Appalled

Hospitals are for healing. That's what I thought. Today I was shocked to see how this particular hospital seems to be doing the opposite for my mother.

I've already mentioned she had a colostomy. That means she has to wear a bagging device to collect her body wastes. The device consists of an adhesive disk called a "wafer" that the collection bag snaps onto, rather like a Tupperware lid seals to a bowl. This evening when I was getting ready to move my mother to a chair so she could eat her dinner I noticed her bedding was wet and thought she had an accident. It turns out her wafer was loose and leaking into her open incision and that someone in the hospital had papertaped the wafer to Mom's skin rather than put on a new wafer. WTF??? There were no ET (enterostomal) nurses available to put a new wafer on, nor were any of the more experienced burn unit technicians around (they had all gone home for the night). My brother was told that someone would fix it in the morning. GAH!!! It's almost as if the staff no longer cares about Mom's care now that she is scheduled to be released next week. To say I am furious is a bit of an understatement right now.

Okay, deep breath. But if an infection develops in the incision because of this you'll be able to hear me all the way to Maine.

Stay tuned.