Last hospital visit

I walked into my wife's hospital room this morning and I found her IV belonged to the paitent in the next bed. I quickly walked over to the nurse's station and asked for the nurse attending my wife's room. Once he identified himself I told him that my wife's IV did not belong to her and it should be corrected immediately because I have no idea what's in the IV.

I walked back to my wife's room to explain to her what happened. Even though there was what appears to me a safety issue it still took about 5 minutes for the nurse to come inspect the IV and confirm it had to be replaced.

I have to assume that the hospital staff refused to believe they were capable of making a mistake because they kept asking my wife if she removed her IV at any time, going so far as to ask if she may have removed it to go to the bathroom. Which seemed a bit rediculous to me. I glanced at the IV of the patient in the next bed and she had my wife's IV. Without saying anything else the nurse changed both IVs.

I guess the nurse thought my wife was devious enough to remove her IV, the IV of the patient in the next bed, switch both IV dispensing machines and reconnect the switched IVs without the lady in the next bed recognizing.

I contacted my wife's doctor and told him what happened and he said he would investigate it. Ten minutes later he called back and told me he spoke with the nurse and found out the IV was a saline solution, same as my wife's IV except for a half the amount of solution to be dispensed. I complained it was a possible danger that could have been worse than it was. He did not seem too concered about it. Before I noticed the IV bag my wife informed me she still had diarhhea. So I asked the doctor what's will be done about that since it's been a week since the diarheea started. He wanted an infectious disease specialist to look at her. Realizing we weren't going to get anything accomplished I hung up with him.

My wife and I discussed removing her from the hospital but I was worried that my insurance may not cover her stay here because will have taken her out without arranging for another hospital to take her. I contacted the telephone number on my insurance company and they inform me that they only cover pre-certification and not the insurance payments themselves. I contact the number they give me and the person on that side of the line tells me they're the insurer and are not involved with pre-certification because moving my wife to another hospital is a pre-certification issue. After a half hour of dizzying discussion I gave up. The closest I got them to a commitment of covering the charges was the statement that it's taken on a case by case basis. However I had them place into the record that the IV's were switched.

The doctor had told me he would be at the hospital at 3:00 p.m. and he would speak to us then. So we were waiting for the infectious disease specialist to combe by and see what they were going to do next. And we waited and waited. In the meantime I contacted the Oncologist that treated my wife for cancer in December, 2003. She wasn't in but we spoke with her secretary who gave us the name of an internist after we explained what happened. I called the internist's office but he was not availablo to see my wife today. I made an appointment for tomorrow and hung up.

Come 3:00 p.m. my wife's doctor didn't show up nor did the specialist.That's when I decided enough is enough I told the people at the nurse's station that we are leaving the hospital. They informed me that the attending doctor would have to look at my wfie before removing the IV. We waited and waited and still no hospital staff came by. After what turned out to be an hour I went back to the nurse's station and complained that this time has passed by and still nothing. I called my wife's doctor's office to find out when the doctor left the office only to find out he was still there. The receptionist said he would be heading over to the hsopital soon. The nurse at the attending station came by and said they spoke with the doctor and were told he would be here in 45 minutes. I said we are not waiting 45 minutes longer and I want the IV removed immediately.

After a few minutes the IV was removed and the attending doctor came by. She asked us to sign a form saying we are leavnig against doctor's orders. I didn't mind signing it but my wife refused. The doctor offered moving us to the Intensive Care Unit which has a better hospital staff. We refused and said we were leaving anyway. My wife got ready and we left. I filled out a form requesting a copy of my wife medical records because I don't think this is just going to end easy.

My wife's doctor had shown up and tried to convince us to stay but we were so disgusted with how this hospital operates we left.

There were no apoiogies for what happened with my wife. The Infectious Disease specialist never appeared. Not one doctor came by to check up on my wife during the day only at the end of the day when her doctor would come by. Her doctor would request tests and because that was the end of the day the tests weren't done until the middle of the next day.

We can always provide a reference for that hospital. It will be a negative one, but a reference nonetheless.