[Blindtlk] FW: B-F LINDA'S BATTLE, AN UPDATE

Tue Apr 8 19:28:32 CDT 2008

Hello,

That is what our hospitals do here in Spokane.

Thank you,

-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of David Evans
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 11:51 AM
To: NFBnet Blind Talk Mailing List; nfb-talk at nfbnet.org; nfbf-l at nfbnet.org;
acb-l at acb.org
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] FW: B-F LINDA'S BATTLE, AN UPDATE

Dear John,

I can only say that your experience is not uncommon in dealing with hospital
staff.
Turn this negative into a positive.
Tell them you are going to sue them over their handling of Linda's situation
unless they begin a training program for the staff on how to deal with this
kind of situation so it does not happen again.
It should include access laws and regulations, common courtesy and methods
of preparing and dealing with Blind and low vision people in their charge.
I know that knee replacement hurts allot and doing the exercises everyday is
the only way it will get better and reduce the pain not to mention get your
mobility back.
It is the treatment here that is wrong.  Someone should have had the duty to
keep you informed as to her condition and status.
Treatment staff as well as housekeeping need to be trained as to what and
how to handle delivery of food and treatment procedures when dealing with
the blind and even your service dog.
If some one does not teach them what to do and that they have responsibility
to see to it that things are done right; what is to stop them from doing
this again in the future.Who at this hospital handles ADA compliance?  Why
was not the staff trained how to deal with this.
I have seen hospitals where they post a sign to tell the staff entering a
room that the person is Blind and to announce themselves upon entering the
room and exiting and what they are there for; test, housekeeping, food
services or medical treatments.
You deserve to know and be made aware of what they are doing.

David Evans, NFBF

----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Calhoun" <eric at pmpmail.com>
To: <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>; <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>; <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>;
<acb-l at acb.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 3:32 AM
Subject: [Blindtlk] FW: B-F LINDA'S BATTLE, AN UPDATE

> Hello, people, this _is blindness-related; contact Mr. Justice for 
> your thoughts.  Thank you
>
>
> Original Message:
> From: "John Justice" <johnjustice at comcast.net>
> To: <blind-friends at yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: B-F LINDA'S BATTLE, AN UPDATE
> Date:
> Thu, 3 Apr 2008 21:15:10 -0400
>
> Recently, my wife Linda went through a double knee replacement.  her 
> surgery was on February 4, and the actual operation went quite well.  
> But what happened after that is something we are still trying to
understand.
>
>>From the very beginning, we knew that trouble was coming.  I brought 
>>my
> guide dog along and the staff at the Admissions desk started to give 
> us a hard time about there not being enough room in the treatment area 
> for the dog.  They finally shifted us to a larger room and I was able 
> to sit on one side while Linda was being prepared for surgery.  The 
> last thing I heard was her joking with people in the hallway as she 
> was wheeled away.
>
> Her surgeon, Doctor Star, called me later to tell me that the 
> operation had gone quite well.  At that time Linda was still in the 
> Recovery Room and they wouldn't let me anywhere near her.  During an 
> operation like this, the doctors use something called femoral blocks.  
> They are injections which are supposed to help with the tremendous 
> pain.  Linda woke up to unbelievable agony because the injections 
> didn't work for her at all.  They finally got her pain under control 
> enough to move her up to the room where I was waiting.  I had been 
> sitting there for more than 2 hours, wondering what had happened to 
> Linda and getting very little information at all.
>
> During her stay at the hospital, she ran into a problem time and time 
> again with staff who just didn't know how to deal with a totally blind 
> patient, especially one who was completely helpless due to major surgery.
> At times, they refused to help her at all.  They made no adjustment 
> for her blindness and got angry when we demanded a little 
> consideration.  The nurses, especially at night, did nothing but 
> complain constantly about how understaffed they were and made Linda 
> feel like a criminal every time she asked for something.  Her requests 
> were normal.  Her pleas for consideration where her blindness was 
> concerned were reasonable.  The physicians thought so but the nursing 
> staff, especially the clinical assistants, seemed to act as if Linda 
> was some kind of strange creature from another planet.  I raised so 
> much hell with Patient Relations that, after a while, they were 
> reluctant to return my calls.  This was Linda's first time in a 
> hospital.  She had never been operated on before nor was she in a 
> hospital as a patient in her adult life.  She just wasn't prepared for 
> their lack of cooperation and offensive manner.
>
> But my Linda is a fighter.  In spite of everything, she went on.  But 
> then, what choice did she have?  Her own knees were gone and she had 
> to deal with these new artificial ones, whether she liked it or not.
>
> After 3 days in the surgery ward, Linda was moved up stairs to the 
> Rehabilitation floor.  But the attitude of the nurses on that floor 
> was, if anything, worse than the staff in the Surgical wing.  At one 
> point, one of the male nurses tried to refuse me admittance into a 
> patient dining room where the patients, if they wanted to, could eat 
> with their families.  I warned the man that he was getting himself 
> into hot water  but he refused to listen until some supervisor showed 
> up and gave him walking orders.
> What a jerk!  After that, we had no trouble in the dining room except 
> for Linda's constant, ongoing pain.
>
> As blind people, some of you will appreciate and understand what Linda 
> had to put up with.  She would ask for water and one of them would 
> bring it for her.  Then later, when some procedure or other was 
> necessary, the water would be moved and no thought was given to how 
> Linda could find it in a strange room.  The nurses just didn't or 
> wouldn't understand that a few seconds of consideration might make all 
> of the difference for Linda, especially when it came to her blindness 
> coupled with the fact that she couldn't move around very well.  
> Various staff members would enter her room and without explaining what 
> they were doing, would begin whatever treatment they had in mind.  At 
> first, the housekeeping staff would bring her dinner, set it on a side 
> table and never tell her it was there.  More than once, they moved her 
> phone out of reach and didn't put it back.  She couldn't wait to get 
> out of there.
>
> The physical therapists were completely different in every respect 
> from the nursing staff.  They were considerate, patient and took the 
> time to explain every exercise and process.  They told Linda exactly 
> what she had to do and described the equipment before asking her to 
> use it.  Linda used to say that her therapy classes were an escape 
> from the hell created by the rest of the staff. She tried to educate 
> them but it was an up hill battle with those who just wouldn't listen 
> or didn't care.
>
> No one ever told us how much it would hurt.  I swear to you people.  I 
> believe that Linda was the only blind patient this hospital ever had 
> who got both knees replaced at the same time.  But Linda said it best.  
> If she had known how much it was going to hurt, she would have never 
> had the surgery at all. But in her case, the bilateral replacement was
necessary.
> Both of her knees were that bad.
>
> When she came home from the hospital, her motion was still very limited.
> I took care of my baby and I enjoyed doing it.  I was so afraid that I 
> would have forgotten how to fix a meal or clean up the kitchen but I 
> did surprisingly well.  Linda could manage to get up and down the 
> stairs although it was a slow and painful process.  We borrowed a 
> wheel chair and for the longest time, that was her place to sit at our 
> table.  Our house is too small for the chair to be useful anywhere 
> else.  She used a rolling walker for a while and then graduated to a 
> cane.
>
> Well, that was more than 8 weeks ago friends.  Linda is doing quite 
> well walking around now without the aid of a walker or a cane.  She is 
> still in quite a bit of pain. But gradually things are improving.  
> Linda had the opportunity, through several surveys, to describe her 
> experience in the hospital.  She showed them no mercy.  Eventually, we 
> are going to write a letter to the hospital's administration.  We 
> believe that the staff is sadly lacking in knowledge when it comes to 
> helping patients with physical impairments, especially those whom are
totally blind.
>
> John Justice
>
> My job feeds my family, music feeds my soul.
>
> PERSONAL E-MAIL:  johnjustice at comcast.net
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> blindtlk mailing list
> blindtlk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindtlk

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