My Dad

To make this long story short , my Dad who turned 88 on March 12th Broke his finger and his hip sometime Monday night before 11pm. He awoke around 4am Tuesday, in his bed,in severe pain. It took him three hours to get to the kitchen where his cane was. He then played a dice game to see if the pain was going to go away. Around 9am he called his doctor, who then called the rescue squad to take him to Somerset Medical center, where he arrived at the emergency room around 9:30am. WE did not get a phone call until 7:30 pm on Tuesday night.(because Daddy said , "what could we do?") Caroline was the only one home.She immediately called my sister Chris because Doug and I were in Tinton Falls, NJ attending a MDA Clinic Meeting.Chris has trouble driving at night so she spoke with Dad on the phone.  Carrie went immediately to the emergency room, followed by Emilie and Matthew. Doug and I arrived around 9:30pm. Dad had just spent 12 hours in the emergency room. He finally got a room and a bed around 10pm.

This morning I arrived at Dad's room around 9:30am.He was just about to eat breakfast. He said He had a pretty bad night (at this point we did not know that his hip was broken). We were waiting for him to have an MRI.
And we wait, and we wait, and we wait.........lunch (which he doesn't eat)came and went. We have only seen a nurse once and no Doctors at all. Finally we are told that Daddy is not considered ADMITTED to the hospital (according to Medicare). He is only being OBSERVED. Chris and I ask what exactly this means.
Left undiagnosed, Daddy would have to leave the hospital within 48 hours. Still no MRI. It is not his fault that he has not been diagnosed!  I asked the person informing us of Dad's status to please inform the patient advocate that we would like to be seen.

At one point during the day, Daddy had pressed his buzzer and we got no response for 45 minutes. I had to go out to the desk before someone came in. The advocate pressed the buzzer and waited 20 minutes for a response before going out to the desk to see if the board was lighting up. As soon as the staff was aware of an advocate on the floor, you should have seen how many people swarmed around Daddy. He needed to be pulled up in bed and they were not very compassionate or gentle about moving him, and it was witnessed by the advocate. Our advocat then returned to his office to file a report on our behalf.

 Robyn and Tim came and Robyn was getting madder and madder about the way Pop was being treated. At 6pm on the dot, two minutes after his dinner arrived he was taken down for his MRI. Chris, Caroline and I went for a snack, then went back to Pop's Room. He still wasn't back. He did not come back until after 7pm.

Not five minutes later, before they could even move Daddy off the gurney back into bed, the othopaedic surgeon was in, drawing a diagram of Pop' broken hip. It was a femoral Neck Fracture - a clean one.

So, tomorrow after breakfast Daddy can't eat or drink anything and he will be operated on sometime around 7pm. I can't resist, He's going to get screwed! Literally!  It is going to be a long day and night.

There was no alternative. Never walk again or the risk of surgery! Daddy is a fighter and I think if anyone can do this, he can!