I forgot to post this last year. Given that it has been almost a year, I thought I would catch you up. October 19th 2021 I started feeling nauseated. It got worse. I ended up in the hospital and it was one cluster after another. I ended up having to write a letter to make sure this didn't happen to anyone else. While Massey Cancer Center is attached to the Medical College of Virginia, the quality of care is significantly different. My time at Massey was exceptional. Everyone I dealt with was a gift. Everyone was compassionate and the standard of care is remarkably high. This was not the case when my gallbladder decided it hated me and tried to kill me. Below is my letter to the PTB at MCV. Items enclosed by (parentheses) have been added for clarity.
To whom it may concern,
Following is a timeline of my ER visit and stay with VCU
Health due to the death of my Gallbladder. (A moment of silence please.)
Tuesday evening October 19th, 2021 I started feeling
queasy. My stomach was upset so I went
to bed thinking it would get better. At
about 3:30 Wednesday morning I started vomiting. I thought this would be the end of it but I
was wrong. The Nausea did not
abate. I was still vomiting at 1 in the
afternoon. I texted my PA and called my
GP to see if I should to go the ER. Both
recommended I seek medical help at the ER.
I drove to MCV and ended up having to go to Valet parking as the parking
deck was full. I walked to the ER and
checked in at around 1:45pm. I was still
nauseated I sat for about 45 minutes before I got called back for triage. Basically, the nurse asked questions on my
condition, took BP, Temp and blood O2 levels, put me in a wheelchair and sat me
back in the waiting room. By 2:30 I was
asking for a blanket as I was so cold, I was shivering. At some time in here I needed to visit the lady’s
room as I am not comfortable vomiting in front of people. When I got back, my wheelchair had been
confiscated by some woman who thought she was better deserving of said wheeled
device. By 3:00 I informed the front
desk that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to remain conscious. They informed me that I would just have to
try. I may have requested another
blanket at this time as well. (I was in and out and my memory is fuzzy.)
Somewhere in here I asked if I should try another ER. I was informed that every ER in the city was
backed up. I later found out this was
not the least bit correct and was in fact bordering on a bald-faced lie. Most other ERs in the city had a maximum 10–15-minute
wait time. I know this because I had two
friends who went to various ERs in town and were in, treated, and out in about
an hour. VCU just didn’t want to get
dinged by my leaving without being seen.
Apparently, this is really bad for an Emergency Room’s rating.
Around 5:30 or 6:00 I think, I may have been called back to
the ER. ER summary says 5:25 so I’m in
the ballpark. I was sort of in and out
by this time. I asked for more blankets
because I was still freaking cold. They
started an IV, as I was severely dehydrated, and took blood for labs.
I think it was probably around 7:00 or so and I tried to
give a urine sample but dropped the cup.
I wasn’t terribly steady but better than when I initially came in. After another bag of fluids, I was finally
successful at giving a urine sample without dropping it.
My white count was apparently quite high so they sent me
back for a CT scan around 8:30 or 9:00, (I think.) After I got back from the scan, I laid around in my cubby for a while,
then I was told sometime around 10:00 I’d be getting a sonagram as the Surgeons
wanted a clearer image of my gallbladder.
I believe this was the first time I recall hearing my gallbladder was
the culprit of my illness.
The sonagram person showed up immediately and took pictures
of my gut. She wasn’t allowed to discuss
anything so I told her what I could read from her face. She kept her mask up pretty well.
I think I was again in and out for a while. I was informed that that part of the ER
closed at 11:00 and I would be taken back to the other part of the ER that
remains open. I was wheeled back to a
fishbowl type room with curtains. It was
delightfully quiet and they turned the lights off. I think I dosed for a bit. What bliss.
Zofran is my friend.
It was once I was back there that the surgery residents came
in to speak with me about removing my gallbladder. They discussed laparoscopic surgery and the
slight possibility it’ll require cutting me open further if things aren’t
great. I was thinking with my luck,
it’ll be the latter option. I think I
dosed a bit more as folks continued to monitor my BP and vitals.
Somewhere around 12:30 or 1:00am I was told a bed had opened
up and that I would be staying until my surgery.
I do have to say that once I was back in the ER being
evaluated and hydrated everyone was exceptional. The ER wait time however, was beyond ridiculous. While I understand that the policy is to take
everyone no matter what and that it was considered fair to see everyone in the
order they came in, I was severely infected and dehydrated at this point. The wait time is unacceptable. I will not in future be going back to the ER
at MCV unless I’m in an ambulance and unconscious. If I have to drive an additional 40 minutes
to get to a hospital with a more reasonable wait time, I will. Triage should be used as a way to determine
who is in the worst shape to be seen. This doesn’t appear to be terribly
effective. After an hour or so, someone
should have rechecked people to make sure they hadn’t gotten worse.
If a patient isn’t screaming in pain no appears to care
much.
Main 9 – Rm 246
I was interred in Rm 246 sometime after 1am I think. I never met my roommate but she was quite
broken and in a very bad way. I was told
she had been in a car accident and had broken back and ribs. She had the TV on all night and day, I’m not
sure if she noticed it was on. If my IV
went off creating an alarm she complained.
Thursday, they removed her trachea tube.
Thursday evening, she was taking a turn for the worse. It sounded like she was aspirating in her
sleep. I called the nurse and asked her
to look in on my roommate as she was didn’t sound good. They had a peak and didn’t stay very
long. A while later I again ended up having
to call the nurse as my roommate was aspirating worse than before. They came in and worked on her for about half
an hour and ended up taking her to a critical care ward. They even thanked me for alerting them to her
condition. That poor woman could have
died. I really felt bad for her.
I waited all day Thursday for surgery but they couldn’t fit
me in. I was scheduled Friday morning
but as soon as they were getting ready to wheel me down, they got a call and I
got bumped. I think I managed to get in
for surgery around 11:00 Friday? I was
informed that they would try laparoscopic surgery first. My suspicion was this was a pipe dream since
I’d been so horribly infected this whole time.
I’m pretty sure I put a big damn dent in their bags of IV
antibiotics. After waiting several days,
I think my gallbladder was toast. As
expected, it was worse than they thought.
The surgeon later informed me that he had not seen a gallbladder this
bad before. They weren’t able to take it
all as there wasn’t clear delineation between the gallbladder and liver, and
they didn’t want to cut the wrong thing and kill me.
It must be said I felt significantly better once the bulk of
the diseased tissue was gone. Once I was
back in my room I got better fairly quickly.
They kept me on IV antibiotics to be sure all of the infection was
gone. I think it took a few days for my
bloodwork to come back clear of infection.
Once I had to get up and go to the bathroom, I started walking the
ward. The first few times I was pretty
pathetic, but I kept it up. I had a
love/hate relationship with the spirometer.
I was always easier after a walk.
Mary came to see me Saturday. I managed to get a bed swab down which wasn’t
as good as a real shower but it did help me feel a bit better. I was finally awake enough to look around a
bit. Mary and I noted that my room was
quite a mess. The room hadn’t been
cleaned since I arrived other than changing out tenants on the other side of
the curtain. Once I was up and about, I
began to see just how filthy the floors were. (I wish I had taken photos, there were dust critters floating around the corners and spots of dirt stuck to the floor. Mary changed the linens while I went to the bathroom and set the dirty sheets in the chair as the linen bin was overflowing.) We found a previous tenants’ personal items in the drawers in the
bedside table. There were bits of
plastic flotsam on the floor to include an old straw, two bottles of protein shakes
and all of the plastic detritus that gets ripped off of IV’s and related pieces
and parts. I asked for a broom so I
could at least sweep up a bit. They sent
someone in to clean up but they still only did a marginal job. The linens & trash hadn’t been taken out
since I had gotten there. The nurse aid
came in and emptied them when we asked Saturday. The floors had not been mopped at all in the
time I was there. The bathroom was not
cleaned while I was there either. You
could see where drops of water had fallen to the floor, collected dirt and
dried on the floor. It was truly
disgusting.
(Mary came back Sunday to visit. The dirty linens were still sitting in the chair. We had a chat with the charge nurse. She came in to see how bad it was. The dirty linens were removed as was the overflowing trash can. Someone came in to sweep but the floors were still not clean. I was still walking around the ward. I walked with another patient a few times. I waved at my car in the parking lot.)
They continued monitoring me through Sunday and released me
Monday afternoon. I did strip the bed before I
left. I also cleared out the bedside
table and drawers. I tossed everything
that I wouldn’t be taking home. I
figured that is the only way to be sure the room didn’t have unwanted stuff
hidden somewhere when a new patient came in.
While there are a lot of talented people working at MCV, it
should never get dirty enough that people can see all of the yuck on the floor. Linen bags and trash should be removed
daily. Floors and surfaces should be
cleaned daily. Bathrooms should be
cleaned daily. I’m not sure what is
going on, but patients should not be staying in rooms where dirt and detritus
can be seen on the floors. I saw one man
cleaning the corridor floor with a scrubbing machine on Saturday. I have no idea if he did the whole corridor
as I didn’t hear him come down my end of the hallway.
No hospital ward should ever get this dirty.
Thank you for your time,
Brenda L Kliesen
CC: Aetna Insurance, VCU Health Patient Advocate, Chief
Executive Officer Ralph R, Clark, III, MD.
Survey Processing Company Press Ganey.
Yeah, I pretty much copied this and sent it to everyone I could think of. It did get some attention. The patient advocate called me a day or two later and we had a nice chat. I'm pretty sure there was a meeting with the ER staff, the head nurse on the ward, and the cleaning company. I suspect strong words were used. My bill disappeared. It is my hope that no other patient has this experience in this hospital.
Since all of this occurred, my gut has been unhappy. Not nauseated or anything like that. I can no longer process certain foods which flow through my system at a speed hitherto unknown. I had no idea things could move so quickly. One cannot blissfully ignore the gastric system as an unfortunate even could occur without much notice. I now take my headphones on a walk to the restroom during conference calls while muted. They'll just have to wait for me to unmute when I get back to my desk. I can still listen. If I am driving, I have to know where the restrooms are and how far away they are. If on the highway, I take an emergency bathroom kit. I also don't eat before driving long distance. Fluids are not a problem. I just try to avoid overly glutenous or fatty foods as much as possible.
Take good care of your gallbladders folks! They can really mess up your day.
