Riding the Waves of Crisis ~ Holding It Together When Life Falls Apart
I pressed the talk button on my cell phone & heard my husband sobbing & unnerved on the other end: “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s going on with your dad. I should’ve called for help sooner!”
My mouth dropped. My anxiety level soared. Speech momentarily eluded me. And then I stammered out a question : “Oh my God! What happened?”
Eleven people.
Four paramedics. Three nurses. Three medical office staff. One distraught son in law watching in horror. Screaming and chaos resounding in the background.
Eleven people is what it took to bring my father back from the brink of death when his Blood Sugar dropped to 24, leading to an episode of seizures, a soaring blood pressure, heart arrhythmia’s, and struggling to breathe.
He had been at a rehab center, to which he was transferred after a prolonged hospital stay. He is a diabetic and was given his insulin and breakfast that day at 7AM.
But he was not given his noon insulin, nor his lunch before being transported to a 1:45 doctor appointment. My husband met him there and was sitting next to him in the waiting room when this all transpired
The seizure incident was triggered by the fact that he’d had neither food NOR insulin for 7 hours. A disastrous situation for a Type 2 diabetic.
I followed up with the rehab facility to find out what happened, and there was nothing they could say—it was an oversight.
They apologized that their error resulted in his blood sugar being “a little low”. I countered that 24 is not “a little low” and that he almost died as a result.
But the purpose of this story is not to throw shade on the nursing staff responsible for the near fatal error.
A week later the identical thing almost happened in the regional hospital to which he was transported by ambulance when the first episode happened
My husband showed up around 7:30 PM and asked my dad what he had for dinner. The answer was “nothing”, he’d not had dinner. His room had been completely overlooked. My husband reminded staff that a missed meal is what landed him there in the first place.
They apologized, and said they would “try” to find something for him since the cafeteria had closed. “TRY!”
In utter frustration, he left to go to a nearby restaurant and purchase a dinner himself.
And here is why I’m recounting this story. The last 2.5 months my family has been living the medical nightmare from hell.
As traumatic as this near death incident was, it is only ONE of multiple issues and anomalies that arose that day. The most severe by far—but not the only one.
We have been dealing with medical chaos of the most turbulent sort, ever since.
My father was one day away from release when the near death incident happened. He has been back in the hospital now for 2.5 weeks with cascading complications all of which are the ripple effect of that one low blood sugar episode.
And here’s what I want you to know.
I cannot stress enough the importance of being there, on site DAILY with your loved ones when they are hospitalized.
Two of my closest friends are a geriatric physician and a geriatric physical therapist.
They FaceTime, come and check on my dad in person, listen in or sit in with me on meetings, and counsel me daily, sometimes hourly—and my father has still had multiple near fatal errors occur.
At the same time, I have other very close friends who are nurses and med techs who have schooled me on the drastic staffing shortages and the extent to which allied health professionals are overworked and stretched to the max in caring for patients
It’s a problem that has been exacerbated by the pandemic during which over 400,000 nurses permanently left the field.
I thought I understood the extent to which our healthcare system was in crisis, but I have been taken to school this last two months and had my eyes opened in ways I’m still struggling to process.
Earlier this week, the father of my physician friend was hospitalized. She texted me after his first night's stay: “They forgot Daddy’s 6AM medication. But I caught it. I’m a doctor and yet this has happened with my dad too.”
Please hear me when I say you cannot, I repeat cannot, leave the care of your loved ones totally in the hands of others.
You need to be there in person. You need to be familiar with their medication regimen. You need to take copious notes. And you need to ask lots of questions!
I believe our stretched to the max medical professionals are doing the best they can. I am the daughter of a registered nurse.
I am close friends with nurses. They can’t do it all. Your presence and participation are essential. And your loved one’s life may well depend on it.