March 1, 2008
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: When Your Plate Overflows, As Your Dad’s Not Hungry, a Nurse Tells of a Surgeon Answering the Above and Beyond Call
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – You’ve seen that commercial for the Cancer Treatment Center in which the woman tells how a "just the facts" physician told her she had two months to live. Lying depressed on a bed, her sister connects her to an empathetic team of specialists who conclude there’s not an expiration date stamped on her foot.
My dad served in World War II under Gen. Patton. He has not talked about seeing combat, but he has spoken of building a mile long Bailey bridge in Germany and assisting in the liberation of a concentration camp.
After a hip injury six or seven years ago, he developed Cellulitis at the hospital. For a while he had home health nurses bandage and treat his legs, then, he was taught how to do it. He made it seem a moderate annoyance as he still drove, walked , talked, and joked.
On Christmas Day 2007, he complained that he could not fully lift his leg. The hospital ER put him under observation for a couple of days , found a potential blood clot in his leg, installed a filter, and sent him home. After about a month, he was getting up the steps on his own without anyone having to help or watch his back.
After the GOP convention, it flared again. He had a cough too. This time the ER personnel indicated he had pneumonia in one lung and he had not changed his leg bandages for several days. After admission to the hospital, a doctor became concerned about an infection. A test and consultation with an infectious disease specialist confirmed a treatable form of staph infection in the bone of his heel.
I learned the benefit of hospital wireless internet service. On two nights I stayed overnight. I worked until about 4 a.m. on HNN, and then rested until the doctor’s made their rounds.
When the staph in the bone was confirmed, the result has been a need for intravenous for six weeks. That meant staying in a long term portion of the hospital.
But another complication ensured --- he said he could not eat. Not receiving enough nutrition, doctors found a hiatal hernia.
You find out who your friends are in these times. One friend and former neighbor has volunteered to feed dad. The man’s a good cook so he has a more coordinated bedside manner than an awkward writer. The publisher has put up with my endless questions plus ensuring that I have transportation part of the time. Rev. Bob, the retired minister of PROWL, came to visit and talk with me. A city councilman took time to talk to me at length and a vet checked out my irishsetter on less than 24 hours notice.
I’m still a bit befuddled on the complications. One day he’s leaving me at McDonald’s for a burger, driving up to Long John Silver’s for crab cakes and coffee, then taking me to the research library. A few days later, he’s not walking or feeding himself and the diagnosis is not a stroke or something of that nature.
But even in the midst of health professionals speaking about their work and recommending particular physicians on the team, you hear a heartwarming story. Since privacy restricts my words, I will not give names. However, a nurse with a critical patient had not previously worked with a particular surgeon. She praised the doctor for not only his skill but for staying with the patient, encouraging the nurse, and sticking around the hospital above and beyond the required time constraints. Result: Patient no longer critical, crisis over, patient on way to recovery. The nurse talked of this particular surgeon in much the same manner as the commercial where the patient is told about “no expiration date.”
Others, unnamed, have when asked done their best to translate medical terminology and explain a particular physical condition, worry, or complication, even when the explanation seems like a question you would find on a multiple choice test where more than one letter may or may not be correct.
Incidentally, since dad retired from the VA Medical Center, I contacted Rep. Rahall’s office --- and I must give them thanks for their near immediate attention to my concerns
Love you dad… and readers, do you have a health care professional you would like to recognize? Send your details (subject to editing) to trutherford@huntingtonnews.net.
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: When Your Plate Overflows, As Your Dad’s Not Hungry, a Nurse Tells of a Surgeon Answering the Above and Beyond Call
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – You’ve seen that commercial for the Cancer Treatment Center in which the woman tells how a "just the facts" physician told her she had two months to live. Lying depressed on a bed, her sister connects her to an empathetic team of specialists who conclude there’s not an expiration date stamped on her foot.
My dad served in World War II under Gen. Patton. He has not talked about seeing combat, but he has spoken of building a mile long Bailey bridge in Germany and assisting in the liberation of a concentration camp.
After a hip injury six or seven years ago, he developed Cellulitis at the hospital. For a while he had home health nurses bandage and treat his legs, then, he was taught how to do it. He made it seem a moderate annoyance as he still drove, walked , talked, and joked.
On Christmas Day 2007, he complained that he could not fully lift his leg. The hospital ER put him under observation for a couple of days , found a potential blood clot in his leg, installed a filter, and sent him home. After about a month, he was getting up the steps on his own without anyone having to help or watch his back.
After the GOP convention, it flared again. He had a cough too. This time the ER personnel indicated he had pneumonia in one lung and he had not changed his leg bandages for several days. After admission to the hospital, a doctor became concerned about an infection. A test and consultation with an infectious disease specialist confirmed a treatable form of staph infection in the bone of his heel.
I learned the benefit of hospital wireless internet service. On two nights I stayed overnight. I worked until about 4 a.m. on HNN, and then rested until the doctor’s made their rounds.
When the staph in the bone was confirmed, the result has been a need for intravenous for six weeks. That meant staying in a long term portion of the hospital.
But another complication ensured --- he said he could not eat. Not receiving enough nutrition, doctors found a hiatal hernia.
You find out who your friends are in these times. One friend and former neighbor has volunteered to feed dad. The man’s a good cook so he has a more coordinated bedside manner than an awkward writer. The publisher has put up with my endless questions plus ensuring that I have transportation part of the time. Rev. Bob, the retired minister of PROWL, came to visit and talk with me. A city councilman took time to talk to me at length and a vet checked out my irishsetter on less than 24 hours notice.
I’m still a bit befuddled on the complications. One day he’s leaving me at McDonald’s for a burger, driving up to Long John Silver’s for crab cakes and coffee, then taking me to the research library. A few days later, he’s not walking or feeding himself and the diagnosis is not a stroke or something of that nature.
But even in the midst of health professionals speaking about their work and recommending particular physicians on the team, you hear a heartwarming story. Since privacy restricts my words, I will not give names. However, a nurse with a critical patient had not previously worked with a particular surgeon. She praised the doctor for not only his skill but for staying with the patient, encouraging the nurse, and sticking around the hospital above and beyond the required time constraints. Result: Patient no longer critical, crisis over, patient on way to recovery. The nurse talked of this particular surgeon in much the same manner as the commercial where the patient is told about “no expiration date.”
Others, unnamed, have when asked done their best to translate medical terminology and explain a particular physical condition, worry, or complication, even when the explanation seems like a question you would find on a multiple choice test where more than one letter may or may not be correct.
Incidentally, since dad retired from the VA Medical Center, I contacted Rep. Rahall’s office --- and I must give them thanks for their near immediate attention to my concerns
Love you dad… and readers, do you have a health care professional you would like to recognize? Send your details (subject to editing) to trutherford@huntingtonnews.net.
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
