Posted by gromit on April 27, 2005, at 0:48:18
Hi,
I never understood my brother-in-law's negative attitude towards doctors and especially the V.A. until a few years ago. He went in the hospital to have surgery, he's a long time hemodialysis patient and needed a new access thing. So I'm visiting him and he needs to use the restroom. There is only one public restroom on that wing. Yes, the surgical recovery wing has a public restroom, at least that one did.
We get down there and the floor is soaked with urine! He's had a hard enough time just making it down there, the new graft is in his leg and he can't wait so he said screw it and used it anyway. Afterwards I went to the nurse's station to inform them of the condition the facilities were in and get replacments for his slippers, which were ruined. I have never in my life met a person so rude and uncaring. She didn't even pretend to be concerned, the janitors come in the morning, slippers are for surgical patients only.
Hello, he just had an operation the day before, he *is* a surgical patient. Even outside of a hospital liqiud on a tile floor is dangerous and I'm not a doctor but maybe the fact that at least part of it is urine is not a good thing either? What she said was bad enough but the attitude was too much for me, if I've ever been more angry I sure don't remember it. It was all I could do not to go over the counter and throttle this woman, really.
I mention my reaction to contrast his, he wasn't surprised or angry at all, just another drop in the bucket. I told him to file a complaint, that if he didn't I would. He said he was tired of filing complaints and getting nowhere, he asked me not to either, said it would just cause trouble for him. He's been thru 20+ years of this and I guess he knows better than me the way things work so I did what he asked, which was not to do anything. I still feel guilty for not raising absolute hell though, there were other patients besides him.
Anyway, I guess poor treatment of veterans isn't anything new. We can spend $500,000 on one missile, tens of millions on one plane, but apparently can't pay someone to keep a bathroom clean. I know, that was a cheap shot.
Rick
poster:gromit
thread:490202
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20050122/msgs/490202.html