JEWISH GENERAL HOSPITAL - A FEW IMPORTANT POINTS

VISITORS UNLIMITED:

Tormented by noisy visitors from as early as 6:30 a.m. until night, I was shocked to learn that there is absolutely no limit to when visitors can come and how long they may stay, no requirement to wear masks as they cough and sneeze and no limit to how many people can stand around your room shouting in Portuguese, Spanish, French and English.

My neighbour after the New Year's Eve robbery seemed a pleasant man with a pleasant family. However, his visitors - family, friends, co-workers - took over the room, stood and sat blocking my way to the hall - four abreast - yelling at each other at such high volume that no one could hear me pleading for help. I was finally driven to plough my way past them with my walker.

From my handwritten notes:

I came to JGH by ambulance on December 27. No time to bring any change of clothes - so there I was - in diapers!

January 5, 2019 - 11 pm

 

Waiting- STILL WAITING for a change. Can't handle the tabs.

Save the world. Invent a better adult diaper. No one available to get "pull-ups" for me at the pharmacy. No one available to measure my hips and decide which size to buy anyway. Everyone is on holiday, so I am spending a lot of time naked - Yes. Even in the hallway. It doesn't seem to bother anyone as I push the walker looking for help.

Did you know that, given the normal number of hands, you can't hold onto a walker and hold up a loose gown and a diaper all at the same time. So if you are trying to get help, you have to give up on modesty.

They tell you to "ring" for help. Throughout my stay, I tried.

The voice asks what you want.

You ask to see your assigned nurse - or anyone who might help. You wait. Everyone is on "rounds", change of shift, shorthanded (me too).

Sometimes the excuse is really valid. People are dying. I can wait. The nurses are sweating, exhausted. I wonder how Quebec politicians are managing.

The voice on the too-loud speaker asks what I want.

I say, "I want to jump out the window." The voice answers, "Oh, We can't let you do that." End of call.

She didn't seem concerned. No one ever came to peek in and see if I was serious.

Another time the voice asked what I wanted.

I said, "The patient has left to join the Follies Bergeres and is doing stripteases for the neighbours."

I guess they aren't worried enough about me to put me in the "rubber room". Would it make any difference?

January 7-8.

No change from 8:00 am until almost midnight. I learned later that there had been two deaths. It's heartbreaking. I understand and I know one of the good people who was there to help. Of course I understand. But there were people piling up clean linens, moving garbage, cleaning floors and doing other things. Why is there no one to help a patient needing a toilet?

January 20, 2019.

 

I am too tired to continue now. Follow as I tell you later about apparent death threats.

"MORT! MORT! MORT!" spoken on a cell phone by my side five times sounds like a death threat to me.

And then an orderly marched in and turned off all the lights in the room leaving me in pitch darkness.