Saint Josephs Hospital The worst care, Internet

29th of Aug, 2011 by User662519

I went to Saint Josephs Hospital in Tampa for a knee replacement in March 2010. I had requested that I only get my own blood if needed and made arrangements to have my blood collected prior to knee replacement. I also wanted the hardware that was currently in my knee to be returned after surgery. Those arrangements were made and agreed upon before I entered the hospital. I went in as scheduled and had the sugery. The first day post operatively was uneventful. The second day problems arose with my epidural. I screamed and cried in pain for hours. The nurse did not come and check me. When a family member came they went to the nurses station upon finding me writhing in pain. The nurse told my family member I was confused and old. My family member became furious. I was only 45 and lucid. The nurse came into the room and discovered that the epidural medication was out, she changed the bag and the pain was controlled. This same scenario repeated itself a few days later to my roommate who also had a knee replacement, with the same nurse. The third day I complained of pain in my buttocks and the nurse told me that I did not know what I was talking about. When the epidural was discontinued and I was allowed out of bed, an area the size of a dessert plate was purple on my buttocks. The pain was intense and I started spiking a fever. They started taking blood cultures and blood draws frequently. It was advised I get a PICC line so that I was not getting stuck every few hours. After getting an egg crate mattress topper and antibiotics, I was up and around for physical therapy. The therapist had to wait for one of the two walkers available on the floor. Which in my opinion is wrong since the floor was full of orthopedic patients, getting knee replacements. My insurance was billed over $118,000.00 for my stay. The fourth day I was told I could not leave since I still had a fever. The fifth day I was told I could not leave since my blood counts were low. I refused blood since I was told the blood I donated was already given to me. I was then told the blood I donated was still available. So they gave me the two units I donated. The night before I left the hospital I was in my room when the woman in the next bed was discharged. The room lights were turned off, my phone was put on a table on the other side of the room, my call bell was hanging on the wall out of my reach and the door was closed. I needed to go to the bathroom and tried to call for help. No one heard me and I was left in the dark without any means other than my voice to call for help, which no one heard because the door was closed. There of course was no walker in the room so I could not get out of bed by myself. It was not until an hour after shift change when the nurse finally came into the dark room and helped me. The day I was to leave the nurse told me all was clear and I was going home. I called my family and they came from two hours away to pick me up. After I called my family, the nurse came back into the room and told me that I could not leave because she could not contact my insurance company for after care. I had made arrangements and everything was in place for care. I shared this information with her and she cancelled the arrangements (unbeknown to me). I was not going to stay one more hour in this pathetic excuse for a hospital. I deciced to leave. I asked for my hardware from the previous knee and was told no. I asked for a script for pain medication and was denied. I left. I asked a nurse to use the walker and that my family member would return it once I got into the vehicle and she said ok. I left the hospital and found myself being chased by the nurse who cancelled my arrangements. She accused me of stealing the walker. She also climbed into the car with me to remove the PICC line, she told me it would only take a minute to remove it. She climbed up into the pickup putting her weight on my leg that just had the total knee replacement. I told her to get off me and not touch me. She did get out of the vehicle and take the walker. On my way home, I was called by the sheriffs department since she claimed I was not in my right mind. I explained what happened and they allowed me to continue home. I got home and had no pain medication after undergoing a major surgery. I went to my local ER where they were very kind and provided me with compassionate care. The PICC line was removed. It took the nurse twenty minutes of direct pressure to complete the removal of the PICC line. I can only imagine I would have bled to death if the nurse from Saint Josephs did it in the back of the pick up. I was also left with no nursing care after the hospital stay and eventually contacted my insurance company asking why, it was then told to me that the nurse had cancelled it. I made further arrangements for physical therapy. The problem with this is that because of the bed sore, I could not have therapy on my knee since I could not put any pressure on my buttocks and had to have therapy on that bedsore. The therapy for the bedsore took all my insurance and I could not afford to pay for therapy out of pocket on my knee. When I called about the hardware that was supposed to be returned to me, Saint Josephs Hospital told me it would not be possible, they were keeping it, even though I had their promise to return it to me. My doctor asked why it was not returned and they would not tell him a reason. They did however send pictures of it to me.

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