The Hospital First Afternoon (Part 1)
So there I am, laying not going to be able to get out of bed for who knows how many days, bedridden for the first time except for two days in a Marriott when I had the flu. The hospital was old, but you could see it had been refitted and updated into a modern hospital ward. Everyone in the ward was over 80.
The room held 8 people on two sides. On the other side of the room everyone was on monitors, O2, or both as that was the only side that had those connections. It was co-ed, there were four men and four women, but no one should be too worried as no one there could get out of bed anyway. I got there right before dinner and asked if I could get some water when I found out that we would need to supply our own water. You also had to supply your own medicine if you had a daily prescription. Since this was a virus-restricted room you had to have a negative PCR test for admission and no one could visit. Your family could bring you what you needed but only from 1 pm to 2 pm every day and leave it down stairs.
I had my phone and iPad. The plug is almost too far away and I would have several issues with my charging cords coming out.. As far as I know, there was only one other person with a phone in the room. They took my blood and put an IV port on my wrist. I thought at first they were going to start an IV but that will be for the surgery.
At that point, I took a deep breath and wondered how I was going to survive. On the other side of the room were two ladies that looked more like they were in a coma which is how they look most of the time. Next to them on one side is the guy I will call “sheet guy”. All evening until he finally passed out they kept trying to but a sheet on him for some reason.
Sheet guy was a bit wild and they had his hands tied down at some point, but he ripped though those pretty easy. They started an IV on him and it was on a pole next to his bed. I watched as he kept trying to kick the pole or grab the pole and suddenly his leg went over the top and he brought the pole crashing down yanking out his IV as the saline bag goes flying across the room landing in one of the comatose ladies lap without even a flinch. I yelled help a couple of times and the nurses came running looking at me as I am the only patient that speaks English. I pointed across the room at the disaster that was there.
At the other end of that side of the ward was a guy that seemed equally as crazy. He would all afternoon start yelling over and over and over for the nurses. He will be “loud mouth guy.” Finally one of the nurses would come. It seemed obvious they are ignoring him for as long as they could. They will do whatever to him for a few minutes and leave, and not long the process would start all over. The ignoring him probably worked for them but to those of us in the room, it as a torment. The three people on my side of the room hardly made a sound. Dinner was a small piece of meat pastry and a yogurt. I would find out the next day lunch was the big meal of the day.
At least I could call my wife and talk to her and Ella for a few minutes. Part Two of the adventure will be the first night. I promise you don’t want to miss it.
(I just want to say and make a point that while the situation was so different than an American hospital, the staff could not have been nicer. In the end, I got very good care from highly competent individuals including the doctors, nurses and the support staff)