Memorial Health University Medical Center — Attraction in Savannah

Update- my dad is DEAD because of the complications that resulted in him being discharged prematurely.

I would NEVER recommend this hospital. Background- my father got admitted for new onset inability to walk/leg weakness & severe hyponatremia of 114. He's currently in remission from large b-cell lymphoma & has a history of CNS lymphoma in his brain. My father had a decent experience in the ER but not with the Dr he saw daily once he was admitted (Dr. Bharani Oggu). He was discharged when he could not walk nor stand when just one week before he was 100% independent. His muscles atrophied so much in just five days. He was discharged to a vacation home where the bedroom was on the second floor, his sodium levels were still not normalized (124- his baseline is 135) thus he was not stable enough to fly home to a better hospital per his oncologist. Because of this, he developed a PE & pneumonia since he was stuck on a couch for 5 days, unable to ambulate while we improved his sodium with strict fluid restriction & urea. He fell several times. He is also being looked into for a GI bleed now because of the heparin infusion he was started on for the PE which he NEVER would have been on a heparin drip if he never got a PE which he would not have, had he not been discharged prematurely with inability to stand or walk! The Dr. cared enough to give him heparin shots in the hospital to help prevent blood clots but didn’t once he was discharged although he had the same risk of forming a blood clot as he did in the hospital since he had NO improvement in his weakness.

Once his sodium improved, we flew him home & immediately brought him to our local hospital that did 10X the work up than Savannah. My father-in-law and my husband had to physically pick him up to put him on the toilet and assist him during those 5 days on that couch. He showed signs of sepsis from the pneumonia (SBP 80’s, tachy, febrile to 38.3, 18% bands, 3.9 lactate, blood cultures pending), thankfully he was already admitted to our local cancer center & they treated him promptly. Dr. Oggu also blamed his inability to walk due to his arthritic lumbar back issues (which we said was farfetched as he has chronic spine issues and had worse imaging in the past) but come to find out all these issues are happening because he has a LESION on his brain stem, likely reoccurrence of CNS lymphoma (which likely caused the SIADH which led to the hyponatremia and also likely causing the weakness). Maybe Savannah Memorial would have figured that out if they did more than a lumbar spine MRI and a non-contrast CT head/lumbar/cervical scans. Or maybe consulting a neurologist during his inpatient stay would have helped, but no, never crossed their mind to consult a neurologist for a patient that suddenly loss the ability to ambulate with severe weakness in legs and loss of reflexes. Even if the reason was because of an arthritic spine/chronic spine issue, you DON’T discharge a patient in his situation to a vacation home with zero resources!

Dr. Oggu should have her license revoked and should be embarrassed about the care she provided to my father, or the lack of care. She also stopped his 200 mg Zoloft cold turkey (when he’d been on it for 18 years) which you can withdrawal from. Even if it was the cause, you don’t suddenly stop that high dose med. My mom had to call her & have her instead wean him off of it. She also incorrectly prescribed his med, Urea, wrong (half the dose as what was recommended by the nephrologist), so I had to call to have that fixed. She also documented in notes that he had “no weakness” despite the inability to ambulate! As a RN, I cannot imagine discharging a patient that cannot stand on his own when that is nowhere near his baseline and they’re not going to a rehab. I would have advocated so much better for my patients. I 100% believe my father would be dead if he didn’t have myself and my mom advocating for him.

Patient relations have not reached back out to me to check in even though I have spoken to them about...

We had a wonderful experience in the NICU. As someone who frequents the hospital due to my husband's chronic illness, I was so relieved that I didn’t have to advocate for him during what was already a terrifying and traumatic health crisis.

To be clear, our nurses—on every floor—were amazing. They are truly the backbone of the healthcare system.

However, the moment we left the NICU, the quality of care declined rapidly. The nephrology department at Memorial needs a major overhaul. I will not allow my husband to return there in the future due to the neglect, mistreatment, and borderline medical abuse he experienced from both his nephrologist and the dialysis clinic staff.

Nephrology is a critical component of his overall health, and we ultimately had to push for an early discharge due to the lack of appropriate care and the attending physician’s unwillingness to listen to him—or me—when advocating for his body and needs. I fired the attending nephrologist and requested a new one. We were told the new doctor would examine him the next day, but they never showed up, and no changes or updates were communicated to us. We were told, “It’s the weekend, and the nephrologist is on call,” as if that was a justifiable reason for a complete lack of follow-through.

They also refused to make necessary accommodations for his care, citing short staffing as an ongoing excuse. Nurses repeatedly mentioned being understaffed, understocked, and stretched thin—not as complaints, but as sincere apologies for being unable to provide the level of care they wanted to give.

I understand that staffing shortages are affecting medical facilities across the country, but Memorial’s inability to deliver proper and reasonable care because of it is THEIR problem, not mine. I can be patient when a nurse takes longer to bring pain medication because of an unfair patient-to-nurse ratio (though I firmly believe our nurses deserve better working conditions). What I won’t tolerate is short staffing being used to justify ignoring a patient’s medical needs—especially when those needs have been clearly communicated by both the patient, family, and the nursing staff. It is the hospital’s responsibility to ensure that patients receive proper care—and to take whatever steps are necessary to make that happen- even if it means transferring them to somewhere else.

We requested discharge well before shift change when it became clear nephrology was not going to show up. I knew staying any longer would do nothing to improve my husband's health. Despite that, the attending physician failed to come by or put in the discharge order before shift change. As a result, we were forced to stay another night because the night physician could not complete the discharge, and leaving against medical advice would have meant being denied the prescriptions he needed to survive. I fully expect we’ll be billed for an extra night.

Additionally, I always check my husband in as a confidential patient due to dangerous family dynamics. This status is supposed to ensure that only members of his care team can access his information—or even see that he’s been admitted. I confirmed this with a case manager, who assured me it had been set up correctly. Despite this, the very person we were trying to protect his information from, walked right in, was given his room number and allowed up to his room. This caused him significant distress and anxiety—something he absolutely should not have to endure while recovering from a traumatic health incident. I requested to speak with the case manager to understand how this breach in his security occurred, but I never saw or heard from them.

In summary: if you need intensive neurological care, I highly recommend the NICU at Memorial. But once you leave that floor, be prepared to fight tooth and nail for your loved one to receive the care they DESERVE. And don’t expect anyone to take accountability or attempt to make...

I came to your hospital around 10:30 a.m. with two severe head injuries and an injured hand. I was wheeled into a hallway by the paramedics who informed me that not to be freaked out, but a lot of people were going to be asking me a lot of questions and looking at me. I sat in that hallway for about 2 hours. No one spoke to me. No one came and looked at me. I was holding a blanket to my head, because the front of my head was bleeding and I was bleeding out the back of my head from a large 3-in divot made by my 1300 lb horse. I believe I was wheeled into another hallway where I then met a Doctor. I don't think he spent more than one minute with me. He introduced himself, asked me if I had any pain and I told him my head hurt and he asked about my hand which at that time it hurt. So about an hour later I was told I was getting an X-ray on my hand. Meanwhile, my head was still bleeding. I had a c collar on, which I had taken off. The c collar was actually pushing onto the base of my skull, which is where the divot in my head was and I was bleeding and it hurt. Nurses came over and scolded me for taking it off and told me I had to put it back on. Instead of asking me, what can we do to make you more comfortable? I refused and was scolded then they walked away and never talked to me again. After the X-ray I was brought back to the same place and the X-ray technician told the nurses about the the cut in the back of my head. Neither one came over to talk to me about it or look at it. Actually at that time nobody had looked at it. I think after that I was there for another 2 hours before a CAT scan was completed instead of an MRI, to which I received an update in my chart app that I had no fractures in my skull. Then the doctor came over after that and told me I had no fractures, I told him I already knew but he proceeded to tell me what I just read. I was again pushed into a hallway. My head was still bleeding. I had dried blood on my face. No one had offered to clean me up. I did ask one of the nurses if I could get someone to clean me up. A man came over and gave me sutures, eight in the back of the head four in the forehead. A Nurse came over and tried cleaning me up. She was only there a minute she said I may need another staple in my forehead. She left she never came back. The man that gave me the Staples came over about a half hour 45 minutes later and said a STERI-STRIP would work. I never got the STERI-STRIP and I never saw the nurse again. I asked to go to the restroom around 6:30 and I was asked if I could get up and I said I have been up the nurse told me you will have to wait. I'll find out and I said I had to go now she said you'll just have to wait. A half hour later I finally was permitted to get up. Went to the restroom, cleaned myself up with paper towels and cold water. I had caked on blood down the side of my face down the my back of my neck. My shirt was bloody on the back. Bloody on the front. I also asked to be discharged because no one was attending to me. 7:00. I said I wanted to leave AMA, I was told that is more complicated than it seems. They finally discharged me. It was after 7:00 I believe, they just handed me paperwork. Nothing else. If you need specifics, times, or names look in my chart. It has been the worst experience of my life and I am a Health Information Administrator. I will never be back to Memorial hospital ever again.

PS, I got a call the following day from an orthopedic nurse saying she wanted to schedule me to see an orthopedic doctor and I asked her what for and she said your hand, confused about that because I was told and it was in the chart that I received on my phone before anyone else told me that my hand had...