Hospital total overreaction or am I just an ass hole? I’m fully prepared for it to be the latter but hear me out.
It’s late and I can’t sleep. What’s on my mind are now two absolute bull shit scenarios to do with emergency room visits and the handling of visitors during emergency times.
2 weeks ago my grandfather had a heart attack. My grandparents who just had their 61st wedding anniversary that we all did not get to celebrate because we’re “social distancing”. Grandpa is 80 grandma is 79, have been pretty much isolated all year already because of the covid bullshit. About 10 o’clock they’re both in bed when grandpa wakes up with his heat racing. Wakes grandma up, she gives him some nitroglycerin and calls an ambulance. The EMT’s won’t let grandmother go in the ambulance but tell her if she drives herself she can join him at the hospital. She gets to the hospital a little before 11 and finds the ER doors locked. She hits the page button to be let in and two security guards come out to turn her away. A crying 79 year old 5’2” 100 ish pound little old lady pleaded with them for about an hour and they DID NOT let her inside. Her husband of 61 years, the only thing she cares about in this world was for all she knew dying or dead inside and all they would tell her was to leave. Go home someone will call you. Not knowing anything else to do she went home and waited for that phone call. No phone call did she ever receive. Once inside they determined grandpa was in AFIB and they got his heart rate under control and put a temporary pacemaker on him. He’d arrived in an ambulance fresh out of bed, in pajamas, no shoes, no phone, no glasses, no teeth, no wallet. 2 am and he has no idea where his wife is. Agitated and demanding to be released, he’s officially discharged at 2:47 am. Hospital staff called him a cab and gave him a voucher for the ride home. He walks in the door to my grandmothers surprise about 3:30 am.
story number two, last Thursday night or Friday morning a good friend of mine looks to have been the victim of a white bashing hate crime. He was found in his own driveway in a pool of his own blood about 7:30 am by one of his neighbors who called it in as a shooting victim. Turns out he wasn’t shot, he was bashed in the back of the head caving in his skull and giving him a TBI. He’s currently on life support in the ICU and the fucking hospital will only let one of his parents in to see him per day. Not at a time, only ONE visitor per day. 12 hours tops day shift only.
Why does this make me so angry? Grandpa could have died alone while his wife was standing in the parking lot down stairs trying to get to his side. And Evan’s parents are looking at having to pull the plug on their brain dead son while only one person at a time can be in the room with him. How do they decide which one of them sits there for his last heart beat.
Is there any legal recourse to this bullshit? I don’t know Jack shit about hospitals or their liability. If I showed up at the ICU and called the sheriff could I demand my way inside to see my grandfather? Is this my Karen white privileged white people problems showing? Is the actual concern that multiple people coming in are potentially bringing covid to the hospital staff?
My grandmother would not for one second be upset about catching covid to get to hold her husbands hand while he passed, even if she later died from it. She would however, be upset for the remainder of her own life if she couldn’t be there for his final moments. Evans parents are in the same boat. They just want to be together in the room with him and have his brother in there for the plug pulling nightmare. They don’t GAF about catching covid currently.
TLDR wall of text? Cliffs. If one of your loved ones is dying in the hospital, you will likely not be allowed in to spend their final moments with. They will die alone surrounded by people they don’t know if they’re lucky. Maybe even just alone. I’m outraged by this, am I an asshole? What say you?
It’s late and I can’t sleep. What’s on my mind are now two absolute bull shit scenarios to do with emergency room visits and the handling of visitors during emergency times.
2 weeks ago my grandfather had a heart attack. My grandparents who just had their 61st wedding anniversary that we all did not get to celebrate because we’re “social distancing”. Grandpa is 80 grandma is 79, have been pretty much isolated all year already because of the covid bullshit. About 10 o’clock they’re both in bed when grandpa wakes up with his heat racing. Wakes grandma up, she gives him some nitroglycerin and calls an ambulance. The EMT’s won’t let grandmother go in the ambulance but tell her if she drives herself she can join him at the hospital. She gets to the hospital a little before 11 and finds the ER doors locked. She hits the page button to be let in and two security guards come out to turn her away. A crying 79 year old 5’2” 100 ish pound little old lady pleaded with them for about an hour and they DID NOT let her inside. Her husband of 61 years, the only thing she cares about in this world was for all she knew dying or dead inside and all they would tell her was to leave. Go home someone will call you. Not knowing anything else to do she went home and waited for that phone call. No phone call did she ever receive. Once inside they determined grandpa was in AFIB and they got his heart rate under control and put a temporary pacemaker on him. He’d arrived in an ambulance fresh out of bed, in pajamas, no shoes, no phone, no glasses, no teeth, no wallet. 2 am and he has no idea where his wife is. Agitated and demanding to be released, he’s officially discharged at 2:47 am. Hospital staff called him a cab and gave him a voucher for the ride home. He walks in the door to my grandmothers surprise about 3:30 am.
story number two, last Thursday night or Friday morning a good friend of mine looks to have been the victim of a white bashing hate crime. He was found in his own driveway in a pool of his own blood about 7:30 am by one of his neighbors who called it in as a shooting victim. Turns out he wasn’t shot, he was bashed in the back of the head caving in his skull and giving him a TBI. He’s currently on life support in the ICU and the fucking hospital will only let one of his parents in to see him per day. Not at a time, only ONE visitor per day. 12 hours tops day shift only.
Why does this make me so angry? Grandpa could have died alone while his wife was standing in the parking lot down stairs trying to get to his side. And Evan’s parents are looking at having to pull the plug on their brain dead son while only one person at a time can be in the room with him. How do they decide which one of them sits there for his last heart beat.
Is there any legal recourse to this bullshit? I don’t know Jack shit about hospitals or their liability. If I showed up at the ICU and called the sheriff could I demand my way inside to see my grandfather? Is this my Karen white privileged white people problems showing? Is the actual concern that multiple people coming in are potentially bringing covid to the hospital staff?
My grandmother would not for one second be upset about catching covid to get to hold her husbands hand while he passed, even if she later died from it. She would however, be upset for the remainder of her own life if she couldn’t be there for his final moments. Evans parents are in the same boat. They just want to be together in the room with him and have his brother in there for the plug pulling nightmare. They don’t GAF about catching covid currently.
TLDR wall of text? Cliffs. If one of your loved ones is dying in the hospital, you will likely not be allowed in to spend their final moments with. They will die alone surrounded by people they don’t know if they’re lucky. Maybe even just alone. I’m outraged by this, am I an asshole? What say you?
