Travelling to hospital for yourself or others? What about food and drink and disappearing, discharged patients?

I read the sad story of a man who discharged himself from hospital, with texts showing he was paranoid. He died in the street. His friend was trying to help him. It happened in Manhattan, New York, USA.

Discharging A Patient From Hospital
What are the lessons to be learned?

This story answers several questions I had previously. Why do terminally ill people discharge themselves from hospital? Because they are paranoid. (Possibly, sometimes, thinking they are not being helped, not without reason.)

Solution? A person who thinks the staff are goblins or aliens is clearly not of sound mind and two members of staff should video the patient to prove it and detain them for their safety and everybody else's. The patient is a danger to themselves. They could get into a fight. They are a danger to others. They could be running into traffic or attacking strangers.

Food & Drink Needed
As for the friend needing to go off to find food and drink dispenser needed. Ideally with healthy food..





UK - Northwick Park
For example, in many hospitals you have a four hour wait in Accident and Emergency. You dare not leave or you will lose your place in the queue.

The last time that happened to me, was in London, at Northwick Park when I went to an x-ray appointment. I had a half hour journey to hospital. I was half an hour early, to avoid the risk of slow traffic and being too late. Then over an our wait. Two hours without food and drink.

I went to the desk and asked them how long it would be. They could not say. I explained that I needed food and drink but did not want to risk losing my place in the queue, and did not know how long it would take to get to the nearest food dispenser.

They said the wait is about 30-45 minutes because you are third in the queue. It will take you ten minutes up to the canteen. Ten minutes back. Make sure you are not there more than ten minutes. Bring the food back with you.

But hospitals have not thought this through. Why? It is all predictable, Repeated worldwide every day, everywhere.

Northwick Park
Now in some areas of Northwick Park, you have a central cafe or drinks stall, a food dispenser near the entrance. A fresh vegetable stall up near the canteen. (But you only know if you are a regular and have been to the canteen before.) Great if you are there for checkups.

More signs needed. Everywhere. At the entrance. In the lift. At every corner. Hospital design needs to be re-thought. Maybe a one-way corridor system to you don't collide with trolleys carrying the sick, infectious and dead.

Why are such disasters still happening in 2020? Why, in a country which is not third world but should be a leading light to the world.?

Hospital Design
Hospitals are badly designed. You have to leave a sick patient to get food and drink for yourself and the patient.

A high sugar quick energy food is not necessarily right. My father in Watford hospital in 2005 was suffering from type two diabetes, but was prescribed sugar drinks in hospital.

Compare Hotels
In a hotel you get room service on demand, trolley service. Food might be left outside the door, if you are able bodied enough to collect it.

Hospitals should have the same service. They should deliver food on demand, to give food and drink to both patients and carers who don't wish to leave them.

Nil By Mouth?
You might think, but what if the patient should not eat or drink because they are likely to need an anaesthetic? The hospital must think this through. For example, a sign over the bed saying no food and giving reason. this is often done. Nil by mouth, say the signs.

But they should say who says so (phone or pager details), why, and for how long this applies. It's no good banning food such as breakfast on Monday morning because an operation is scheduled for 10 am, and then cancelling the operation but the Nil By Mouth food sign stays and leaves the patient without food all day. If the patient has nil by mouth, how will they still alive? Do they need a drip?

UK hospital experience
In the UK hospitals, when my father was in Watford General, I found that where a patient is in bed, usually they can only leave hospital when transport has been provided and the person is going home and a member of the family or approved carer can receive the patient and watch for an relapse.

USA
What went wrong in New York? Communication. If the friend had had the name of the person to contact in A and E, and A and E had been in contact with the friend, maybe this could have been prevented.

Yes, nursing staff are busy. Perhaps more volunteers on reception. What do you think?

Useful Website
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8246357/Tragic-final-texts-sent-retired-NYPD-cop-died-coronavirus-street-Manhattan.html

About the Author
Angela

Author, Author! About the Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.) See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When. Also watch videos on YouTube.

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Languages Needed Visiting A Loved One In Hospital Overseas

Problem
You don't have a chance to speak to your loved one on the phone. Check what the country's hospitals provide and ask what your loved one needs.

Answers

SPAIN
My Spanish friend has flown back to Spain from the UK three times in the past twelve months to look after her mother in hospital. My friend says that Spanish hospitals expect relatives to come to hospital and stay on hand. Whilst the nurses do medical procedures, relatives are expected to be there to do things like helping patients to eat and clean their teeth.

UK
Many UK NHS (National Health Service) hospitals are run on different lines. Visitors are discouraged from visiting outside restricted times in afternoons or evenings. Staff seem to regard visitors as a nuisance, bringing in infections, sitting on sterile beds in outdoor clothes, obstructing access to beds, creating noise so other patients cannot sleep or be heard or noticed, getting in the way of the morning doctors' rounds.

Car parking is expensive and car park spaces often in short supply, discouraging long visits by family and by the elderly. This discourages visits from spouses and friends of the elderly (who form a large proprotion of both short and long stay patients, in every deparment except maternity and chidlren's wards).

CORSICAN, FRENCH, ITALIAN & RADIO
I was in hospital with multiple injuries after being knocked down by a car in Corsica. I spoke fluent French, which wasn't much help as most people, patients and staff, spoke Italian. If I had my life all over again I would learn German, Russian, Spanish and Italian non-stop in all my free time from primary school onwards. Never mind crosswords, TV, anything else. Just learn languages.

Radio
I was bored after the first 24 hours and asked for a radio. I was told the radios were downstairs and was promised I could have one. I was taken to the ground floor for an x-ray and when I came back, still no radio. Eventually, I discovered that radio was short for radiography in Italian hospital language, and they had thought I wanted an X-ray.

Whether you are a patient or a visitor, just being able to say hello and please and thank you makes staff more ready to stop and listen to you.

Learn Languages Now
Don't wait until you get called to visit a hospital to start learning the language on the plane. Start learning the language of the country where your spouse or parent or child or relative or colleague is living now. Then if you ever get called over in an emergency, you will be ready.

MEDICAL ENGLISH
Check the English, too. I recall driving all around a hospital not knowing which department to attend when my doctor sent me for a blood test.  No sign said blood tests. You might need a department called pathology or phlebotomy.

We also drove all the way round Barnet hospital trying to find the mortuary to view my uncle's body. We didn't see any sign saying helpful things in plain language such as: Your Dead Relatives Are Here. No sign saying Living relatives, turn right, for dead relatives turn left. Not even 'mortuary'. Might upset the living.

The word pathology comes from the Greek word pathos, meaning suffering or disease.

If you look up the hospital map online, you can then see what they call the various departments.

If grandchildren or children or nieces and nephews are likely to visit, they also need to understand the lingo. As a teenager I would not have understood the words:
audiology (hearing tests);
geriatric (elderly)
gynecology (connected with women), which is spelled differently in the USA and UK.
infirmary (hospital),
physiotherapy (exercises),
renal (kidneys).

I recall being baffled by the sign A and E (accident and emergency). If you take a local taxi they are more likely to know the outpatients or accident areas. Taking an ambulance rather than driving yourself ensures you rush through the traffic and go straight to the right department.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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