My Aunt went to the hospital last night.....

OMG Rachel! I'm just reading this now and I am almost in tears! I am sooo sooo sorry for what you and your family has been going through.

 

I am glad that the second hospital had some answers, but that still doesn't make the first hopsitals actions acceptable.

 

When your aunt it feeling better, she may want to look into a negliance lawsuit against the hospital (I think it'd be negliance and not malpractice).

 

Another option, and this depends on how your family is and if you'd mind "airing your dirty laundry"(so to speak) is contacting the press (a local newspaper). It's actually fairly easy to do. If you decide you want to try to trash the hospital publically, let me know and I can help you (I work in public relations, so if you can't find the right contact, I probably can).

 

**BIG HUG** I'll say a prayer for you and your family

OMG I am so sorry you are going through this Rachel. I would totally get all over that hospital for not offering proper care. I wish your Aunt a speedy recovery and I have your family in my thoughts and prayers!!

Rachel,

 

I am upset and relieved...

 

Upset at that first hospital - I don't know if you have had time to think about this yet but I think you should contact an attorney or Oprah or the daily news station to do a piece of what irresponsible FUCK UPS they are - they should be ashamed of themselves - that makes me sick in my stomach.

 

Relieved b/c it seems the 2nd hospital gave your aunt normal medical treatment and have helped all of you. I will pray for her and please continue to keep us posted.

 

big hugs honey...

xoxo

alyssa

Dear god, Rachel! I cannot believe the first hospital just sat there and did NOTHING. What a bunch of f-ing a-holes! I would seriously consider a lawsuit and/or publicly drawing attention to their horrific level of care.

 

I have an uncle outside of Salem who used to be a neuro-anesthesiologist. I sent him an e-mail last night to see if there is anyone he can recommend in the area. I'll send you a PM when I hear back from him.

Rachel, what a nightmare!!! I just want to give you and all your 7 Aunts a big hug. Your story about the first hospital made me feel sick to my stomach. I can't believe the doctors and nurses ignored your poor Aunt. Is there anything we can do to make people realize this hospital is

 

I'm relieved to know you got some answers. Thank God the 2nd hospital had a brain and a heart. It's also good to know it's stress related, as it could have been worse I was thinking. Please keep us updated my heart is in knots thinking about what your family just went through.

Thanks Rebecca! That's so nice of you. The 2nd hospital said she didn't need to see a neurologist because her body was reacting in a "normal" way. I know it sounds so odd, but when you think about it, it does make sense. Her brain is completely overstressed and they said she was having neurons fire so rapidly that her brain didn't have time to process them all. That's why she convulsed.

Later, she began to pass out right and left because her brain was shutting down and trying to make the neurons stop firing. It was the craziest thing to see. She would pass out for 20 secs and then pop back up normal for about 20 secs and then pass back out.

She may still schedule an appointment with a neurologist to just follow up but yesterday the closest appointment we could make was in 2 weeks. That's why we were freaking out so bad! The 1st hospital sent us home and said "see a neurologist" but we couldn't get her in to see one for 2 weeks. That's madness.

The part that pisses me off the most is that they DO have a neurologist on staff. We asked the ER doctor several times to get her to see the neurologist at the hospital because we did not want her to continue this for two weeks. He ignored us a few times, but then once we started to get really pissed and all the STRANGERS in the ER started to get pissed with us, he told us he would go check with the neurologist. That asshole never returned and we waited for about an hour for him.

We have been discussing sending a letter to the hospital and to our local newspaper. However, we didn't get home last night until 10pm so I'm not sure if anyone is still thinking clearly. We will be taking care of this though. It's so wrong that she was treated this way and the ER watched us cry our eyes out as she continued to convulse on the floor. After the fact, we wished we had used our cell phone to record it all but of course, you don't think like that during those situations.

Girls I can not tell you how bad it was. Honestly! We are not talking one to two convulsions. We are talking convulsions one right after the other- some 2 mins apart, sometimes every five minutes. They were definitely different categories of how hard they shook her body. She was conscious through it the whole time and knew she was shaking like that. The only time she would lose consciousness was when they got really bad which happened at least every hour.

Jaime- the "shocks" I had too were from paxil/zoloft. I was on paxil and one time I went on a trip and forgot to pack my meds. I felt like I was on crack! I woke up really early at the hotel and wanted to go run around the building or swim in the pool. My parents (I was 17 at the time) told me to chill out but I couldn't. They finally let me go walk the hallway but every step I took I felt like someone was shocking me. It was so scary. The doc switched me to zoloft but I had the same thing happen.

I eventually read up on the meds and read all these horror stories. One girl drowned in the pool because she has shocks like that and it caused her body to tense up. Anyways, I refused to be on it anymore and I had to gradually decrease the dosages. It was HELL.

Rachel, I cannot believe the firs hospital treated her so badly. I'm in shock!! I do hope your aunt is on her way to recovery and that she gets better soon. I will continue to have her in my prayers.

Oh Rachel, I can only imagine what your family has gone through. It sounds like after so much frustration your aunt is on the road to getting some answers. I will keep my thoughts and prayers going for you and your family! Wishing your aunt nothing but good health!

At the risk of sounding mean I'm about to get real nasty up in here:

 

1. First of all I don't mean to sound ignorant but how small is this first hospital? How could they keep telling you to go to a neurologist? WTF? Aren't there any neurologists in the hospital? Who does rounds and treats patients that are admitted for neurological problems?

 

2. Do you mean to tell me that this hospital doesn't even have residents or med students? Hell at that point I would have taken an intern. They are perfectly capable of at least doing something. Geez!

 

3. I can't believe the neurologist would tell you 2 weeks. Like I said before I used to work at a neurologist office and if we got an emergency call from a potential new patient we would fit them in no questions asked. An emergency is an emergency. Then we used to tell our patients that had to wait for a long time b/c of the added patient that this person had a life or death emergency and that they would want the same courtesy if they were in the person's shoes. Not one person complained. And we are talking about cranky NYers here.

 

I just don't get this. Writing a letter to the 1st hospital is not going to do anything. Someone will read it and file it somewhere. You need to go to your local news station or contact the local papers. The journalists will be all up in their faces with camera crews and microphones and put them on the spot. This is the only way to get to these people.

 

I'm glad your aunt doesn't have something serious (well it is serious but you know what I mean). Hopefully she can find a way to manage her stress in a way that will be more beneficial to her healthwise. I am praying that she gets better soon.