything, but is certainly very bruised all over. They tell me they are going to send her home in an ambulance and I'm telling them they have to wait because she doesn't have a key and I need to get home first. Would you believe it was a fight? I just don't get it. And mind you I told them at the hospital SEVERAL times that she lives alone and there's no one to take care of her there.

So the EMT's bring her back home in the afternoon - with all the snow it was better to go this route because there was no way I, alone, could safely get her up the walkway. And they have to help get her into her chair - as she wanted to sit in the sunroom. As they are leaving I'm asking if she's really ok to be home - because it didn't seem that way AT ALL. They were like yeah, she walked, and I'm like ok.

After a short while Nana wants to get up and go upstairs can't blame her and I had to convince her there was no way for her to get upstairs last night. But then I discovered she couldn't get up. She couldn't get out of the chair on her own and I couldn't get her up either. She tried. I tried. It just wasn't fair to her. I was so mad. That hospital NEVER should have sent her home.

How can the people in the medical profession not have compassion for someone like my grandmother? Granted I understand that if she goes in and nothing is broken they deem her "ok." And I also understand they probably see their fair share of elderly people in and out for falls and breaks. But when someone goes in there with her and is very concerned and lets them know that she will need help shouldn't they listen? Shouldn't they be sure there is someone at home who can take care of her, assist her in the transition - even if nothing is technically broken. I'm beside myself with anger toward these individuals, I must say.

So I call her doctor and explain the situation and that we have a problem because she can't get up and we can't get her out of the chair. He's going to call me back.

In the meantime the hospital calls to tell me her file of life was left behind -shocking - and that they are putting it in the mail and to look for it today. Great. I ask to speak to the nurse I was dealing with earlier in the day and tell her what's happening and she's like but she walked, she was fine. I don't doubt she did some type of walking, mind you - so I asked her how she could walk if she can't get up. And she was like "oh as long as you have two people to get her up she's fine - one under each arm." I was like are you kidding me! You sent a 98-year-old woman home from the hospital and she can't even get out of her own chair? It's not like she has people home all day everyday to help get her up! I can't believe the complete gross incompetence on their part.

The doctor then calls me back, does some really quick work and after going back and forth with me for an hour he gets her the last bed at a rehab down the street, we just have to get her there. Which I explain if she can't stand up and I can't help her up how am I going to get her in the car? He makes some more calls, calls me back and gets me medical transport, so I call again and sure enough I get the same fire dept. crew and EMTs from the morning. Anyway, we get her up there and they're good. She was admitted and the place was great. They had her in a bed and had dinner in front of her in 10 minutes and then her doctor met us up there. Talked to us and her and ordered a bunch of tests for this morning. Oh and he also told me he spoke to the emergency room doctor and gave him a piece of him mind.

Whew.