Since Dec 29, FOUR people I personally knew, have died in a hospital.

[SoCalDem]

The latest is the mother of a good friend..she was 72, and in apparent "not so bad" health....last Wednesday, she complained of a bad headache, and since she has some blood pressure issues & diabetes, her doctor wanted her hospitalized so they could monitor her better..

She was complaining about the tv and the food, and was "entertaining" her drop-by friends, and all tests done so far, were within normal (for her) range.. she was to be released on Friday...but on Thursday night, she died..Her family had just left with her flowers and some of the stuff she did not want to have to take out the next day..They had only been home 45 minutes when they got the call ..

None of the four, were in the same hospital, so it's coincidental, but none of these people were "obviously" sick..no one had cancer, or kidney disease, or heart disease...none were obese, and the 72 yr old was the oldest.. the youngest was 58.

All of these people had medical insurance and saw their doctors regularly..

It's really spooky.. Are the doctors so rushed that they are missing something? Are the hospitals so understaffed that they are missing something, or screwing up?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Can't discount the "superbugs" and the less than comprehensive

sterilization of instruments, tools, silverware, sheets, etc. I've heard similar stories and it's been hidden by hospitals nationwide.

[bbinacan]

2. My understanding is that

there is a shortage of nurses in the country.

[jody]

7. IMO there is no shortage of nurses however very low salaries and abusive hospital policies drive

many nurses from the nursing job-market.

[bbinacan]

15. The one nurse I know

makes around 100k.

[jody]

17. I have friends like that but suggest you talk to nurses who no longer practice and ask their opinion

[bbinacan]

19. I just remembered

that I have a distant family member that is a nurse and she loves it. I don't know what she makes though.

[jody]

20. Most of the nurses I know including specialists like NP & CRNA love their profession but deplore low

salaries and stupid hospital and clinic policies.

[quiller4]

22. There is a nursing shortage and it is growing

The median age of registered nurses in this country is 56 and aging. Because of lack of Wages, work hours and other issues, young people have not been attracted to the profession. Now the situation is difficult to reverse because not only is there a shortage of working nurses, there is an even greater shortage of nursing school instructors. As the shortage of nurses worsened, wages for nurses began to improve. Senior nurses continued to work in the field rather than become instructors in nursing schools. The problem that is bad now will only get worse in the years ahead.

[ddeclue]

3. That's REALLY hard to say in the absence of more information.

How old were they?

What did each die of?

What were the specific circumstances?

People die - sometimes it can't be helped - I'm sorry for your loss but I think we'd need to know a lot more before it becomes the hospitals' fault.

Doug D.

[jody]

4. Based on my personal experience in a CA hospital, it is very probable attending physicians were not

doing even minimum work but collecting maximum billing and hospitals could also be complicit.

If the lady was in for 2 or 3 days, I would not be surprised if the total bills were $20-$30 thousand.

That's my sample of size one.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

Now, THAT is spooky, and most unfortunate...

People's health can be most fragile. It's always shocking to see someone you know well suddenly die.

We used to see patients do that all the time, and the family almost always would say something like "Grandma was fine just yesterday!"

Something can happen so abruptly and without any visible warning. We don't want to think this, and we sure as hell don't want to see it.

But it happens.

My deepest condolences to you, and to everyone who loved these four...

:hug:

[Avalux]

5. Are there reasons for their deaths?

What were the families told about why they died?? So horrible. :-(

[SoCalDem]

13. One was post op, and had a "bleeding episode"

obviously it was a final episode:(

another had an adverse reaction to medications
(he has retained a lawyer, but Mary is still dead)

I don;t know about the other two.. The family has not volunteered information, and I don't like to pry

[Avalux]

14. Oh my.

Post op bleeding episode? I think that family needs an attorney too. Both of those cases sound like they could be malpractice; however sometimes people have reactions to medication and there's no way to know beforehand.

I am so sorry. :hug:

[WillieW]

6. I underwent surgery last year and a needle was left in my body.

Surgery is frequently handed down to Interns in teaching hospitals. I have come to conclude that Surgeons in general think that they are 'all that' and a cup of coffee. Very arrogant! A lot of people die in hospitals due to negligence. It's hard to prove though. Doctors/Surgeons stick together to protect themselves from malpractie law suits.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. Blood clot.........

Very often, when people are immobilized - staying in bed - for any amount of time, even a short time like two or three days, the risk of blood clots becomes very serious.

Someone should have been monitoring her, and perhaps she should have been on blood thinners. Someone missed something, that's for sure.

A headache? I wonder if she had a blood clot that stroked her out.

What a fucking drag.

I am very sorry for all your losses. That's a hard road........................

[Big Blue Marble]

9. Hospitals are among the most dangerous places in the world.

You are under much risk every time you check into one. Period

[WillieW]

10. I am scheduled to go into the hospial next month . I am really scared.

[SoCalDem]

11. Take an observant advocate with you..

Our oldest was hospitalized a LOT when he was a child. I would be really edgy these days..

Ask them to watch over you while you are unable to :hug:

[Big Blue Marble]

12. If you have a family member or friend that be there with you

as much as possible, that can help a lot. They can question things when you may be too incapacitated to ask.

If you can. question everything. You are your own best advocate. Question the procedure and the meds. Have the docs write down what you
are to be getting and in what dosages. Be obnoxious if necessary. Do not be docile.

The famous Dr. Bernie Siegal says the least popular patients are the ones that are most likely to survive and the most complient, the ones
mostly likely to die.

Hospitals can be of help and even save your life. But be alert and aware of what is being done to you and if you cannot, be sure and have
someone there who can watch out for you.

[tularetom]

16. Everything you say is true

I've been in a hospital once in my life and that was to have my gall bladder removed about 25 years ago. I was the biggest pain in the ass patient they had ever seen. I questioned everything from when could I remove the tube from my throat in the recovery room to when could I take a shower to when could I go back on solid food and quit getting the chicken broth and lime jello. All the bitching I did gave me a purpose and I'm sure it had a lot to do with speeding up my recovery.

The nurses were glad to get rid of me.

[AdHocSolver]

21. I worked in hospitals and I know that you are being realistic to be scared.

Some advice.

As another poster suggested, take an advocate with you, the feistier that person is, the better. Give that person instructions to question everything. Make them explain to you and your advocate everything they want to do with you. Don't let them brush you off. Don't let them intimidate you or your advocate.

Before surgery, talk to the surgeon and question them about what they are going to do, why they are doing it, what risks are involved, what post-operative instructions will be, and have your advocate present, if possible. Have them introduce you to the anaesthesiologist, as well. That is a critical part of surgery.

I had surgery last spring. I "interviewed" the first surgeon my doctor called in. He "flunked" the interview. I told my family doctor that I wanted a "second opinion". Luckily, my personal doctor is a good guy. He didn't try to sell the first surgeon. He called a second surgeon whom I approved. If you have a personal physician, he or she can be your advocate as well. However, doctors are busy people, and you need someone with you as much as possible. My advocate stayed with me overnight.

If they want to do anything that requires you to sign a document (you and your advocate should read carefully, anything you are asked to sign), be especially alert. After surgery, they wanted to give me injections of the blood thinner heparin. I was asked to sign a waiver. I read it and then refused to sign. "But we can't give you the heparin unless you sign it", I was told. I still refused.

I asked what were the alternatives to heparin. I was told I had to walk around the hospital corridors several times a day. That is what I did. Exercise is very good.

After I left the hospital, I read in the newspaper that heparin is produced in China, and that the stuff they sent here was tainted and making people very sick. I thought, that is why they wanted the waiver signed.

A question: Is the hospital where you are going the same one that you had the problem with before?

[WillieW]

23. No, I will be going to Washington Hospital Center. New surgeon

I was at Georgetown University Hospital during my first surgery. My surgeon and I had a "fallen out". He thinks he can run me and my life. I don't like arrogant people.

[zazen]

18. I was at DUKE for mastectomy and it was like the keystone cops

A used needle left on my nightstand. Their taking out a catheter and forgetting I was hooked up to an IV that was placed such that I couldn't get to the BR and no nurse would help me. Hematologists who couldn't be found who were supposed to discharge me, and then were so incompetent they neglected to tell me I had severe anemia even pre-op, so that post-op I was down to a ferriten level of 1 and only realized it two months later when I was fainting and finally called my GP (assuming of course, had I been, they would have caught it.)

My oncologist wrote me a prescription the day before surgery for the very drug I had just told him (six minutes before) I was very allergic to. I didn't discover it until I got to the pharmacy back in Cary and the pharmacist told me. I burst into tears. I was terrified he'd chop off the wrong breast, he was so frazzled. His nurse was complete bitch to me when I asked for a new prescription. "He shouldn't be writing that prescription for you anyway. Your plastic reconstructive surgeon should." Then I was offered the SAME drug at least NINE times by different interns/attendings who came by after surgery who didn't bother to look at the top page of my chart. When I went in for my reconstruction, I literally wrote the allergy on my arm.

My fave--just haven't had lymph nodes removed, and the nurses in the middle of the night trying to take blood pressure reading and stick needles in the affected arm, which you're never supposed to do. Although on a morphine drip, I was awake enough at 4 AM to get her to read my chart to see, oh, yeah, lymph node biopsy and mastectomy so don't STICK NEEDLES IN THAT ARM.

The same bitchy nurse then refused to give me my lab results 10 days post-surgery until, still on demerol and drains at home, I had to get the cancer counselor to help me hunt down the oncologist and demand them. A nightmare of post-surgical misdiagnoses and "counter diagnoses," which is a book-length subject. . .

Yes, _always_ take someone with you now to spend the night in the hospital, and take your own ibuprofen and tylenol and lots of disinfectant wet wipes and don't let your children come in. And make sure your friend is willing to be an assertive advocate on your behalf.

To the OP, so sorry about your friends. Terrible losses during uncertain times. Hope you have a strong support network offline too.