My father had surgery at Southern Maryland Hospital. Prior to the surgery had a full cardiac work up and all other necessary tests to assure that he was healthy. His surgery was to remove a 3 inch portion of his colon due to diverticulitus. The surgery took 1-1/2 hours, no bleeding, no signs of cancer and no problems with the patient.
Several hours later he was placed into a regular room with no monitoring devices. We had warned the doctor that my dad had some degree of confusion from anesthesia on a previous occasion. After leaving my dad in his room alone he became confused and removed his iv. My father was only 64 and did not have dimensia or any other form of mental illness. The nurses, when they realized what he had done, came in and gave him a sedative by needle.
One hour later my dad went into cardiac arrest. Because there were no monitors and basically his heart just stopped, it took the nursing staff quite some time to realize what had happened.By the time they revived my dad he was brain dead.
We spent the next ten agonizing days deciding to disconnect and watching him die. When we decided to take him home to die the hospital signed him over to hospice and put on there "prostrate cancer." My father had no cancer and I am sure this was done to alleviate any responsibility on their part for a huge error.
My experience in the hospital for the 10 days while he was dieing is just as horrifying as what happened to him. I don't understand what has happened to our health care system. I know the nurses are terribly understaffed. 15 patients to a nurse is not acceptable. And the nurses on many days told me that was why it would take them up to an hour to respond to a call for help.
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