M/C Lift from hospital bed

[John Ranalletta]

[TEWKS]

Wow, it even comes complete with its own bed pan?  

[John Ranalletta]

2 minutes ago, TEWKS said:

Wow, it even comes complete with its own bed pan?  

You first.

In 2005, a friend crashed his m/c.  Bashed and bloody, he lie on a gurney saying he needed the loo for #2.  The presiding resident said he could not authorize moving my friend who had declined a bed pan.  Anyway, disregarding Doogie Houser's advice at the behest of my friend, I found a wheelchair with a hook to hang the IV bag and rushed him to the loo where he relieved himself and cleaned up his bashed nose.  At 4am and after being virtually ignored since admission, Doogie said he'd be admitted for observation.  I asked my friend, "Stay or go?"  We found some clean scrubs, packed him up and I hauled his ass home where other friends took over his care.  Never send a someone to a hospital without someone to monitor care!

[wbw6cos]

....for the oil drop drain.  

[TEWKS]

Yup, Hospitals are not a fun place, at least till they get you doped up!  Umm, I mean manage your pain.

 

[Hosstage]

That is certainly a solution to working off the floor. I would keep cracking my legs on the side rails, but still better than bending over or kneeling on the floor.

[John Ranalletta]

2 hours ago, TEWKS said:

Yup, Hospitals are not a fun place, at least till they get you doped up!  Umm, I mean manage your pain.

 

My friend was never offered a sedative nor a pain killer.  "Can't give him anything until the radiologist reads the xrays."  Never happened.  He had a cracked sternum and smashed bridge of his nose.  Worst ever care

[Rougarou]

Looks like many here would need to find the heavy lift beds

 

https://www.excel-medical.com/hospital-bed-lift-capabilities/

 

It is typical for a hospital bed in the United States to be about 80 inches long and 36 inches wide. Extra-large hospital beds can support up to 600, 750, or 1,000 pounds of weight.

 

And govdeals.com seems to have a few beds up for auction

 

https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=Main.AdvSearchResultsNew&kWord=hospital bed&whichForm=vehicle&searchPg=Main

[Hosstage]

I wouldn't seek one out as an alternative to a proper table, but if one fell into my lap I'd consider pressing it into service if I had no table at the time.

But as mentioned, beware the weight limits.

Cool idea though!

[John Ranalletta]

25 minutes ago, Hosstage said:

I wouldn't seek one out as an alternative to a proper table, but if one fell into my lap I'd consider pressing it into service if I had no table at the time.

But as mentioned, beware the weight limits.

Cool idea though!

...and, as one becomes old and decrepit, one could convert it back into a sick bed with the proceeds from selling the motorcycle.

[Hosstage]

3 minutes ago, John Ranalletta said:

...and, as one becomes old and decrepit, one could convert it back into a sick bed with the proceeds from selling the motorcycle.

Hey, why does my sick bed smell like oil and brake cleaner? I like it, but what the hell?

[Lowndes]

3 hours ago, John Ranalletta said:

...and, as one becomes old and decrepit, one could convert it back into a sick bed with the proceeds from selling the motorcycle.

 

WHAT!!??  Park the bike in the corner an' thro the mattress back on it.

[Scott9999]

12 hours ago, John Ranalletta said:

You first.

In 2005, a friend crashed his m/c.  Bashed and bloody, he lie on a gurney saying he needed the loo for #2.  The presiding resident said he could not authorize moving my friend who had declined a bed pan.  Anyway, disregarding Doogie Houser's advice at the behest of my friend, I found a wheelchair with a hook to hang the IV bag and rushed him to the loo where he relieved himself and cleaned up his bashed nose.  At 4am and after being virtually ignored since admission, Doogie said he'd be admitted for observation.  I asked my friend, "Stay or go?"  We found some clean scrubs, packed him up and I hauled his ass home where other friends took over his care.  Never send a someone to a hospital without someone to monitor care!

Well, here I go again.  Another "sea story" from my life.

 

Daughter is 16 yrs old.  She has a stomach ache about 7PM.  It's mimicking symptoms of appendicitis.  OF COURSE, it's Sunday night, on a holiday weekend.  What to do?  I hit the internet, doing more medical research.  Incidence of appendicitis for women is a small fraction of occurrences for men.  She's feeling a bit better.  Probably nothing, just an overprotective Dad.  We wait and watch.  By Midnight, she's in a whole lot of pain, and I've done some home remedies.  However, her symptoms are inconsistent.  If I call her doctor, I know she ends up at ER, which is going to be an all-night ordeal.   By 2AM, I'm near certain we have a problem   Background:  I had a appendicitis at age 16, my dad did, too, and he was a Pharmacist and former Navy combat Corpsman with the Marines.  He knew medicine, I grew up in his pharmacy, so I figure I know some medicine, too.  I know that there's a 12 to 24 hour window of criticality, that waiting a bit longer until morning won't put her at risk.

 

We call doctor at 6am, and as expected, are referred to local ER.  Arrive at ER to find emergency room filled with about 200 people.   (Southern California, i.e. ER is the "primary physician" for most illegal aliens.  Thus, the long line.)  I explain symptoms.  By 9AM she's seen, and the doctor concludes that it's a appendicitis, and she has to go under the knife.  I'm relieved that I made some reasonable choices, and got her help in time.   Then we wait. And wait.  And wait for "more urgent" cases to hit the O.R. before my daughter.  We wait until noon, and I'm watching the clock, getting anxious.  "Ok, 7PM to Noon the next day, 17 hours, this is getting too close."  I voice my concerns, am told to shut the h**ll up.  I consider another regional hospital, but they're ER's are full, too, and we'll just be waiting longer.   3PM passes.  5Pm.  I start shouting my concerns.  They say "she's fine, they'll be operating on her soon".  They end up doing the operation at 9PM Monday, 26 hours after first symptoms.   Surgery complete, they told me that we were lucky, they got to it just in the nick of time.  Asked me why I didn't bring her in sooner.  I seethed, but I didn't strike the doctor.  (I think some trashcan outside took my wrath, instead.)  

 

Next day, recovery, she's doing fine but they are bit concerned about a mild fever, want to hold her over "another night".  This goes on day after day for at least a week.  I can't recall the exact timeline at this point, but in brief:

*  She's ill with fever for a week before the finally decide to open her up again and inspect the would.

*  They discover out that the appendix had actually ruptured, they found a piece of it inside her, that my daughter either had or was developing sepsis, i.e. a serious internal infection..

*  She's pumped full of antibiotics, but nothing's working.

*  At some point in this process, either the first week or after the second surgery, I arrived at 2AM to find my daughter vomiting up blood, in a bed filled with urine, urine puddles in the bathroom, and no nurse attending.  I had to go to a nurses station and raise hell.   I asked for a physician on duty to examine my daughter, and was told no one was available, that someone would be by on rounds in the morning.  I raised more hell.  I finally told them point blank that I was going to pick my daughter up, and personally transport her downstairs back to ER.  I also called her personal physician, and appraised her of the situation.  She made some calls, got us a doctor, and arrived herself an hour later (she lived quite away from the hospital). 

* My wife and I had been doing 8 on, 8 off shifts at my daughter's bedside from day one, me taking the evenings after work.  After the event above, one of us was always at her side.  We were her nurses and constant attendents.

* My daughter continued to slip away from us.  After three weeks, they were going to add a feeding tube, because she had lost so much weight, and was not improving.  She was lethargic.  I could see the light in her eyes dimming.  Yet, the doctors told us "this kind of thing takes time, we'll continue treatment and she should improve." 

* I knew I was losing my daughter.  I was frantic.  I felt like the worst dad in the world.  My own father had passed away a half dozen years earlier, and he was always the guy I went to for medical advice.  He ALWAYS knew the answers.  I thought over and over, "What would dad do?  What would dad advise?"  After nights of prayer and vigil, what came to me was "This is a case for internal medicine.  She has the wrong physicians.  She needs ..... and Internist."  I told the hospital I wanted her seen by their on call Internist.  They said it wasn't necessary.  I started making threats.  I demanded she be seen by an Internist, or we were leaving the hospital with her immediately.

* They brought in an interest.  He changed their medical protocol, changing antibiotics, increasing dosage, saying that what she was receiving was half the recommended dose.   Her fever broke with in 12 hours.  Within 24 hours, she was her old, teenage self again, albeit a very weak and malnourished self. 

* It took her months, really, a full year before she was fully recovered.  She was a high school junior, on tract to graduate a year early (this occurred in the Spring, so her graduation date was imminent.).   She was a cheerleader, a high school baseball player, active in theater, choir, and all of that.  She ended up graduating the following year with her regular class, was class Valedictorian, but dropped most extra-curricular activities.  This disease, and the hospital's (Tri City in Oceanside, CA) mistreatment, literally changed her life.  In fact, she's continued to have intestinal issues ever since.  Now in her 30's, she thinks she's finally found a doctor who has straightened her health problems out.

* The ER had kept my daughter waiting until her appendix burst, which was inexcusable.  They they compounded the first error by botching the initial operation.  Then they compounded that by botching the treatment protcol.   

 

Yeah, this is one, long, off topic "venting".   Hope I didn't bore anyone to tears.  I grew up again, in a family Pharmacy.  I made deliveries in high school and my early college years, to local physicians offices.   My dad knew the best of them personally, and we had the best physicians, because my dad chose them.  The (then) California Angeles team physician was my doctor.  Frank Jobe, the guy who invented "Tommy John" surgery, was my orthopedist (and also, an LA Dodgers team physician).  I know good medicine, and I've see just about the worst of it (another couple of long stories, which I will spare y'all from).   So, John's statement above, resonated with me like steam whistle.  Hospitals today are akin to third world prisons.  Once incarcerated, if a prisoner doesn't have someone on the outside to bring him food every day, he'll starve.  Yes, definitely, do not put someone you love in a hospital, unless someone can be there 24/7 to ensure they get the basic care needed.

 

Today, I do not know of a doctor I trust.  I've seen some better ones, but I don't trust them either.   The entire (USA) medical profession has been corrupted.  It started back in the 1970's, and has accelerated down hill with velocity, from the AMA to the medical schools, to the business model itself.  Now, a bunch of them are politicians.  Lol, my cousin told me "You expect too much from people", and he was talking about politicians.   He's probably right, and that assessment is probably accurate across the board.  However, I have my reasons, and some pretty, damn good ones, too.