Reader upset with hospital’s care
In The Evening News publication of Friday, May 22, I saw the following headlines on the front page, “Clark Memorial cuts exec’s salaries 10 to 12 percent.”
Also, they were going to cut the hours of some of the other workers, nurses, etc. Maybe some of the patients are going elsewhere, like to Floyd Memorial Hospital or Charlestown’s hospital. And, soon there will be a hospital opening in Clarksville.
My husband, Robert, was admitted to Clark Memorial Hospital March 15, 2009, and was a patient there until March 22. He stayed in the ICU until Friday, March 20. Then, he was transferred to the third floor southeast. I stayed with him continually, because I wanted to see that he was taken care of properly. He was improving.
About 9 p.m. Saturday, March 22, an aide came in with a tall scale, saying she was going to weigh him. My husband told her he had hardly sat up and was too weak to get up. She said the insurance company required you to be weighed. (I told my doctor, Dr. Rondo. She said, “What? I’ve never heard of it.” He had been a patient at Clark Memorial several times and we had never heard of it.)
She seemed like she was going to take the scale and leave. I had to run to the restroom real quick. When I returned, she had gotten him up and weighed him. His pupils were about three times normal size. He told her, “I hope you’re satisfied.” She was doing nothing for him, only standing at the foot of the bed telling him to take deep breaths and relax.
No nurses came in. Finally, a doctor from ER came in and tried to revive him. They did once, and then he was gone. No one came and offered any sympathy. My son had gone home feeling his father was going to be OK through the night. No one offered a cup of coffee. Finally, someone got me a chair.
I wrote a letter to Martin Padgett, Clark Memorial Hospital CEO. He never answered. I finally called him on the phone. All he had to say was, “I’m sorry.” I supplied him with the name of the aide, but he wouldn’t tell me if she was still employed there.
I think some hospital personnel believe if you’re 86 you’ve lived long enough. The ones who say that have never gone through a situation like I did.
My husband was a great father and grandfather. He served proudly in the U.S. Navy during World War II and protected our nation. He loved life, and he never complained about anything.
Don’t you think my husband deserves better treatment than what he received at Clark Memorial Hospital? I think so.
— His loving wife of 61 years, Ellen R. Mann, Jeffersonville
We shouldn’t take it anymore
Remember the movie “Network” years ago with the newsman who felt the public was being treated badly? On the air he said, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
In the movie, a lot of people who heard him agreed with him, and started a great movement to do something about it.
Picking up that line, a group of physicians from Oregon, called the Mad as Hell Doctors, is making a cross-country trip in a “care-a-van” to spread their message that they are “mad as hell and not going to take it any more.” Their issue is single-payer, universal health care for all Americans.
A new study from Harvard informs us that 45,000 Americans die per year because of lack of access to health care. Some probably had pre-existing conditions and couldn’t get health care insurance coverage, some probably lost the insurance they did have, for whatever reason the insurance company used (they call it recision), some simply couldn’t afford insurance, and there are other “reasons” that most insurance companies could give for either not covering people or taking away what they did have.
By my figuring 45,000 people is 3,750 per month more than the awful losses in our 9/11 tragedy and close to the number of brave individuals we’ve lost in the Iraq war. And that’s every month!
Statistics now show that over 50 percent of physicians in the United States support the single payer concept for universal health care. These MAH Doctors are taking time out of their lives to cross this great country and make stops in a number of cities to help spread their message. We hope the citizens of Indiana and Kentucky will listen and give them support in sending the message on to Congress that we do need and want single payer universal health care.
And we hope you will contact your elected representatives and remind them that we, who voted them into office, should be able to expect them to help us, their constituents, and not the insurance companies who pour massive amounts of dollars into their campaign treasuries.
— Rose M. Stevens, Borden
