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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A system on the breaking point

hospital?

If you are a looking for a feel good post, you've unfortunately not got me on my best day. Kaitlynn is fine and getting better - she threw a massive temper tantrum this morning because she wanted Daddy to hold her and he wasn't doing it fast enough for her liking. That to me is an indication of a child who is getting better.

First off, keep in mind I have had about 1 hour of sleep since Monday night... and boy am I cranky now. I love the Children's staff - they are a great bunch of people that should be given medals for what they have to deal with on a daily basis. But OMG what is happening to our health care system is just jaw-dropping. Case in point, Kaitlynn is in recovery and there are 2... yes, I said 2... nurses on duty, and the kids keep coming in back to back. The head nurse could not hide her eyes and the sheer shock of what was happening to her and to her colleague. She called out to someone that the OR had to be closed, and it had to be closed now as she and her colleague could not continue at this crazy pace! She felt aweful doing it it, but she couldn't continue to do her job properly... and anyone who was in that room could have seen it in an instant. I don't blame her one bit and I completely agree with her - it was just nuts, watching bed after bed get wheeled in, and every single child needing a nurse immediately to respond to his or her needs. To add to the lovely picture I have drawn, we were the only parents in the recovery room! Some kids came in, parents were called, they came, took a look at their child and turned around and LEFT! WHAT?? We saw this happen a few times, and I just couldn't believe it. One poor kid's parents couldn't be located.. he was SCREAMING in absolute terror. The colleague nurse had to hold him down until an orderly could find his parents before he ripped all his IV's out. So at one point there was the head nurse dealing with everything coming in. NUTS!

The other beautiful story I have is Kaitlynn needed to have blood work done ASAP this morning cause she bled a lot yesterday. Usually, a tech comes in and does the blood work right? Nope, not anymore. If you miss the rotation, you have to get your child downstairs to the blood clinic and wait in line for them to draw some blood... did I mention that our daughter just had surgery and really shouldn't be exposed to other people who have colds and flu's and such? K's nurse told me to go downstairs, and avoid large crowds and to get the blood drawn and results back STAT... if there were too many people, I was to come back upstairs. WHAT???

Now, the icing on the cake for me is the actual parents/family members/relatives that are supposed to be visiting their children.... but I think I should leave that for another day, as the screen is bouncing in front of my eyes.

1 comment:

Leanne Franson said...

Egads. And egads again. Sheesh... that is totally insane. Poor nurses... no wonder that health care professionals go on strike. How can you feel you are saving lives/health when you are running ragged like that? Let alone actually be doing a good job. Sounds like the conditions are creating more health problems than preventing them. and where ARE the parents? Well, at least Kaitlynn has two parents who care enough to actually be there with her. ... and the blood work of the kids who just come from surgery AND don't have parents to schlock them around a germ filled hospital floor to floor??