Thursday, July 01, 2004

i HATE hospitals!

Hospital Sued Over Photo of Man’s Genitals

Reading this article left me feeling extremely angry and it brought back memories of a horrible experience I had in an emergency room last year. People who have to go to the emergency room are sick, scared, and very vulnerable. It makes me sick that hospital employees use their positions to bully or humiliate patients who often have no ability to defend themselves. This type of thing is NOT an isolated incident. I hear about things like this happening all the time and I will never forget the day it happened to me.

I was seriously ill and ended up in the emergency room. As usual, I was stripped to the skin and placed in one of those awful hospital gowns that never quite cover you up. Because I was eventually going to be admitted once my problem was stablized, they took my clothes away in a bag and checked them in at the nurses station, supposedly to keep them from being lost in the shuffle, but I often wonder if it isn’t really a means of control.

Anyway, the nurse who was assigned to me was a real witch, a very abrupt, controlling, and cold woman. The doctor had ordered a medication to be given to me and this stuff was awful. It was a semi-thick, liquid, dixie-cup sized dose that had to be swallowed orally. It smelled like a mix of rotten eggs and paint thinner and tasted even worse. As soon as I smelled it, I knew I would need a glass of water or something else to drink immediately afterwards or I would gag on it and throw up. That’s the way I am. I don’t handle bad smells or tastes very well.

When I asked the nurse to bring me a glass of water, she refused and told me to take the medicine first and then she would go get me something to drink. I tried to explain to her that I needed something available to drink immediately or I would get sick. Again she refused, so I refused to take the medicine until she brought the water. When I refused her repeated demands to take the medicine NOW, she grabbed the hair on the back of my head, yanked my head back, and told me I could either swallow it myself or she would cram it down my throat. She then jerked my head and let go, ordering me again to swallow it. I finally did and immediately started gagging.

I told her I was going to throw up and she said “no you’re not. Just lay down.” For several minutes I kept swallowing, trying to hold down the urge to puke, while telling her over and over again I was going to throw up if I didn’t get something to drink. She wouldn’t listen and finally I did throw up, all over the bed and the front of my gown. She was furious and ordered me to get off the bed. She stripped down the bed and then yanked the hospital gown off of me without even undoing the snaps first. She then walked out, pulling the curtain to my little cubicle all the way open as she left. I was left standing there completely naked for 20 minutes with all kinds of hospital personnel AND relatives of other patients in the ER walking by and looking at me. I was attached to both an IV and a heart monitor that were not moveable and was unable to reach the curtain to close it without pulling out my IV or yanking lose the heart monitor wires. It was horrible. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she returned with a clean gown and a plastic tub for me to puke in. I never did get my glass of water until I was admitted and moved to my room with a new nurse, nearly 6 hours later. I was forced to spend all that time with a horrible pasty mix of puke and medication in my mouth, which caused me to vomit several more times.

Once I was released from the hospital, I registered a complaint but was told by the hospital administrator that, although they apologized for the nurses rough behavior, they didn’t feel that she did anything that put my health in jeopardy or anything that harmed me in any way, so they felt I didn’t have a case. The assured me that they DID speak to the nurse about her behavior and informed her that she needed to be more sensitive in the future. Big whoop!

What upset me the most was that, although she didn’t physically harm me, she DID cause me harm. I suffer from acute social anxiety disorder and being an overweight person forced to stand naked in front of strangers, many of whom were NOT hospital staff, was a humiliating, traumatic experience that is still vivid to this day. I am now terrified of going to a hospital ever again and I’m even frightened of disrobing at a doctor’s office. What she did to me was NOT insensitivity. It was ABUSE! Hospitals need to take things like this seriously. The psychological damage done to patients who endure these kinds of things can create long-term fears that will affect the medical care decisions they make for the rest of their lives. It’s just plain wrong!

 

(2) Comments •