Member-only story
U. S. Hospitals can be Dangerous if you are Old
An elderly relative of mine recently fell in her home. She was whisked off to a hospital emergency room, which just wanted to send her home.
I got to the ER about the same time as the ambulance. She looked like she had been in a knife fight, blood all over her. She had hit her head hard and had a huge hematoma. She had apparently passed out.
The ER doctor did what they do, running lots of tests, blood, CAT scans, etc. Thankfully nothing was broken and all of her tests looked good for her age. At that point, the ER doctor wanted to send her home.
It didn’t matter that she couldn’t even sit up in bed.
In a moment she went from living independently to bedridden. The doctor couldn’t point to a test that showed any issues; that is all he seemed to care about. He mostly talked to me like she wasn’t even in the room with us. What was right in front of his eyes, an incapacitated senior, didn’t seem important.
I still can’t fathom what he thought she would do, dumped in her home. An ambulance would have had to take her back and place her there. She needed professional medical care, and time to heal.
Anyway, my insistence got her admitted, against the Doctor’s judgment, under observation. It’s even 3 times in his notes that he only admitted her…
