So, I have a lot to catch up on. At the moment, its 4 AM here in Fort Lauderdale and I find myself here in Memorial Regional Hospital South with my beautiful wife. In the 10 years we’ve been together, I’ve never seen here in the kind of pain she is enduring due to severe Sciatica. Now this has been going on now Since Dec. 26th 2011, the day after her mother went into the hospital at Imperial Point Medical Center. We choose to NOT be in a hospital the hospital right now so soon after losing Brandy’s mother to nursing home neglect, and of course then being ignored in an ICU at the hospital she was in to the point that they just let her die…and watched it while it happened.
We watched wrongful death happen while begging the nurses to PLEASE call a doctor…any doctor…to no avail.?So you can understand our apprehension in having to bring Brandy to a hospital within 2 weeks of the above issue occurring while we tried to help save her mom. As her mom went into a Code Blue and began to fail…Brandy had already informed all the nurses and the doctors that she wanted to hold her mother in her arms and help her pass from this world. So as the Code was called…and they began CPR and making the attempts to revive her mother…Brandy realized that this was the moment and that her mother was not going to make. So in the moment with a rush of adrenaline, she launched herself over the bed rails…and into the bed with her mother…further injuring an old herniated disk. Her mother did not make it as they called her time of death in the wee hours of the morning at 1:55 a.m. on Jan. 2nd, 2012.
So for the past two weeks, the Sciatica continued to worsen…to the point that on Jan. 11th, 2012 a mere 6 days after burying her mother, the Sciatica became so severe that she was unable to walk anymore…and began trying to crawl to get around. Just getting to the restroom became an impossible task, requiring me to at times, carry her to her destination.
We now have taken Brandy to Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, avoiding the place where the nurses just let her mother die…only to be told that albeit she was in very severe pain…that the ONLY way they would treat her…was if she came in paralyzed. So they gave her a shot for pain (good for 4 hours) and sent her home. Obviously they want to charge us a few thousand dollars for that visit…but turned us away without finding out what the problem is…or ensuring that she received proper treatment.
Which now brings us to my rant right here in Memorial Regional Hospital South where the nurses will yell at you. That’s right, my wife was just yelled at by her nurse (Margaret – 4th Floor) because she felt she had done everything possible to help my wife. This nurse would then proceed to tell her that she would get her pillows to help make her comfortable…and after 25 mins., came back with 1 small pillow decrying they were full when the floor itself has rooms blocked off as being clean and ready for new patients. Couldn’t they borrow a pillow or two from these empty rooms until they need those rooms…and find pillows from them when they actually get real patients.
Then to try and treat her in the ER, they shoot her numerous times with Dilaudid (3X over 6 hours), when that wouldn’t work as she would scream in pain…I asked them to try Morphine instead to see if her body would respond to that pain killer instead. No dice. They said they would give her some flexeril for the spasms in her left leg where the Sciatica was giving her such severe pain. Did they give it to her in the ER…no.
Then when we got to the room, not only did her nurse get brusque with my wife…but she actually barked at her…and even said she’s never done that to a patient before. Now, I don’t know where you’re from…but that’s just wrong to have a nurse do that to you when you are in extreme pain. Yet there’s more…
After giving her the hardest pain killers that a hospital can give, the attending doctor has them give her a Percoset and an Ambien. Now, everyone else at the other hospitals were quite concerned with mixing Ambien with Dilaudid or Morphine as they were fearful of her breathing too shallow due to the narcotics being mixed with a sleeping pill. Yet Memorial Regional Hospital South tee’d her up to try and knock her out so as to try and shut her up…
They told her (as I sat and listened to this), at 3:15 a.m., that she would be due for a dose of Morphine in 30 mins, at 3:45…the nurse (Margaret) showed up 45 mins late knowing full well she was in severe pain.
Ask for some extra pillow to try and use to wedge them around Brandy’s body to help make her comfortable, that took her over an hour and a half to deliver that. I asked for bathroom access to help my wife get to so she could use it for numerous reasons (one being for her monthly visitor to freshen herself up), they never cleared out the space to allow us to do that. So we had to get a wheelchair to wheel my wife 1 hallway over to find a family restroom so she could tend to her business.
Now, if you’d like to enjoy some of the bullshit and listen to just one of the conversations regarding care from this nurse at this hospital that is seemingly cutting corners at the expense of the patient while we get stuck with a bill that can’t be argued…well just take a listen to this: Nurse Montgomery’s Excuses