Sewing Sunsets

My last post involved telling you about my mom’s illness and hospitalization, and how that affected my sewing.  My poor mother was hospitalized for three weeks, initally for pneumonia, and then for an intestinal infection that the antibiotics caused.  Of course, this could have been prevented, but conventional medicine seems to be unaware of nutritional therapies.  As a result of the intestinal infection, my mom received even more IV antibiotics, and endured many, many days of frustration, pain, and weakness.  During the course of this particular infection, my mother’s hearing aids disappeared. 

My mom was admitted to this hospital during the wee hours the morning of January 15. 2010.  She did not have her glasses or hearing aids that time, but I told the night nurse that I would bring them later. This night nurse was wonderful, and she did her job and documented that I had taken home two rings, but that I would bring the glasses and hearing aids that morning.  Basically, it was later that morning, and after giving my mom her eye glasses and hearing aids, I went in search of the day shift nurse.  Unfortunately, this nurse wasn’t as friendly as the night shift nurse, so when I told her that I had brought these items to my mom, she just said ok and walked away. Evidentally, it was her job and responsibility to document that those items had been brought into the hospital, but she didn’t do that. As a family member of an ill patient, it is not my duty to know, or to make sure, that the nurses follow proper procedure.   Both the hearing aids and eye glasses remained in my mom’s possession for the next several days.  Also, I was staying at the hospital all day every day, and often going back at night to check on my mom.   I told every person who took care of my mother that she wore hearing aids, so everyone was well aware of this fact.  The night that the hearing aids were lost, my mom had a nurse and a tech (the person responsible for taking vital signs) that she had never had before.  Several times that evening, I told this tech that my mom had hearing aids, and went as far as to point to my ears and also point to my mom’s ears.  This particular tech was so involved in moving an IV pole (that didn’t need to be moved) that she apparently didn’t pay attention to what I was telling her, or maybe she didn’t hear me, but I am positive that I told her about the hearing aid three times that night.  This particular employee was very hasty and speedy with her work; perhaps she should have slowed down and paid more attention to what she was throwing away.  (We all know the story of the tortoise and the hare.) When I walked into the hospital room the following morning, those hearing aids were nowhere to be found.  I gave the hospital ample time to find the hearing aids, although I had made it clear from the beginning that I expected the hospital to pay to replace the hearing aids if they were not found. 

I met with the appropriate people, followed all instructions that the hospital requested (forms, documents, etc), wrote letters to the CEO,  and remained patient for quite some time–until my patience ran out. I marched into the hospital a few days ago, and an artifically calm woman (this only served to make me angrier on the inside) met with me, and when she realized that I wasn’t going away quite so easily, she made the offer for the hospital to pay half of the cost of replacing the hearing aids.  However, those that I consulted, and I, think that is not acceptable because my mother wears two hearing aids and basically, they were only offering to pay to replace one hearing aid.  The bottom line is that those hearing aids disappeared on their watch and they should pay to replace them!

 I simply want the low end basic hearing aids that my mom had replaced, and this hospital should do the right thing, but of course, they can’t prove anything so they are refusing.   And the one suffering the most is my mother.  She moved into a rehab facility a couple of weeks ago, and not having her hearing aids is hindering her and definitely lessening her quality of life.  Not only do I hold this hospital responsible for the loss of the hearing aids, I also hold them personally responsible for reducing quality of life for my mother.

I am now begininng to fight this hospital to do the right thing and pay for the hearing aids.  Today I will not name the facility, but if you keep watching this blog in the days to come, I will be filling in details about this ongoing ordeal and saga.  I say “shame on them” for causing a poor elderly woman to continue to suffer because they (the hospital) can’t admit that maybe one of their employees made a huge, and costly mistake!

And believe it or not, I have actually volunteered to sew for this hospital, and I will honor that commitment, in spite of their unwillingness to do the right thing and pay to replace my mother’s hearing aids.

During this whole process, I have actually managed to do a little sewing, and that is probably the only thing that has continued to keep me sane.   More about my sewing in future blogs.

Stay tuned for the rest of this hospital/hearing aid saga. And…

Happy Sewing!

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