When we entered Crouse Hospital in Syracuse NY at 6 am on Wednesday July 22, 2020, we were surprised that we were not separated. I was permitted to stay with him as caretaker for several hours while we waited for a surgery that didn’t start until 11:50.
Aside from an unreasonable wait, the treatment at the cath lab was extraordinary. Having 30 + years nursing experience, and having been through many many surgeries with my son, I have a good ides what I expect from a nurse. These are excellent nurses, professional, well trained and caring. Nurse Marissa and Nurse Bridget are amazing professional nurses both of whom deserve special recognition. I’d also like to commend Dr Bohene for excellence in medicine and patient care.
I always stay with my son in hospital. The reason for this is primarily his sever anxiety disorder which is often expressed as rage, though he has other issues. I am his advocate as he does not have the capacity to advocate properly for himself. I am his primary caretaker. So I was relieved when Supervisor RN Brenda told us that she’d reserved a private room for us.
Because I stayed as caretaker l assumed we were following the caretaker policy. Ah, assumptions! Upon leaving the cath lab for recovery, the rules changed. It was at that point persecution started. Both my son and I were tortured throughout the rest of our stay. Further, I truly believe my son would not have survived this hospitalization had I not stayed with him
While there is a separate blog explaining my kidnapping and persecution, my son endured his own persecution.
He complained that the foley was extremely painful. He has had countless foleys in his lifetime. He’s well experienced in the discomfort. This was not discomfort, however. It was pain that brought tears to his eyes.
Numerous actions could have been taken:
We could have removed the foley. By removing the foley the patient would be able to lie still instead of shaking in pain, thus causing less trauma to an actively bleeding groin site. Nurse Jenn patently refused to remove the foley. Other things she neglected to do included calling the doctor, offering pain relief, checking the positioning of the foley. What she chose to do about the foley was nothing.
What she did do was wipe around the bleeding groan site with lotion wipes each time she changed the dressing, and complain that the dressing wouldn’t stick. (We did not know the wipes contained lotion, though I’m sure the nurse knew).
The lotion caused the dressing to fall off repeatedly, taking the clot with it. This, of course, reopened the wound causing it to bleed actively again. This procedure was repeated throughout the afternoon. At 7pm Nurse Jill continued this activity though the night. Each time the dressing was changed pressure was applied to the wound, but not for the 10 minutes it takes to develop a clot. The bloodied sheets were changed a minimum of 3 times. While pressing to the point of leaving a bruise, Nurse Leah advised my son that she would be rolling him to the other side so we could keep the pressure off the wound. I’m not sure I really understand that logic.
Several times throughout the night the nurses tried to force Elequis on him, even after telling us he’d been heavily anti-coagulated with heparin during the procedure. I insisted upon seeing his clotting factors before we would allow the medication to be given. The nurse agreed to getting the labs but I was never shown them. When the doctor came in he said “hold the Elequis this morning and tonight and start it tomorrow morning”. The nurses seemed furious! They then told the doctor that the wound had been seeping slightly throughout the night. Though this was a blatant lie, I said nothing. I did not want to delay the discharge. We felt that he would be safer at home.
The foley was finally removed at some point in the middle of the night. There was a piece of white tissue hanging from the end of his penis. The nurse tried to catch it before I saw it but I stopped her. I asked her to send it to the lab. I don’t know if that was done and I didn’t see what happened to the catheter tip.
Despite that my son continued to complain about sever pain he was given no pain pain killers until about 6 am when he received a dose of pyridium. He’s suffered for three days at home with groin and urinary tract pain. At home, however, he has been able to take his tizanadine.
The culmination of the persecution we received is that we’ve determined we would rather die in God’s time and way than leave it to the democrats. Neither of us will be returning to your hospital or any other hospital as we’ll live so much safer and holier at home
