This is an article posted on psychology today by Peter Edelstein, a medical doctor and surgical director about his experience at a hospital, that has caused a lot of controversy. Thoughts on this? Should this type of verbal abuse not only be tolerated by also encouraged??
... My mom suffered several temporary mini-strokes†last weekend. Medically, the term is Transient (meaning temporary) Ischemic (meaning inadequate blood flow) Attack (meaning, well, attack). Known by the acronym TIA, these terrifying events can represent a warning of a coming big danger: a major, irreversible stroke that can occur at any time. So I simply said, Get dressed. I'll be right over. We're going to the E.R.†...
Thanks for posting the links. I've read the article, and I still think the guy was wrong. Yelling was not necessary AND if he were that interested in his mother's care, he should have stayed with her.
He reminds me of the physician who dropped his mother off at his father's bedside "to visit" and then drove four hours back to his home, leaving his mother at the bedside. Dad wasn't doing well -- was ventilated and sedated. Mom had dementia and was left all alone at the bedside of an unconscious patient on a ventilator and in the same room with a conscious patient who was upset by Mom's behavior. (Mom crawled into bed with the other patient at one point, ate off the other patient's tray, peed in the corner of the room and got lost looking for a visitor's bathroom. She was completely overwhelmed and unable to cope. After a day of this, the nurse who was caring for the two patients AND Mom was frustrated, overworked and at her wit's end. Then I came in to relieve her. After an assessment of both patient's AND Mom's mental capacity, I called her physician son to come get her and take her home. He said "I have office hours tomorrow. I'll get her next week." And then he yelled at me for bothering him and for allowing his mother to wander.
Our hospitalist called Dr. Dick and said "You have three hours to get here to pick up your mother before I call Adult Protective Services." He came and got his mother, but yelled at our hospitalist for "being inflexible" and "providing poor customer service." Really?
He expected his mother to LIVE at the hospital for a week at his father's bedside?
YUP. No clothes or change of underwear. No food or money for food. He just expected the nursing staff to figure it out and take care of her.
Oh my gracious, who DOES that?? The other day I was sick and my 10 yr old daughter brought me some apple sauce and tea. Pretty sad that a grown man would abandon his mother like that. What an anal orifice.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Oh my gracious, who DOES that?? The other day I was sick and my 10 yr old daughter brought me some apple sauce and tea. Pretty sad that a grown man would abandon his mother like that. What an anal orifice.
Oh yeah. Anal orifice describes it perfectly. When he did pick up his mother, she was so happy to see him! And I wonder if he just dropped her off at her house and left her to wander around in confusion, looking for her husband.
Specializes in Crit Care; EOL; Pain/Symptom; Gero.
Nitwit.
Agree with comments that he obviously has zero knowledge of stroke center protocols. Did he even know to take Mom to a hospital with a Stroke Center?
And then he leaves Mom to fend for herself???!!! After all the commotion he created...
Then he publishes his rant in a pop psychology journal so that everyone and their brother will think it's appropriate to "yell" to have attention paid to their family members. Just great.
His walkback of his original comments was pretty weak. Prima donna. Oy gevalt.
LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM
1,656 Posts
He expected his mother to LIVE at the hospital for a week at his father's bedside?