Another hospital trip... (this time for my son)
Can the stress just stop, please?
Tonight we were at the hospital again - this time Kenedy hospital in Washington Township with Steve in the emergency room. He was at a concert at the skating rink with his friends, when a boy that had a problem with him pushed him from behind. He was on skates at the time and not expecting it so he fell right on his forehead and got a big welt on his head and blacked out. They took him via ambulence to the hospital and called me up.
I called the police on the way to the hospital, and they were completely unconcerned. They told me I would have to go down to the Franklin Township police department and report it since the rink didn't call it in as an assault. They wouldn't send anyone out to the hospital, and I couldn't get the kids to cooperate anyhow. They know the name of the kid who did it, he's the boyfriend of some girl they know and he's visiting from Maryland. I wanted to press charges against the kid, or at least get the name and address of his parents to contact them about this and to send them the medical bills. The kids want to 'handle it on their own' which I don't want them to do, because I don't want them to get in any trouble.
The hospital was completely incompetent. I got there about half an hour after they brought him in - and he'd been handed an ice pack by a nurse and brought into a room far from any observation. And that was it for another two hours - during which I tried to track down the papers I was supposed to sign (I never did manage to find someone who could bring me them) for his registration. His head was swelling up worse while he was in there, and he was shaking and his eye were dilated. No one brought him a blanket, or checked up on his vitals. When I flagged down three passing nurses, I was told that there were 'many other patients'. On the way in, I walked past about ten empty rooms and only saw about three other patients in the whole ER. There were five nurses, none of whom did a damn thing, and two doctors. When it was clear they weren't coming in any time soon, I asked for another ice pack (they'd given him a lukewarm one to begin with he said, and by the time I got there it was already mostly melty). They said 'in a minute'. Which of course, I didn't believe.. and sure enough about twenty minutes later I had to go out and flag down the nurse and demand it. She acted like I was asking her to walk a mile and eventually produced one.
When the doctor finally came in (about three hours after he'd been taken in) she shined a light in his eyes, poked the sore spot, asked him a couple of questions, looked down his throat and in his ears then said "Oh, he should be fine. He didn't pass out while waiting to see me, so he's okay." No x-rays, no catscan, two minutes of prodding after waiting three hours. I was so pissed off. Then they had a nurse come in (about ten minutes later) with discharge papers and two tylenol.
Can life just stop kicking my ass now? Please?
Tonight we were at the hospital again - this time Kenedy hospital in Washington Township with Steve in the emergency room. He was at a concert at the skating rink with his friends, when a boy that had a problem with him pushed him from behind. He was on skates at the time and not expecting it so he fell right on his forehead and got a big welt on his head and blacked out. They took him via ambulence to the hospital and called me up.
I called the police on the way to the hospital, and they were completely unconcerned. They told me I would have to go down to the Franklin Township police department and report it since the rink didn't call it in as an assault. They wouldn't send anyone out to the hospital, and I couldn't get the kids to cooperate anyhow. They know the name of the kid who did it, he's the boyfriend of some girl they know and he's visiting from Maryland. I wanted to press charges against the kid, or at least get the name and address of his parents to contact them about this and to send them the medical bills. The kids want to 'handle it on their own' which I don't want them to do, because I don't want them to get in any trouble.
The hospital was completely incompetent. I got there about half an hour after they brought him in - and he'd been handed an ice pack by a nurse and brought into a room far from any observation. And that was it for another two hours - during which I tried to track down the papers I was supposed to sign (I never did manage to find someone who could bring me them) for his registration. His head was swelling up worse while he was in there, and he was shaking and his eye were dilated. No one brought him a blanket, or checked up on his vitals. When I flagged down three passing nurses, I was told that there were 'many other patients'. On the way in, I walked past about ten empty rooms and only saw about three other patients in the whole ER. There were five nurses, none of whom did a damn thing, and two doctors. When it was clear they weren't coming in any time soon, I asked for another ice pack (they'd given him a lukewarm one to begin with he said, and by the time I got there it was already mostly melty). They said 'in a minute'. Which of course, I didn't believe.. and sure enough about twenty minutes later I had to go out and flag down the nurse and demand it. She acted like I was asking her to walk a mile and eventually produced one.
When the doctor finally came in (about three hours after he'd been taken in) she shined a light in his eyes, poked the sore spot, asked him a couple of questions, looked down his throat and in his ears then said "Oh, he should be fine. He didn't pass out while waiting to see me, so he's okay." No x-rays, no catscan, two minutes of prodding after waiting three hours. I was so pissed off. Then they had a nurse come in (about ten minutes later) with discharge papers and two tylenol.
Can life just stop kicking my ass now? Please?