A HOSPITA7L'S FAILURE. 10-3-2022

Dear Friends and Family,

I pray all of you are well, healthy, rested and loved.

My dear friends, I’m home!

I was discharged on Thursday afternoon and returned home later that day.

I had decided that I could not fight the diseases in my body and also fight for proper healthcare at the same time. I told my attending physician I wanted to go home. This doctor honored this request and sent me home!

I’ve been a patient at Mount Auburn Hospital for approximately 14 years.

There have been doctors at Mount Auburn Hospital who have saved my life, have made my medical conditions better, have caused the betterment of my life and have placed me on “The Path to Wellness”.

There have been people, and there are still people I know at Mount Auburn Hospital, who have made my life better, turned a negative experience of being in the hospital into something a bit more positive, have gone beyond what their job calls for to help me and have shown concern, love and devotion in a place that, many times, are void of those qualities.

I was always impressed by the excellent and outstanding treatment and care I received at Mount Auburn Hospital, that is until now…

Recently, I have had 4 consecutive hospitalizations. On each hospital encounter, my symptoms of low oxygen saturations, high heart rates and severely bouncing blood pressures, dehydration and other worsening symptoms were happening to me.

And on each of these 4 hospital encounters, the symptoms were much, much worse than the previous hospital encounter.

I was admitted into the hospital each time because the symptoms were at such dangerous levels that my life was at risk.

On my 4th trip to the Emergency Department at Mount Auburn Hospital, I had a heart rate of over 160, a fever of 103* and rising, a dangerously high blood pressure and other obvious symptoms telling the doctors that something was dangerously going wrong in my body. I was immediately admitted into the hospital.

I knew I had an infection and, from my numerous times of experiencing pneumonia, I knew that, at this time, it was definitely pneumonia.

There was even a prominent spot on the lobe of my right lung, suspicious of pneumonia.

My pulmonary physician continued his unfounded diagnosis that this suspicious spot on the lobe of my right lung was “nothing”.

My symptoms continued to get more dangerous and were progressively worsening as time went on, placing me not only in imminent danger but, threatening my life as well.

I knew I had pneumonia but my doctors continued their reliance on my pulmonary physician’s observations and dismissed everything I knew about my own body, even my surety that I was suffering from untreated pneumonia. Under the care of my pulmonologist, he continued to peddle the “it was nothing excuse”. This allowed my symptoms to worsen as this untreated pneumonia, to my misfortune, progressed.

Yes, doctors I knew and had previously worked with as well as respected were mindlessly drawn to the biased opinions of my pulmonary physician who, dressed in pulmonary expertise allowed his ego to jump out of his pen pocket.

What I knew about my own body, what I knew was pneumonia and what I tried over and over again to express to all of these doctors was dismissed, ignored and silenced.

Instead of trusting me and what I knew about my own body, these prominent and educated physicians, who were treating me while I was a patient at Mount Auburn Hospital, conveniently placed their trust in a doctor with pulmonary experience without question or discussion. This pulmonary doctor was eventually proven to be wrong.

I, the patient, who knows my body, was never given the opportunities to express in any way, form or matter what I knew was happening in my body.

Hospital doctors, if they didn’t say it to me, strongly implied, through most of these 4 hospitalizations, that I shouldn’t be in the hospital and the hospital was for people who needed acute care.

I was already suffering grief and was deep in trauma. I had been attempting to cope with the many losses of very close family members and close friends who have died within this past year. My own mother passed away recently and my sister, Roberta, who had been my health care proxy as well as my friend, died less than 3 months ago. Being so sick, my own mortality entered my mind (and body and I was frightened). Because my own doctors in the hospital did not share with me about my current health issues, I relied mostly on test results and the notes in My Chart and I used Google Search, attempting to understand what few were telling me.

Mount Auburn Hospital continued to further traumatize me by their total lack of confidence in my own knowledge of my body and mind. Instead they placed their trust in people who were supposedly experts, doing what they thought were in my best interests.

Their decisions were not only “not” in my best interests, they worked against my best interests and were also damaging to my medical, physical and emotional wellbeing.

These medical professionals did not display to me the respect and dignity I should have been shown.

Instead, these medical professionals relied on other professionals to decide what was best for me and how to treat me and approach me.

I knew how I needed to be treated and I knew what works best for me. Instead of relying on those experts in the medical profession, who all failed, I prayed that these doctors would’ve given me the respect to talk to me.

Their approaches, mannerisms and care failed because they neglected to involve me in my own treatment and care!

I have always advocated for myself, as well as making my own medical decisions and life decisions. I was disappointed, hurt and betrayed by the people who were supposedly caring for me but also did not consider me worthy to be an active participant in my own treatment and care.

These dehumanizing behaviors by staff at Mount Auburn Hospital failed miserably!

In this process Mount Auburn Hospital failed me, their patient, Evelyn Pinto, and failed me miserably!

There were numerous mistakes made by doctors caring for me.

Knowing I was worsening and I, myself sure I was suffering, among other medical problems, from untreated pneumonia, I demanded to be transferred to another hospital where I knew I would receive the needed care and treatments that would treat this pneumonia.

This request by me was not even honored, much less taken seriously!

To me, I was fighting for my life in a place where everyone around me should have been fighting for my life and, sadly, they were not!

It was on the next day, Saturday, a new attending physician, DR. Lwin walked into my hospital room. This attending doctor explained to me that I had pneumonia in the lobe of my right lung, something I had been telling these people for many weeks and also what my pulmonary physician told me and everyone else was “nothing”!.

I was immediately treated with Levaquin for this pneumonia. An infectious diseases doctor was called as well. This doctor also met with me and agreed with this treatment of antibiotics.

In the course of my time as a patient, other mistakes were made:

1) A resident doctor abruptly discontinued my pain medication without telling me. One of these medications was a treatment for severe, chronic pain. This pain medication, which I had been taking for many years, was prescribed by DR. Amanda Livingston and was dispensed to me completely under the close supervision of DR. Livingston. This pain medication was Vicodin, a narcotic.

2) I knew that by abruptly stopping this pain medication, Vicodin, would have sent me into painful, dangerous and unpredictable withdrawals by morning.

3) Anyone, especially a doctor, would know and should know that by abruptly discontinuing this medication, a medication prescribed to me and a medication I had been taking for years, would have sent me into these dangerous withdrawals by, the latest, morning. Why didn’t this doctor know before he made that senseless decision to completely discontinue this pain medication, especially without telling me?

4) Patient Notes: Before any doctor, nurse, and/or anyone writes in the patient’s notes, I would emphasize that they are completely sure if what they write down is the truth, without a doubt. Everything they write is to be completely true. Guesses, opinions, biases, what they think to be true have no place in patient notes. Once something is written in the patient notes, it becomes fact. What is written in the patient notes should only be facts, unless stated otherwise.

5) Reprimanding a patient: I have listened to and further ignored nurses who felt the need to reprimand me. No one, no nurse, absolutely no one should ever reprimand an adult patient. Other means of communication should be exercised, like talking with the patient. If a nurse, or anyone, feels the need to reprimand a patient, it is not in any way helpful to the patient but, it’s only self-serving to the nurse or medical professional who has that need to reprimand someone.

I am recovering at home from pneumonia and also from COVID that I contracted while I was in the hospital. I was also treated with antibiotics for the Pneumonia and for IV Remdesivir for COVID, while I was still a patient in the hospital.

I am home now. I’m still sick, weak, extremely fatigued, exhausted, coughing, and congested. I hope and pray that I will soon enter “The Road to Wellness”.

I strongly encourage that changes be made for the welfare of the people, who become patients in the hospital. We, as patients, are sick and vulnerable. We all need medical care and treatment. We also need to be shown respect, dignity, and credibility and to know that what we do say is listened to, valued and regarded as important.

6) My pulmonologist was removed from my treatment team by my family. This former pulmonary doctor will have nothing to do with my treatment and care, past present or future. This also means that my former pulmonary doctor will not be allowed access to my medical chart, not be allowed to consult in any form and not be involved by any means or ways when I transfer my care to another pulmonologist! This has been a total betrayal and, to me, it has caused me severe physical, emotional and medical harm.

7) I have always been active in my own treatment and care. To this day, I have trouble comprehending the wrongs that were continually allowed to happen to me through these 4 recent hospitalizations. I also cannot understand how, why and for what reasons these medical professionals could have had the power to further traumatize me and why other wrongs continued to happen despite my attempting to contact everyone who, I thought, would act on my behalf. I was fighting for my life in a place where everyone around me should have been fighting for my life. A question that I need to ask is: “Why weren’t they fighting for me?”

I am relieved to be home. I realize my path to recovery will be long, painful and exhausting!

I need to work, also, on my healing.

With the appropriate help, I will be working on the emotional, social and spiritual healing of what forced me into a trauma and what sunk me into a survival mode.

I also am going to begin coping with the grief, sadness and sorrow that came from the losses of people that I dearly loved and the feelings that worsened while I was sick, vulnerable and a patient in Mount Auburn Hospital.

I can’t figure out yet the 1st steps in how to begin healing but, I am starting with what is in front of me. I’ll begin at that point and, with the professional help of working with my counseling therapist and with the guidance of my God, I will go on!

Though my life, at this point, is unpredictable, difficult, painful, frightening and scary, I know I’ll be okay.

Want to know why, my dear friends? The One who has held me tight, protected me from harm and has set me upon a safe place, is always going to be there, especially in those very dark times of indefinites.

Even if it’s not okay, I am calmed by God’s Peace and I am sure He is holding onto me in the rollercoaster of Life!

So, my dear friends, though now my life is chaotic, disruptive and a mess, I will be okay!

Thank all of you for your kind thoughts, compassionate words, support and your prayers!

I am grateful and blessed by all of you!

With sincerity, love, gratitude and prayers,

Evelyn Pinto