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

Tue Apr 8 08:33:10 CDT 2008

Good for you,
I am glad your wife is better, and it will get even better.
I am also pleased she is a strong lady.
Wishing all of you the best.

--Dar
www.mypowermall.com/biz/home/5779
Every Saint has a past
Every Sinner has a future

----- 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 1:32 AM
Subject: [nfb-talk] 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]
>
>
>
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