Saturday, April 18, 2009

What is going on in the ER at the VA Hospital?

Easter Sunday I had an emergency from a gallbladder attack. I was in terrible shape. I was in such bad shape that when I called my family to please come help me.... they decided that 50 miles to the ER at the VA Hospital was just too far to go. They took me to Kings Daughter's Hospital (KDH) in Madison Indiana to be stabilized and transported by ambulance to the ER at the Louisville Veteran's Hospital on Zorn Ave. KDH took very good care of me. My nurse was a loving angel that doted over me, helped me with my severe pain and nausea and was a constant comfort in my misery. She covered me in warm blankets and wiped my forehead and lips. The attendents in the ambulance on the way to the VA ER were great guys that even worried about bumps in the road. Once at the VA it all changed. I arrived and was put on a gurney in a room with a sliding door in plain site of the nurses desk. There was no human contact at all from that point until after the "day shift" arrived. Soon, the pain medication and and the medication to control my vomiting began to wear off. I began to sweat and have the chills at the same time. I had no blanket. They wouldn't come bring me one. I didn't understand. I began to vomit again. I had nothing to vomit in. They (the four men at the nurses station) didn't bring me anything. I didn't understand. I asked again. PLEASE HELP ME! Just throw up in the floor ... that is what mops are for is what I got as a response. So, I had to roll to my side on that little gurney (I'm a 300 pound girl) and throw up repeatedly into the floor of the room I was captive in. This caused another problem. I had to bend the elbow that the IV was in to maintain myself on my side on that horrible gurney. Now, the IV pump is beeping and beeping and no one is coming to turn it off. I'm writhing in pain and throwing up in the floor and I'm freezing and sweating and I just can not believe this is actually happening to me. I CAME HERE FOR HELP. PLEASE, HELP ME. I hear a man in another room asking for help because he is urinating all over the floor! I hear them saying just piss in the floor that is what mops are for. Ok, I thought I was being treated like this because I was a female veteran. I freaked out now. What kind of a place am I in? Can this really happen in America? How nasty can a place get? Mops are for accidents not for things that are on purpose. I'm so upset that I'm puking up gall almost constantly. I began to scream and scream HELP ME, HELP ME! I wasn't going to shut up because I could have felt better at home in my comfortable bed doing nothing for myself. So, they came bringing it all at once. A blanket, a shot for vomiting and to shut off that incessant beeping (which started right back up again.) I throw up in the floor a few more times before the finally got me a wash pan and to turn off the beeping again. It dons on me.... they are not trying to help me... they are trying to make it look better in there before "day shift" arrived. Once the shift changed, so did my care. I got a tube inserted to pump my stomach and stop the vomiting. And they ordered some tests and got the ball rolling. I went up to X-ray for a cat scan and was admitted to a hospital bed #9 Room A612a on 6th Floor South wing. I reported the ER situation to the Patient Advocate almost immediately. Her name was Gail O'bannon 502-287-5325 ext. 55325, 1st floor rm A113 Louisville Veteran's Hospital 800 Zorn Ave.

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