A HOSPITAL I NEVER WANT TO GO TO, ESPECIALLY WHEN I'M SICK

 

A Hospital I Never Want To Go To, Especially When I’m Sick   I use to have good experiences at Mount Auburn Hospital. It was a safe place where my illnesses diseases, infections and other medical problems were treated and what I thought, what I felt and how I was doing were vitally important to the doctors, nurses and others who were caring for me. It was where I felt better by their care, not worse from lack of it! I used to be treated with respect dignity and the knowledge that my own body and mind would never be taken into question and, also, my own beliefs were regarded as vital and important. There are still great people who work at Mount Auburn Hospital! I love being with them, being helped by them and still cherish the memories I have kept with these people. I know these hardworking, loving people are still around. I see them! What becomes the problem is that these great people are being over shadowed by people who choose only to help those they want to help and/or they think deserve their help. Please tell these people who choose to work at a hospital that choosing who, they think deserve their care, helps no patient, really no one! I had contacted my doctor’s office close late morning- early afternoon yesterday (Friday). Seeing my blood pressure was super high, even after I had settled down after taking the blood pressure medication and pain medication as well, worried my doctor and me also. (Earlier I had taken the new blood pressure medication after I had placed a call to speak to my primary care doctor's office. (I had taken the new blood pressure medication for the1st time this same day after my medication delivery had arrived from the pharmacy I use). I again took my blood pressure, while I was still on the phone with my primary care physician. My blood pressure was 198 over 104. I was then strongly urged by my physician to go to the Emergency Room at Mount Auburn Hospital, which I did. My blood pressure had been running very high blood pressures for a few months. I was inpatient at Mount Auburn Hospital at Mount Auburn Hospital from March 1st –March 3rd. My high blood pressure could have been addressed then but, was ignored. This was even after I was discharged and was on my way home by ambulance because of my need for oxygen. Before leaving the hospital grounds the ambulance’s EMT’s took my blood pressure. My blood pressure was 220 over 1032. It was even higher on the other arm. These EMT’s of Professional Ambulance took me to the Emergency Room at Mount Auburn Hospital. These EMT’s were then told by Emergency Room staff to take me back to the medical unit in which I had just been a patient on. After listening to some rude comments, I was on my way home again after this latest frightening ordeal. Even the Home Services that were supposed to come never even contacted much less came to my apt.   I was transported again by ambulance to Mount Auburn Hospital’s Emergency Department yesterday afternoon. I was under the mistaken impression that I would at least receive the most basic of care. All I did receive, though I came by ambulance, was a long wait in the Emergency Room lobby. Though I was among the middle of the people coming in to the Emergency Room lobby, I was the last to leave the lobby and go where I was supposed to get help (or really not much help at all). Gosh, all that time in the Emergency Dept. Lobby, I never got my vitals taken by the Triage Nurse. An EMT did come out to where I was in the lobby with a thermometer to take my temperature though. I am mobility impaired and need supplemental oxygen 24/7. I try with all my effort to do my best! Arriving inside the Emergency Room, the nurse came in, took my blood pressure then disappeared for a long, long time.  I did see the doctor. My complaints were written in my discharge as hypotension, abdominal pain and vomiting. Only one was right which hypotension was. My other actual complaints were pain, severe headache and nausea. I was only given something for nausea. Nothing was given for the severe pain and excruciating headaches I was experiencing and which never subsided, only got worse!   An IV was put in me. I was then given fluids through my IV. My assigned nurse said she would come back and bring with her a commode and blankets. (It was very, very cold where I was in the Emergency Room. This nurse never came back. I waited for over an hour. I pressed my call button numerous times for a significant amount of time. I called the Emergency Room Reception. No one came in the room I was in. I still waited and waited and waited with still no answers to my call button or to the frequent calls I made to the Emergency Room’s Reception. Securely in the hospital gurney with both rails firmly up, hooked up to an IV, with IV fluids going through the IV, connected to oxygen, blood pressure machine and other medical paraphernalia and being mobility impaired, what did the nurse think would happen? I stayed wet, in the gurney for some time. A man, who I presume was a nurse, came into the room and began disconnecting my equipment, saying that I’m to go to the public bathroom. Already my dignity was stolen by the lack of response, help and the total lack of basic and humane care that the Emergency Room staff had refused me. To add to my misery, this supposed nurse then embarrassed me even further! To make matters much worse for me, he asked if I was on anxiety medication. Hours and hours later and just before I left the Emergency Room to go home, someone did finally bring into me a commode, changed the sheet on the gurney and gave me 2 washcloths so I could wash myself with. I never had the opportunity to sign my discharge because I was not even shown my discharge. There has to be legal ramifications in this. Reading my discharge, I guess whoever took down my complaints really got it wrong. And the doctor, in my discharge summary reported that my headache had subsided. Friends, my severe headache or pain never subsided. Living with chronic pain and severe pressured headaches, pain does not subside without pain medication and medical intervention. I am prescribed medication for pain every 4 hours as needed. I was in the Emergency Room approximately 8-9 hours and was never given any pain medication, though I did ask for my assigned nurse for pain relief medication numerous times. Tolerating the pain for such a long time, I became even more fatigued, weak and distraught After this recent traumatic experience in Mount Auburn Hospital’s Emergency Room, I cannot see myself ever going into that Emergency Room or be an inpatient at Mount Auburn Hospital ever again! I have heard many stories of negative experiences at Mount Auburn Hospital by patients who were just asking for help. These stories are everywhere, some coming from a few members of my own family. Experiencing a lack of proper and adequate treatment and care in these past few years, especially within the walls of Mount Auburn Hospital saddens me a great deal. It’s scary enough the pains of being seriously and chronically ill. Add to that the fear that goes along with it. It's when I needed healthcare, help, understanding and compassion the most, I have been totally disappointed by the negativity and lack of respect and dignity for the person who becomes a patient in places at Mount Auburn Hospital. This not only saddens me but, frightens me even more! A Not Feeling Well, Tired and Fearful, Evelyn Pinto  March 4, 2023