MY STAY AT THE HOSPITAL

 MY STAY AT THE HOSPITAL

The medical profession has long been characterized  by compassion and sacrifice. Women in particular, frustrated by their being shunted out of the process, would  gather medicinal herbs and often cure sickness in the village. Others, moved by their men going off to war, would selflessly give up their comfortable lives and volunteer as nurses.- Men would become doctors, sometimes to avoid the worst of the front line battles, but were always there and ready on the second front- that of the wounded- to give their all. It was a system that worked.

Then, little by little, in the name of progress, things began to change.

Ball courts, barracks etc., were converted into hospitals. New hospitals were built, creating a new multi-million dollar industry. Some societies felt that , since no one intended to get sick or wounded, and it was an act of God, or often caused by the State itself, as in going into war, that the State had a responsibility to make amends, and cure the sick without further do. The barracudas, however, who never miss a chance to make a buck rushed in by the thousands. Some offered new machines to test blood pressure (always to the highest bidder) and made a killing.  Patients began to be charged exorbitant prices in order to pay for the computerized information so essential to doctors and nurses to know how to deal with the stranger screaming in agony on the gurney. The computer gave them a history of their medications and previous maladies and procedures , and this told them how to proceed now (to put it another way, they gave up their intrinsic knowledge of medicine in exchange for a robot). The food industry also made a killing with their pathetic Jello cups, later metamorphosized into fruit cups ( one raspberry, one strawberry, one grape, 3 slices of melon, 3 of papaya). Water fountains, toilets, showers, patient communication boards, television broadcasts (no one asked if they wanted to see endless broadcasts of Dancing with the Stars and Judge Judy, or local hucksters trying to sell insurance). Pharmacies and all the rest flourished under the privatized bonanza. Woe to the patient who dared get up from the hospital bed without permission from the computer- four or five nurses would be immediately on top of them, screaming "Woah, where are you going, you cant go walking around like that." and then  the fake compassion kicker- "we're afraid you might fall". and then the self-serving coda- "they hold us responsible if you fall." The patient, as the carefully monitored fruit cup- must remain in place and obedient to protocol. Doctors and nurses- and more to the point- manufacturers have been programmed to consider the individual sick person as just another cog in the wheel, with pre-determined conditions that were evaluated by computers and other robots  and are to be medicated and undergo surgery accordingly - even when the information they have is misleading, (I was listed as a Pacific Islander, and in another context one doctor said my pacemaker had to be replaced while another doctor a few hours later said it was good for another seven years) as information often is, but nothing is allowed to stand in the way of triumphant progress.

I stumbled into the reception at the ER, knowing the unpleasantness that was in the offing.

"Why are you here today" asked the receptionist mechanically, as she does dozens of times a day.

"There are several things, I replied. I can't catch my breath. I was trying to sleep and I couldn't breathe. Also I have severe stenosis and am losing my ability to walk. My legs give out, because the small of my back is affected. 

"We only do one thing at  time.  Ill put you down for unable to breathe.   Go to the  receptionist over there and they will check you in."

I needed and epidural injection, morphine and likely Norco, but the hospital chose to ignore all that and concentrate only only on the heavy breathing. True, they controlled my heart attack, but that was of little consequence if the underlying stenosis was never addressed.

"This is a whole organism"  I replied, waving my hand from my head to my body. Everything is related to everything else and has to be treated as such." I was ignored. In 5 days I only saw a doctor once and got a sad little pill of Norco for all my trouble.  

The hospital industry is a multi-billion dollar industry for profit. They have morphed into profit paid for by the patients and the public through co-pays and taxes. Gone are the days of compassion and sacrifice. What we have now is  profit and bureaucratic following of arbitrary--seemingly appropriate-- rules. Everything is geared to the greatest degree of efficiency so as to not disturb the humming, the functioning of  great institution. The problem with this is that one element has been forgotten in the process- the patient. I wouldn't be surprised if hospitals could continue running at top efficiency with no patients at all, as they are not really needed for the corporation to succeed.