Accountability and Responsibility

I was originally thinking of posting this under the AnarCap heading, but it also tied into my ongoing desire to be more responsible about updating the responsibility site Funny how things in life go — my car stereo-shop owning friend has a big empty hole in his dashboard; my friend who owns a bike shop hasn’t ridden a bike in about 5 years. I guess that’s just how it is.

Last Thursday was The Freaky Blonde’s birthday (33 shhh). We had her family over (her mom and brother) for cake (which I couldn’t have more than a bite of) and pizza (ibid). Her brother Jay is 27, but he has some very special needs and has the mental capacity of a 3 year old. Hilarious kid, though, because he definitely acts like a man in some situations — especially when the ladies at his church are showing legs. I guess sin runs through everyone’s blood, even those who are socially ostracized and can’t really comprehend it.

Jay gets very excited (he is prone to seizures and panic attacks), but his medication usually keeps him very stable. With her birthday song and cake candles, though, the poor guy couldn’t handle things. After the cake was cut up and placed on plates on the table, he froze up, yelled out a moan, seized up his muscles and went falling over, into the table of cake plates and forks. He hit the 12″-off-the-floor table with a huge thud and rolled off of it. That’s when 911 was called, and that’s when my CPR training went into effect. Hitting the table at that angle could have broken his back, so caution was due while I also managed calling 911 (the two ladies were both in shock from the 30 second changeover and accident).

After carefully rolling him onto his back, he had no breathe and no pulse. I checked his pulse in 3 locations and didn’t even feel a light one, and he started turning blue right away. The entire time I was getting yelled at by the ladies (who were freaked out of their heads) to tell the ambulance to hurry up — as if the lady on the other end of the line wasn’t working her hardest. Calling 911 from a cell phone put me in touch with the local 911 dispatcher, who happened to be from the same zip code as we lived in but a different town. Big mistake; our 911 dispatch and fire station is in another town with another zip code and much closer than the town we share a zipcode with. After spending about 60 seconds telling the dispatcher that, I was finally forwarded to the proper one who sent the bus on its way. I attended to Jay, who was definitely not breathing or showing a heartbeat, and proceeded to give him CPR for about 60 seconds at which point he took his first breath and color slowly returned to his face.

The paramedic bus got lost in our culs-de-sac. We live in a cul-de-sac that is sort of within another one (every street has the same basic name going in 3 different directions), so I sent TFB and her mom outside to flag them down. Jay stopped breathing and lost his strong pulse again, so I proceeded to giving him CPR one more time in hopes of just keeping oxygen going to his brain.

The ambulance arrived just as he started breathing again, and the men running the game were unbelievably ignorant of the situation. The last time I had to deal with an emergency, I called 911 and then called a private ambulance company — the private company actually came 3 minutes faster! I was shocked to see an upper-class suburban emergency service take as long as it did; even driving my normal speed, I can reach their building in about 5 minutes, not 12.

Jay was rushed to the hospital, where an overnight stay showed me the reality of all the public facilities that I think we all need to see on a regular basis. Jay’s disability allows him to collect medicare (or medicaid) insurance for emergencies. His mother could not afford him otherwise, but it has been an endless debate about how he should be cared for by his church and his direct family (including myself!). The hospital was told that he had federal government coverage, which is where the lack of care began.

Through the next 5 hours Jay was seen by 1 doctor, but 3 doctors made recommendations for X-rays, MRIs and other tests that weren’t needed. He received an X-Ray to confirm that his spine wasn’t injured (it wasn’t) and then he was basically ignored for hours and hours and hours. Jay must take his medication every 8 hours, but repeated requests for the nurse or doctor to administer them went unanswered. Food wasn’t available, and the nurse wanted to administer an anti-panic medication to his IV without looking at his medical history and drug interaction (he is already on heavy doses of anti-panic and anti-seizure medications). No one wanted to service him, even though the hospital was VERY quiet that night.

The 5 hours turned into 16, and finally morning arrived when his general practictioner showed up in fear. She checked his stats and read over his charts and 5 minutes later said he should have left the day before — he likely had a small virus that he wasn’t able to explain to his mother, and he was weak from having the cold. When he hit the table after the panic attack, it was only because he was weak from the cold and he had knocked his breath out during the fall — but he stopped breathing because it was how his body reacted to the scare.

I’m not a fan of hospitals, anymore, because of the government restrictions and regulations placed on them. Hospitals don’t seem to be there to treat the sick in an emergency; they seem to be there to treat those who are unwilling to pay for health insurance.

On top of all the excitement, I picked up a bug of my own from being in the hospital. I’ve been confined to bedrest since yesterday, and just now snuck into the office to check my e-mail. How is it that a clean area like a hospital is the only place I have repeatedly gotten sick from (other than international flights)? Does it have something to do with the overall financial loss that a hospital is forced to accept, through federal and state regulations?

The point of this article is to be aware and responsible about 5 things:

1. Learn CPR. Re-train every few years.
2. Scope out which fire department is closest to you and request it when calling 911. Don’t demand it, just let the person know you need “Citysville Fire Station #11″ and let them find the fastest responder. Had I known the number, I believe I’d have cut the response time down by 6 minutes.
3. If there is an emergency, send an extra person out to the nearest busy street to flag down the emergency responders — especially if you live on confusing roads.
4. Don’t rub your eyes, pick your nose or scratch your ears if you’re in a hospital — you’re guaranteed to get sick.
5. Don’t be afraid to demand faster service if you have a loved on in an emergency room. They’re required by law to treat the worst situations first, but you’ll usually be able to see who is sitting around doing nothing when things are slow. Flag them down and nicely ask for an update. The last ER visit I had to make for a family member, they were in their bed 12 hours before being attended to. The nurse actually admitted off the record that this family member was basically forgotten.

Discuss this article at the accountability and responsibility forum.