Church Voices

This would be one reason, among many, I don’t trust hospitals and their employees.  Before I continue, let me say that hospitals, doctors, nurses, etc. all have important and vital roles in society.  I use their services when I need to.  I also appreciate the hard work that most (if not all) medical proffesionals put into their practice of medicine.  There will also always be situations in which no amount of hard work, knowledge, experience, or testing availabe at the time will be sufficient.  That being said, gross mistakes and injustices are done on a regular basis across the country in hospitals and medical facilities.

My wife and I had a poor experience a couple years ago with a local hospital emergency room when my wife had to go their three times over the course of a few days.  Forgiving the ignorance and rudeness of various staff and professionals (we understand not everybody can be at the top of their game all the time, both in dealing with patients and their emotions as well as dealing with the problem) but during that time my wife’s female doctor was not contacted once, despite our specific request that they do that, until after my wife miscarried our little girl whom we had seen moving and heard her heartbeat only hours before by ultrasound.  They got reemed by her doctor for that, as they should have been.  (On a side note I wonder if there is a natural (unless combated against) devaluation or desensitization of human life that takes place as medical professionals deal repeatedly with death.)

I could also provide numerous stories from other patients where I witnessed errors, problems, etc.   Some of those were corrected because family members were there and were on the ball.  Others didn’t turn out so well: one lady recently passed away from widespread cancer when she was told for years by multiple doctors that she was fine and that her illness was in her head.  As it turns out, her illness was in her head, she had a major brain tumor (in addition to cancer elsewhere).

My experience (personally and professionally) has been that nurses are the most on the ball of anybody in the hospital.  Be good to them, because more often than not they will be responsible for helping you to get the care you need.  Also, listen to advice that tells you to communicate with medical persons providing you treatment.  Along with this, if you have to go to the hospital to be treated, have a family member or close friend with you as often as possible (especially during times of treatment and drug administration) if not the entire time so that they can do or say what needs to be done for your proper treatment.  Unless your doctor is House (a wacky, unorthodox, medical genius), if you have a serious or life threatening illness or condition, don’t hesitate to ask for a second opinion (or third).