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Sun 19 Nov, 2006 09:31 pm
Quote:Man dead for two days on hospital toilet
Published: 10th November 2006 10:26 CET
A 57-year-old man was dead on a hospital toilet for one and a half days before being discovered by staff, it has emerged.
The man had been admitted to Södersjukhuset's casualty department in Stockholm on 26th October suffering from pains in the chest and abdomen. Doctors took samples from him, and decided to keep him in overnight.
But when a nurse came to his bed at 7:30pm to give him his test results, his bed was empty and the patient had disappeared. Staff searched for the man in the immediate vicinity of the ward, but did not find him.
Nurses assumed that the man had left the hospital, so they discharged him. It was only nearly two days later that the man was found in a toilet in the adjacent x-ray department. He appeared to have gone there on his own, locked himself in the toilet and died.
"He had been there for one and a half days," said hospital spokeswoman Ulrica Franzén to The Local.
Franzén said she could not reveal whether doctors had considered the man's condition to be life-threatening, but she did say that he had not been confused.
"If someone is in a confused state then we keep an eye on them, but that was not judged to be the case here."
She said that a more thorough search of the hospital for the man had not been judged necessary.
"We are a very big hospital, and it's not unusual for people to just leave. We didn't look for him because he was not confused."
The hospital has reported the incident to the National Board for Social Welfare and to the police.
Gives new urgency to the phrase, "Oh ****."
Totally believable after my recent stay in the hospital. One morning after several days of constant fluids and suppositories in an effort to get my system flowing again after surgery, the dam broke. I was not yet strong enough to get to the bathroom and was using a porta-potty near my bed.
I sat there pushing the nurse call button, begging for someone to come help me clean myself up and help me get back into a clean bed. Over and over again I pushed that button, they responded over the speaker and asked what I needed and I meekly said that I needed help cleaning myself so I could get back into bed. The last time I finally yelled with tears streaming down my face, "I've crapped all over myself and am about to pass out from sitting here so long waiting for your help! If someone isn't here in two minutes I'm throwing the crap on the walls!
After more than 45 minutes of begging for help, a nurse finally came in and wiped my ass, cleaned me up and changed the sheets on the bed. It was a dirty job and I couldn't do it and wished I'd not needed someone else to do it for me. I died from embarrassment.
I know how that guy felt!
I sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. I can imagine it was extremely awkward.
Was it a case of short staffing?
No, just shift change. They had twice the staffing. Just half of them were more interested in going home and the other half were more interested in getting morning coffee.
Butrflynet - What a bummer! I am so sorry that you had to go through that experience, but unfortunately, experiences like yours are not all that uncommon.
I remember being in the ER with my mother, where I ended up emptying her bedpan, on numerous occasions. After calling the nurses, and waiting interminably, I decided that if I wanted the job done, I would have to do it myself.
There is no doubt that nurses are busy. The problem is there needs to be some non-professional staff (aides, orderlies) to assist patients with their non-medical "creature comforts". There just are not enough of them.
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