These events took place between 02 and 04. I apologize in advance for the overwhelming mass of information you are about to read. I am writing to make known the absolute horrible and prejudicial treatment that was thrown upon myself and my infant son. It all started when I found out I had a rare pregnancy complication at about 30 weeks pregnant by ultrasound in Royal Oak Beaumont's Fetal Imaging Department. The doctor on staff asked that I went up to Triage (located in the Family Birthing Unit) so that I could be evaluated by the staff and possibly be admitted to the Antepartum Unit (which serves high risk pregnant women). Sure enough, they requested that I be admitted to the Antepartum Unit because of the nature of my pregnancy complication, and so it was. I was placed in a small room and told that is where I would be staying until I had a scheduled C-section at 35 weeks pregnant... So great, 5 weeks in the hospital. From the start things were bad and only got worse. The nurses were prejudicial against me because I was seventeen and unwed, although my unborn child's father was present with me at the ultrasound that had the finding and made himself comfortable in my room in Antepartum. Some examples of this include asking me if I was placing my child for adoption, asking where my parents were, (I don't live with them, my mother is an alcoholic and my dad and I have almost no relationship... I live in an apartment with my son's father that he pays for... No welfare, no state aid) and asking if my parents had consented for my son's father to stay the night. I told the nurse to stop asking me that question because in Michigan even as a minor you are medically emancipated when you are pregnant and do not need parental consent for any treatment concerning your child and your pregnancy. She eventually backed off and he did stay for the duration of my hospitalization, with the exception of when he left for work. On several occasions my food was brought cold, my order was completely incorrect, or they just didn't bring my food at all. They had a small television with about ten clear channels and several fuzzy ones and had the audacity to try and charge me $66 for my phone and TV usage although I was told it was free. Additionally, I was confined to bed rest and was only allowed ONE wheelchair ride per week for thirty minutes, even though my pregnancy complication wouldn't be irritated by simple walking&they were just trying to cover their asses. Additionally, they had a small stand up shower for a pregnant woman to shower in that couldn't keep the water temperature consistent, real nice. People were waking me up every three hours and the residents would ask me "if I was having contractions" and make me lose sleep to feel my stomach. Don't you think if I was having contractions I'd tell you?! Finally after about four days I'd had enough, my son's father and I were in the process of moving and I couldn't afford to be in the hospital any longer. I told them I was discharging myself against medical advice and I left after agreeing to go into Triage for daily non stress tests and fetal heart rate monitoring, as well as weekly meetings with Maternal Fetal Medicine. It was decided I would have a C-section at 35 weeks. I received a visit from Children's Protective Services the next day demanding that I check myself back into Antepartum, no court order, no nothing. I told them quite frankly that they needed a court order to get me back in there and that I wasn't buying it. They said Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital had called them and stated "I was in imminent danger of death because my uterus could explode", which was a gross exaggeration and completely false/unrelated to my pregnancy complication. My life was never in danger, my child's was, and my uterus was not in danger of exploding. There was NO truth to those statements. The Children's Protective Services worker had to accompany me to my PRIVATE appointment with Maternal Fetal Medicine in order to have my statements validated, and the case was eventually closed. That was one of the first instances of gross misconduct I witnessed at Royal Oak Beaumont hospital. I'd been continuing my daily NSTs and about four days after my discharge I felt really odd. I called Triage to tell them I thought I was in early labor and drove myself up to get checked out. Sure enough, I was, and my son was born 9 weeks prematurely by emergency C-section... His father made it just in time to witness his birth! The fun had only just begun, though, and me and his father were in for a real treat. I was told after my son was born to "stop asking questions because the doctors couldn't concentrate [on stitching me back up]" when I asked if he was okay because he was crying lightly. After about eight minutes of no answers they brought him to me and his dad for about four seconds and whisked him away, not saying anything more. After that I was wheeled into recovery where some family members visited me. The nurses were irritated because I was asking for my bed to be adjusted and was out of it because of the medication so I was a bit funny at the time. They moved me into a mother baby room afterward and I immediately asked to see my son in the NICU. The nurse said "another mother just passed out so I'm not bringing you down there until three hours after your surgery". I had to wait THREE hours to meet my son because a nurse had a bad experience with another patient. Anyway, I did get to see my son, and it was absolutely beautiful! He was so small, but so perfect, and I loved him. Immediately his father and I asked questions about his care and tried to get as involved as possible. We weren't allowed to hold him until he was four days old, which was really hard. Things only seemed to get worse from there. First of all, the residents and attending physicians NEVER addressed his father and I in the beginning... They seemed to think we were just going to forget about him and give up on being his parents because of our age, even though his dad is 2 1/2 years older than I with a steady, well paying job. I pumped breastmilk religiously so I could feel as if I had control over something. Eventually my son was moved out of the back pods (for more sick neonates) and into the community pods. This is where it really god bad. First of all, there were crying babies everywhere and monitors consistently going off. There was NO privacy and all they had were these flimsy little walls on wheels you could use while breastfeeding, but trust me, the excessive noise made it impossible to relax. During the duration of my son's hospitalization in the NICU I witnessed SEVERAL horrors. They wrote the wrong blood type down in his chart and I only noticed because I nosed through it next to his bedside, his isolette was dirty, he developed a 4mm deep ulcer because of the hospital's "we only change them every three hours" diaper changing policy—a nurse actually scoffed at me when I went to change him after he had pooped because it hadn't been three hours, they gave him his first bath without me present even though I specifically requested to be there, they would allow him to lay on his tummy with his diaper off and let him piss all over himself to "try and heal his ulcer that they caused" which kept him there about two weeks longer than he needed to be, they use ADULT ORAL thermometers for INFANT UNDERARM temperatures—these never give accurate readings and half the nurses are too stupid or too lazy to do it right, they added Human Milk Fortifier and Polyvisol with Iron to my breastmilk without my permission, I was asked for my ID even though my picture was taped to the inside of his isolette and I had made it past the desk nurses, several of the nurses were incompetent, rude, prejudicial and unfair to my son, myself, and my son's father because of our age. There were only four nurses in the whole 100-nurse NICU that gave even close to satisfactory care, and I thank them for that. It was absolute hell getting my son out of there, and just when I thought it was over after he'd been discharged, I was wrong. Today my son had an appointment with the Associated Retinal Specialists at Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital. This appointment was scheduled by the resident that was discharging him and I was told to call and reschedule it if I wanted to. I called two days ago in the evening and left a voicemail stating that I wanted to reschedule and asked if someone could call me back. No one ever called, but I didn't go to the appointment because I assumed it had been cancelled and that they just hadn't gotten around to calling me. I decided to call about 90 minutes after my original appointment to be schedule his new appointment with them. The woman on the phone told me that if I didn't produce my son for an appointment TODAY they would call Children's Protective Services because, and I quote, "the doctor is legally responsible for my son's eyes". When I said I wanted to take him to another hospital I was told "we're specialists... I don't know if you'll find others like us"... Haha... Retinal specialists? Yep, you're right.By the way, my son's ulcer STILL hasn't cleared up. So, in conclusion, if you value yourself and your family, DON'T go to Royal Oak Beaumont!
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