On the night of Monday, May 3, my first night on Long Island College Hospital’s psych unit, I went to the nurse’s station, unable to sleep and short of breath. I asked for a sleep aid, such as I was given the night before, when I was admitted to the hospital.
I don’t remember what the head nurse said, but I do remember that she didn’t say that the pharmacy was closed. (I didn’t get her name; I believe she was Irish). I didn’t get a sleep aid.instead, she told me I could sleep in the hall. I was accommodated with a recliner.
I tried sleeping there, but told the head nurse it was impossible to sleep in the hall, due to the lights and the chatter, and that I was going back to my room. She told me that if I were to return to my room, which was at the far end of the floor, she would not be responsible, should anything happen to me.
Then, as if on cue, the black female nurse or nurse’s aide (this individual’s accent was that of a native of a former British colony), looked up from the merchandise catalog she was looking at and told me that the discussion was over. The tone of the head nurse and that of the nurse or nurse’s aide was inhospitable, as if I had interrupted a kaffeklatsch.
I should like to have both the head nurse and her colleague tell me 1) why they denied me a sleep aid, 2) why they thought I could slee in the hall when I couldn't sleep in my room, and 3) why they wouldn't be responsible should something happen to me on the way back to my room.
Thank you,
Norman Filzman
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