All hospitals have a simple policy when you do not have insurance. They get you stable and then kick you out.
B was still in bad health at Ben Taub in March. They wanted to discharge. I argued and fought tooth and nail to get them to keep her longer. If they truly thought she could be moved then find the place they think is suitable, and we will help pay. Sadly despite the advice of a good lawyer; Stephen Mennes, who told B to sign a note refusing to be transported, they broke the law and did it anyway. I was escorted off the premises by security who told me everyone is afraid of losing their jobs.
B was sent to a personal care home ‘picked’ out from a cheap flier days earlier by her own daughter.These personal care homes are a disgrace to humanity. B still had blood clots in both legs and a feeding tube in the stomach. She was not even on the optimal anticoagulation therapy for all her issues.
They would not take the feeding tube out because they deemed her at risk of another stroke. Go figure.
Heart was bad at 20% with no tests undertaken because she was still so weak, and she still had a small embolism in one lung. To cap it all no diagnostics had been done on the potential cancerous tumor on her face because there had not been enough time and she was not strong enough.
I followed the ambulance. The place was disgusting and dirty. It seemed I was in the third world. It is the place those without insurance have to go if they cannot be cared for at home. I could not take care of someone who could offer no physical help/support. B’s muscles had wasted away after so many months in bed and my heart was not doing well once again, so I could not carry her weight at all.
The home was located Martin Luther King at W. Bellfort with a homeless camp at the end of the street. I wept. How could this wonderful compassionate person end up here? From working with Consul Generals and top industry leaders to dumped here? I managed to create an incident by arguing a medical issue and Ben Taub sent out another ambulance to take her back.
The next personal care home would not allow her back after she was rushed to the hospital because of a urinary tract infection. They said she was too much work. I was doing all the feeding. They would not even allow her to transition from there and give us time to find a decent substitute.
B was enrolled in an inpatient rehab/therapy unit at Quentin Maese. They are usually admitted for 3 weeks. After just 7 days she developed a urinary tract infection as an indirect result of paralysis to
Some 6 weeks later a great nurse practitioner from
This time she had a seizure after 10 days. She was rushed to Ben Taub and deemed OK and new meds added. But once again she was refused entry back into the rehab program. This time the Ben Taub doctors kept her longer than necessary just so they
When I decided to take her home for good I was in no shape to even change a diaper in bed.
Our one truly great day was when a lovely nurse in training Jennifer Rayburn said she would help for a pittance in pay with room and board and a vehicle to let her go home to family at weekends. As soon as she was on board in early May, I was rushed to hospital with bad arrhythmias and defibrillator going off and another 6 hr ablation was performed. My third in 5 yrs. Her help came not one moment too soon.
We had to move to Harris County so B could keep her ‘gold card’ and get treated for free. The move cost so much money because I could do nothing and Bs family would not help. We had to hire day laborers to pack and then move. What little monitoring I did in the heat ultimately sent me into arrhythmia and EMS called. I had been told to do nothing for 3 months, but there is always some task to perform when someone is