DeeDoo’s Digital Scrapbooking Blog

Someone we dearly love is gravely ill in a hospital in one of the larger ‘small towns’ in Oklahoma. That she is finally in the hospital, where her care can be managed, is a minor miracle in itself.

Sent away from the emergency room four times in the past four weeks, she and her family were told that she had lung cancer by an emergency room doctor based on a chest xray he read himself. Wasting away and very ill, the family was advised to call Hospice in to care for her in the assisted living center where she resides. The attitude of all medical personnel was that she was terminal and that nothing could be done for her.

Hospice was called in. Furniture was moved out of her small apartment in the assisted living center and a hospital bed was moved in. Sitters were hired to watch over her.

Then the results of a lung biopsy came back. Negative for cancer. Heavy-hearted family members found new energy with the burden of that faulty diagnosis lifted. Her family physician, who does not have hospital privileges, was finally motivated to ‘pull some strings’ to get her admitted to the hospital for tests and observation. Relying on the emergency room doctors to admit her to the hospital had backfired.

As we await the outcome of tests to determine the future course of treatment, we are astonished at the mishandling of her case by medical professionals. Mishandling continues, in fact, and family members have had to demand that doctors, aides, nurses, and technicians not speculate in front of the patient on what might be causing her illness. Without tests of any kind she has been told that she might have kidney cancer or colon cancer. We see a pattern developing……

Perhaps these medicos has been watching too much of “House” and think his harsh bedside manner, laundry-list diagnosis, and treatment ‘plans’ are acceptable in real life. They are not. It is not acceptable to dial through one illness after another, speculating as to what is wrong, prior to receiving test results that can confirm or eliminate a devastating diagnosis. Hearing a terrible diagnosis has a demoralizing effect on the patient and family and leads other medical personnel to alter behavior and treatment of the patient in a negative way.

Our dear one is not out of the woods yet. But she is lucky because she has family who can advocate for her, albeit a little late. Other elderly folks in a similar situation may not be so fortunate. Without an advocate, I wonder how many are allowed to slip away, offhandedly and incorrectly diagnosed with some terminal illness?

We have learned several things from this experience. Find out if your doctor has hospital privileges, and a solid plan for getting you admitted and treated in a hospital. Do not continue to present at the emergency room for treatment; if your illness does not improve, insist that your family doctor see you and that he/she take steps to get you well, including a hospital stay for tests if prescribed treatment is not helping. Ask that medical professionals NOT speculate that the cause of your illness is something devastating without test results that confirm it.

Our goal now is to get our sick patient well and back home as soon as possible. Getting out of the hospital may be the next minor miracle. That’s another story……