Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital — Local services in Houston

DO NOT BRING YOUR CHILD HERE!! I HAVE THREE KIDS AND HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED SUCH DOSREGARD FOR PATIENT CARE AND COMPASSION FOR FAMILIES! I am only giving this hospital one star because there isn't an option for less, but that entire star goes out to the AMAZING nurses who were taking care of my son. My 4 month old was transferred here from sugar land memorial with croup, causing severe breathing issues. What should have been a minor stay turned into a week, including him ending up on ICU directly because of the night nurse and doctors negligence. He was poked FOUR TIMES for one IV, despite our transferring paramedic informing the nurses where they should have gone through for an IV(sure enough where he said is where they got it after poking him 3 times and making us hold him down screaming each time. They began with administering steroids and breathing treatments but even when I kept informing the staff that after FOUR DAYS he was getting worse and not better they didn't listen. I had to unhook my son from all of his monitors and refuse to put him back on until they called in someone else. I was still ignored for two hours until finally shift change happened and the day nurse and respiratory therapist called in head doctors who determined my sons breathing had regressed so badly under their care that he needed to be transferred to ICU and put on an extremely high pressure flow of oxygen to give his body a rest. Due to this he was then unable to eat for over 12 hours and had to be put on a mild sedative to keep him calm all day. We were forced to share an ICU room with another family and had no "sofa bed" or shower and only one sleep chair. There are only two visitors allowed to be by the baby and parents are counted as visitors. So in a case like ours where our son screamed all day unless held my husband and I were drained and could not get a break unless forced to leave him so our parents could pray over him alone and not as a family. The weekend lady at the front desk for ICU had no patient skills or compassion for families dealing with the one of the scariest times of their lives where their child is on omtensive care. Aside from the medical negligence like every single part of this hospital was lacking. We were forced to ask multiple times for anything and everything we needed like formula, sleeper chairs, blankets, etc. and often just never received. The first time I ordered a breast pump it was a Manuel and I waited over 4 hours for with my poops engorged and leaking, or didn't come with the tuning for the automatic pump I had to wait until the next day to get, wait longer for them to order pumping, wait again for the right nipple shield size, received the wrong size again, and then was finally told they didn't have my size. Every time I ordered meals they were missing something or wrong. My son was often woken up or inconvenienced multiple times for "protocol". He could not get adequate test and neither could I. We were forced to move floors and rooms at least 5 times over the course of a week. And finally on our last day I requested my pumped milk be brought down by nutrition and I was brought 1 bottle out of the 7 I had pumped. After an hour of calling around and me personally going to different floors they still had lost two bottles and somehow thawed and spoiled FOUR BOTTLES (10oz) of my breast milk because it sat in a fridge instead of being given to me. The hospital has no free parking and patients and families are forced to pay high parking fees. We spent over $100 for two cars. All in all this was the worst experience of my life and the hospital made it so unbearable that I cried more times on their behalf then I did for my son. I will NEVER bring any of my 3 children here again and I have informed anyone I know with children that TEXAS CHILDRENS IS THE WAY TO GO! This is what happens when medicine is commercialized.Anything and everything is put over the patients well being, in this case babies and children. Because of this experience my milk supply has cut in half and my son refuses to...

My son was hospitalized Saturday sept 19 and placed in ICU for control with a blood sugar over 300. He spend two days in the ICU and he was then changed to another room, with same treatment and evaluation and condition that he was in the ICU.

In the new room my son was able to eat after two days, but blood sugar levels were still high and the doctors kept increasing the insulin medication every time.

Meal plan:

The doctors told that he needed to eat 75g of carbs in each meal. So we ordered food in the room service but most of the options to get to 75g included Mac and cheese, fried food, flour based food, sugars. After every meal the blood sugar rose even more up to 500 and the doctors added more insulin treatment instead of lowering carbs. We were about to be discharged with the same plan of 75 g of carb intake per meal and high dosis of insulin medication and blood sugar level higher that when he got hospitalized. My wife, during the stay, read forums for diabetes and did a research on the nutrition and found out that the goal is to control diabetes with food and not with medication. Endocrinologist Rivera was not visiting the room to check on Nelson because they were “Busy”. The order was to increase the insulin medication dose every time

My wife, desperate, confronted an endocrinologist that went to the room and asked to lower carbohydrates for each meal. Doctor was stating that it was normal to have a blood sugar high during first days but my wife refused to accept it and doses had to be increased. So they agreed on lowering carbs intake and blood sugar dropped closer to 200. How can a doctor could not figure out that lowering carb intake could be better than raising excessively the insulin dose? My wife that was not a doctor recommended that and they said that that could be done.

Lab testing:

My son had ketones in his urine and that was the only value that needed to be at zero before releasing him from the hospital. So the last two days he was drinking a lot of water and nurses had to take sample every time my son went to the restroom. Well, the nurses were leaving up to 4 accumulated samples in the room without sending them to the lab to check for ketones, knowing that that was the value that needed to check frequently. Nurse lost track of the time each sample was taken. My wife argued with doctors and nurses again about this.

Cafeteria:

My son had a diabetic food regime. Staff were rude every time we order. Their computer had different carbohydrate information that the menu they use, so we were ordering food using their menu but their computer had different carbs numbers. And when we received the tray there were items that we didn’t ask or items not allowed in my sons diet. The hospital stated that they were a new company (excuses). If a patient has food restriction and they sent what they want it could be life threatening situation.

Nutritionist:

The only role of the nutritionist was to show us how to count carbs and look for carbs in fast food restaurants. She didn’t go over a recommended menu to follow. Just spend time searching Chick Fil A items for carbs amount. Diabetes can be controlled with food and not with excessive medication. We asked for a second visit to ask for menus and she went and gave the exact information that she gave before.

Conclusion

My son was hospitalized with blood sugar of 300 and was discharged with a blood sugar of 350. Doctors have not called to check on his progress at home.

The only positive thing about this experience was the diabetic educator Cindy. And she also agreed on lowering carbs. Took the time to teach us what we needed to know. Also some nurses were caring.

I gave 1 star in order to do a review but I would give a zero if I could....

Just left there yesterday and had a bad experience. The staff were nice for the most part but then it went downhill. I understand during covid that things are tough so we understood having to wait 2 hours or longer for food., no worries. My daughter was cleared medically but was supposed to be transported to another hospital in Kingwood. My daughter was in good physical health but they insisted on transporting her to go there as it was their policy. I was fine with it until hours upon hours went by and they kept stalling me and giving me what turned out to be false times. I eventually had enough but politely said I was taking my daughter myself as the hospital is in my neighborhood, she is completely fine and this waiting around is insane.

They asked me to wait for the doctor and I did, the doctor asked me to please wait for someone else and then someone else. They then asked me to sign the "refuse the medical opinion" form which is goofy considering it literally amounted to a ride in an ambulance while I followed even though she was perfectly ok. They then could not find the form and asked me to wait again for someone at which point I declined and was leaving, this was around 10pm. We essentially stayed an entire extra day for an ambulance ride for someone in perfect physical condition.

After I refused to wait I took my daughter and her flowers downstairs to head out. We were suddenly surrounded, yes surrounded by around 10 security guards and a police officer. A regular Dad and his daughter walking to the car were bullied just to make me wait to sign a piece of paper. There were several yes and no questions but all they wanted was my signature so who knows who actually filled it out and answered the questions.

It gets better, they called the hospital we were going to to inform them so that hospital canceled our admission and was going to make us wait additional 3-4 hours so we just went home at this point. By the way the doctor actually said that hospital wasn't necessary, it was Memorial admin who over rode that and said to send her there. I have it all recorded.

It gets better, after doing all of that they then called CPS to tell them we refused their recommendations which could put my child in danger. Once again I have the entire conversation recorded and the assigned DOCTOR said that it was not necessary and that in her opinion she should go home, it was Memorial admin that insisted otherwise.

FYI the security was polite and had no idea why they were asked to stop me and once they realized most of them walked away obviously realizing it was insane. The police officer even seemed baffled. We were literally surrounded by ten or more security personnel in a circle around us so that I would...