3 nights spent in a crowded waiting hall of the hospital along with other snoring people on the floor!!
I never thought I could withstand this, being in the waiting hall in the hospital, waiting the night here without preparation.
It was awful having to wait 3 nights in this kind of hospital halls with people sleeping below your feet
This experience has humbled and blended me with others suffering the worst fate, waiting in the hall sleeping here while awaiting news of the condition of their admitted loved one.
For me it was a tough day, as my mother needed to be hospitalised as soon as possible. She has entered a state of delirium because she overdosed on her psychic meds again. Her physical condition as usual was fine but mentally she was out.
Hard time with little support from the hospital
Although this was an emergency and me and my Dad have already been suffering because of her mad behavior all these days, there was no solace in the hospital.
We were made to wait in the psychiatric department, with the doctor finally concluding that she’s entered the state of delirium and she can’t be admitted in the psychiatric ward, she needs to be under medical observation in the medical ward.
According to that psychiatrist, there is a 20% chance of death for those people who have overdosed on an anti-depressant medicine like Clofranil 75mg Tablet SR like my mother did.
More struggles just to get needed medical reports of her so she can be admitted at least in the medical ward
However, in the medical department they said they can admit her only if she has a medical abnormality and we were awaiting results of her blood tests and ECG report.
We had a hard time running around to pay the bills standing in line, behind counters that were not labelled, as there were 3 to 4 counters that take payments for different and specific purposes. For instance, there was a counter which takes payments for hospital admission, another for tests, another counter for doctor appointment etc etc.
Difficulty in managing a delirious unstable person and getting her tests done!!
After these formalities, mother was wheeled to the floor where these tests were to be done, and the helper took the wheel chair away claiming she has to take it back to cater to other needy patients which really made things difficult for us.
For, although my mother could walk very well, she made a grand fuss to walk a few meters to the lab room to give her blood samples. There were dramas where she sat down on the floor, all this time since she was wheeled down to the Lab testing floor she maintained an iron grip of my hand tightly gripping my fist.
The two lady nurses who came to help declared that they did not have the strength to lift the big weight of mother from the floor.
Finally a man who was otherwise attending to treat his old Dad came to aid in lifting mother and making her sit up on the seat. After this our focus was on to ensure she never sat on the floor again.
Hard time, struggling in getting the needed tests done
Her blood samples were taken convincing mother that a wheelchair was arriving. We could not take her ECG at first because we could not make mother lie down still, while my Dad tried to free me from the iron grip of her hand. We went back with my mother's tight grip on my hand to the psychiatric department, asked for a wheelchair with permission to keep it for the whole day.
This time the nurse on the front desk herself came, as she took pity on the chaos we were going through, she tried her best to ensure that mother got permission to be admitted to the hospital without ECG, but without avail.
Still she arranged a wheelchair for mother for the whole day and with a helper’s help, somehow we took mother’s ECG report, where I was finally freed from mother’s grip. She was made to lie down still and we somehow managed to take her slippers off and keep her legs on the bed.
Tension period with doubt on weather my unstable and delirious mother would be admitted in hospital
After this, mother was taken to the Emergency Casualty ward where she would be kept until her medical reports came. Nothing was clear about whether my mother will be admitted in the hospital, it appeared like she wouldn't be admitted in the hospital if her medical report was normal. Her vitals were stable, but her behavior was unstable, with obsessive fist gripping and she was unresponsive as well.
A brief about the mental mad state of Delirium
Delirium is a state of mental confusion, an advanced and dangerous stage where the normal functions of the brain have collapsed. The person has difficulty recognizing objects, people, time. In my mom’s case this happened due to an overdose of psychiatric medication she takes unprescribed for her mental illness.
Hospital admission confirmation not being certain was a matter of deep anxiety for us
Anyway late in the evening, my mother’s medical reports confirmed that her vitals were fine, meaning medically she was ok. This may be good news for many, but this did not offer any respite for us, because this meant she won’t be admitted in the medical ward after being refused admission into the psychiatric ward in this hospital.
It was definitely not appropriate to take her back home, as she was not just unstable, but it was confirmed that she’s entered the state of delirium and she’s been unresponsive, and if responsive, she will be so super mad to be managed by her two stressed family members at home.
Finally we succeeded in admitting unstable and somewhat not very conscious mother in the hospital
As expected, there was a big problem in having medical ward doctors agree to have her admitted, they told to admit her in the psychatric ward that was closed for the day. Fortunately, somehow, my Dad convinced them to have her admitted in EICU and Acute medical ward, but for that she needs to provide a negative Covid test report.
So, we filled up the forms and did the billing formalities for conducting mother’s Covid test. After an hour’s wait, the Covid status report came as negative, so finally arrangements were made to get her admitted at the hospital in the EICU and Acute medical ward.
This is a kind of ICU(Intensive Care Unit), there are more categories of ICUs where patients get admitted which I learnt in subsequent days.
Waiting hall outside the EICU ward at night becomes a sleeping quarters for admitted patients' family who are waiting to be called and attend to whatever they are told to do by the nurses taking care of the patients.
My first night at the hospital was spent outside the EICU ward, seated in the seat that was pushed away to the side as the main seating area turned into sleeping quarters for patients’ family and attenders who were outside waiting to be called for updates or to do other obligations.
That night was cold, chilly and one man lying down opposite me was snoring. Eventually, some people with a watchman came and told him to sleep elsewhere because his snore was disturbing others’ sleep.
Story to be continued..
I conclude the first part of my Hospital stay stories here. For although we had mother admitted in hospital, which was a relief, we could not celebrate this as we had to undergo more pain being there for her in the hospital, without bed, using public toilet, without being allowed to see her, but were required to be there 24 hours at the hospital's seating premises for we may be called for doing things for the patient.
The system was not convenient as the watchman will call the patient’s name, and the attender will then need to present themselves, and do whatever useless things we were told to do, like give the xeror of her id document, get soap, paste and toothbrush for patient, but no one was allowed to see the patient, until we were called or the doctor comes for rounds etc. There was restlessness, discomfort, emotional pain that we could not share with anyone.
More on this later, the only solance here was that there were several people waiting on their loved ones, in very serious conditions, but they adjusted themselves to the situation, sleeping on the floor, being content using relatively dirty common toilet etc. I did not see anyone break down, so they were my inspiration.