Everyone Needs a Patient Advocate

This blog is all about a warning.    Whenever someone is in the hospital you need someone with them as a patient advocate at all times.  Case in point. My mother had full knee replacement on Wednesday of last week at Good Sam Hospital.  I was in Eugene at a respiratory conference to get much needed CEU's to maintain my license.  When she arrived in her room some how her anesthesia block line in her groin fell out.  Maybe when she was transferred to her bed or she accidentally kicked it out.  Not one medical professional noticed.  My mother was in severe, moaning pain for greater then 24 hours.  My 80 year old Mormon, mother refers to it as the night of "Hell."  My sister kept asking, "What is the problem with her pain management?"  No one could give  her a clear answer.  The nurses kept asking what her pain was on a scale of 1-10 and she would moan and say ,"a 3 or 4."  My mother does not like to complain and put people out.  Mother would say 3 or 4 if she was being burned at the stake.  My Sister watched as they got her up with PT and she, turned ashen gray, and nearly fainted from the pain on Thursday afternoon.  That's when they discovered her block line was out and she had been without pain medication all that time.  Needless to say I am burning mad.  Who was assessing Mom's pain levels and were they deaf, dumb, and blind.  The PT also noted the machine to keep mother's knee moving was also set on an 8.  That should have been on a 2 or 3.  They discharge patients when they reach an 8 or 9.  So they had no pain medication and they were working her knee like she was ready to discharge. Then to compound problems to catch up on the severe rolling pain she got huge doses of morphein and other pain medication and severely diminished her respiratory drive and blood pressure.  We refer to this condition in the hospital as being "snowed or gorked."  These people have poor respiratory drive and are confused and so sleepy they don't eat.  My mother had not eaten for two days.  I talked to my sister and I stayed with her now from the time I got home Friday.  My sister, a lawyer, put the fear of God, into the nursing staff.  I watch everything she is getting and get her to eat.  This is a WARNING, watch your loved ones when they go to the hospital.  If you plan to be a health care professional go into the work because you have a vocation to care for people and want to treat them like your loved one was in that bed.  DO NOT go into it because of the money.  I never thought this would happen to my loved one.