Glen Beck's hospital experience

From god's mouth to our ear

I, ummmm, had a really, ummmmm, hard time following, ummmmm, his tirade.

Step back and look at this in a more objective way...


The end of life patch is what got me. Someone probably frightened the bejesus out of him with this explanation of what may have been a fentanyl patch..I heard this drug mentioned twice when this case was covered on television. My sister-in-law lives on fentanyl patches since her battle with cancer ( eight years) and complications of radiation injury to her small intestine,sepsis, chemotherapy, heart attack (per oncologist). She works full time with FLKs (my turn to be nasty) Funny looking kids or use the F with a U anyway you want..I first heard this from pediatric nurses and I was shocked!! She is not a burden to society and is a productive individual which would not have been possible without this pain management system.
Cut the guy some slack. The reason he was ******** about the surgery is that he stated that he woke up from the anesthesia before the proceedure was completed. This would be a big OUCH and traumatic experience for everyone. This is of course is unacceptable regardless of who the patient was.
As for the drama...I have first hand witnessed patients' returning to our unit after being overdosed on post of pca medication, intubated and requiring additional hospitalization with an ICU stay. Glenn also stated he was taking p.o medications like percocet or what ever. He also stated he was wearing the "end of life patch" God forgive the person who told him this. Who the hell gave him these drugs? If in fact he woke up before the proceedure was completed, he was frightened out of his mind (as I would be!) and further pain management and reassurance would be his primary goal. I would like to know what type of nurse or physician would order and/or administer these drugs without performing a complete assessment. Were his vital signs including respiratory rate assessed and documented, what was the patient's level of awareness, was he able to communicate in a clear voice to describe level of pain on the 0-10 pain scale and speak in a rational manner. Was follow up done to see if medication was effective and was the patient still able to communicate and breathe without difficulty? We have to document all of these things and add anything out the ordinary on our flowsheets and of course bring concerns to the team covering the patient. Then we document what actions were taken and the effectiveness jof our interventions.
We also must take the time to interact with the patient using our skills to reduce patient's fears, address the family, etc...we have to be available and to keep patient's like this informed of our commings and goings this also helps to reduce stress.
Our pca patients' are monitored not just in our icu, but on the floor with pulse oximentry while on pca. We keep them on 2 liters per minute NC.
We also teach family and friends not to push the button on the delivery system because of the risk of causing respiratory supression. We tell them that if the patient does not administer his own dose, no one else should. Despite the fact that maximum drug dose is set it is not unexpected for a patient to have respiratory distress when someone else decides to give the maximum allowed per hour by pushing the button allegedly trying to "help" the patient.
We don't know what really happened but we can, based on his own statements and the wild video he made (this video was made at home by his family and was never intended for general public consumption..only insiders were supposed to see this if they wanted to from what I understand).
He was probably right that he would have died and despite his "celebrity" status and his controversial status as a conservative talk show host, this would have been a tragedy.
I hesitate to bring this up...but I will simply because it is a valid concern. Do you think his professional life affected how some persons in the medical, nursing practice in this hospital had anything to do with the near death by drug overdose???? Two things..maybe staff didn't want to deal with this patient, easier to oversedate/medicate than communicate. Some people are overwhelmed by "celebrities" and just do what a frightened patient thinks he needs (bad management!!!). I'm sure in this particular facility they get lots of "important" patients and can't possibly be influenced by this type of patient. Imagine the headlines. Already people are making fun of the surgery he had..like everyone is perfect? I have read other articles where the person/s writting stated they wished he had died and laughed at the video showing a frightened, traumatized man. "There but for the grace of G-d" as the saying goes..or my favorite "do unto others as you would have them do unto you"

There is a hell of a lot more to this story than we will ever know. If a patient feels he wasn't "cared" for this is his impression and it is up to us, the caregiver, to find out what is going on. At least this is something we do at our facility. This experience was Glenn Beck's experience and his truth lets not mock it, overthink it or take it personal.
I certainly have no ill will towards any patient, certainly not this guy.

Whatever happened in the ER is also his and his wife's experience. I can believe him when he saw uncaring persons just looking at him, watching as his wife tries to help him out of the wheelchair when it was obvious that he was overmedicated and potentially a SENTINEL event waiting to happen. Its so much easier to be warm and understanding then standing in judgement of someone you may dislike. Takes to much energy to be nasty to anyone. What about nursing care? it was also his reality, his truth that the nursing care did not meet his needs. Who ever heard of a bath down the hallway? bandages on the floor? that I can believe. Was he in the hallway in the ER or was he in a patient room..again, the bathroom??

Way to much here to ignore.

Take care.

End Game RN
Minor Deity