It’s always interesting and illuminating what we learn from physicians who report on their experiences as hosptalized patients.
Recently a New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com * reported about the hospitalization experience of a legendary physician.
“Last June, the month he turned 90, Dr. Arnold S. Relman, the eminent former medical educator and editor, fell down a flight of stairs at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He cracked his skull and broke three vertebrae in his neck and more bones in his face.”
“By the time he arrived at the emergency room, blood was flowing into his brain and impinging on his windpipe, leading to severe choking and dangerously low oxygen levels. Surgeons cut into his neck to connect a breathing tube from his trachea to a mechanical respirator.”
Despite decades as a medical educator, researcher, author and editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Relman confesses that he “had never before understood how much good nursing care contributes to patients’ safety and comfort, especially when they are very sick or disabled.” Nor did he appreciate the hypnotizing effects of technology, which robs patients of the physician’s bedside manner and affects the training of younger doctors.
*to read the full NYTs article, “A Patient’s-Eye-View of Nurses”, by Lawrence K. Altman, M.D., highlight and click on hyperlink http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/a-patients-eye-view-of-nurses/
Note: This blog shares general information about understanding and navigating the health care system. For specific medical advice about your own problems, issues and options talk to your personal physician.