Antelope Valley Medical Center — Local services in Lancaster

UPDATE 2/22/2025.. my brother was admitted here 2/8/2025 . The first review I made was posted on 2/19/2025. I STILL STAND BY THIS REVIEW but will be changing up the wording to make an updated version of it.. This is just a review to address the quality of care my brother has received during his hospitalization. He was admitted following a presumed hit-and-run accident, requiring two extensive surgeries for major fractures. He was placed in the ICU with minor head trauma, sedated, and on a ventilator for two weeks. While we understood the necessity of this, we were consistently met with poor bedside manner from the neurosurgeon, who spoke down to his wife, myself (his sister), and our parents when we asked questions. His repeated response was, “The main thing here is to make sure he is breathing,” disregarding our valid concerns.

The Day nurses in ICU showed a bit more compassion than the night staff, who, according to my brother’s wife (who stayed by his side every night), were rough in their care. One exceptional nurse, Gerome, stood out for his kindness and dedication, and we are truly grateful for him.

On 2/16/2025, my brother was transferred to PCU, where the quality of care significantly declined. Nurses took 15–20 minutes to respond to call buttons, even for urgent needs like hygiene assistance. While we understand short staffing, it is unacceptable that my brother had to sit in his own waste for extended periods. Only one nurse, Ivan, provided consistent and attentive care.

Additionally, despite our request for nighttime restraints (due to my brother’s tendency to pull out his tubes), staff neglected to re-secure him, leading to him removing his NG tube. When we raised this issue with a manager, we were told that we needed to remind the nurses. This is concerning, given that my brother’s mental state is not fully stable.

Further issues arose with his physical safety. He has been extremely fidgety due to discomfort from his staples, causing him to hit his leg on the bed rail and develop a noticeable bump. We had to request additional padding for the rails, something that should have been proactively addressed.

Beyond medical care, hospital security ticketed my sister-in-law’s car for “staying too long” despite her being present daily. When she addressed this, she was simply told, “Our bad,” and left to remove the sticker herself, which damaged her windshield.

On 2/18/2025, the neurosurgeon abruptly asked my sister-in-law, “What is the plan for him?” in a rude manner, despite her not having been informed that she needed to establish one. He continued asking her every other day without offering guidance. The lack of internal communication between hospital teams is unacceptable.

On 2/21/2025, my brother was moved to the 5th floor, which we were told signifies progress. However, the transition was mishandled. His new nurse openly gossiped about his restraints instead of inquiring about their necessity. The night staff’s negligence resulted in him nearly falling out of bed and pulling out another tube, spilling fluids all over the floor. When I arrived, the next morning that morning nurse had no explanation for what happened overnight.

We requested a private room due to my brother’s complex needs, only to be told, “Private rooms aren’t a thing here.” While I understand room availability is limited, I also know private rooms exist and should at least be considered when medically necessary.

Additionally, my sister-in-law requested a recliner for overnight stays, something she was previously provided in ICU. However, on the 5th floor, she was told it was against hospital policy. This inconsistency is frustrating, as the hospital’s own family experience team had previously offered it to her.

I spoke to Richard Brown, the ICU/PCU manager, on 2/21/2025. He dismissed my concerns, claiming I wrote this review out of anger. That is not the case. I am documenting the inadequate care my brother has received, and as he remains hospitalized, these issues persist. This is not frustration—it is a call for...

This hospital should be shut down. My father experienced a stroke and was brought to this hospital. At the time he was actually an employee. So of course like all hospitals when their own workers are hospitalised, they are VIPs. From the moment we arrived the entire thing was a disaster. The emergency room shouldn't even exist at this place because they don't have a clue what they are doing. From regular nursing staff to doctors we were consistently spoken down to, told we didn't know anything about our father and just struggled to get any type of assistance from the staff. The man behind the curtain next to us had to change his wife and all of her bedding three times and could not get one of the ER staff members to assist him. At one point one of them simply showed him where to get the items he would need. From there it just gets worse . While in a heightened anxious state, my father was unable to do a necessary MRI . So they knocked him out . They put him on a breathing tube and then we could not wake him up. Once upstairs and out of the emergency room and in intensive care, we spent an entire day attempting to wake him up, poking him and prodding him all at the advice of the Doctor Who was managing his care. So imagine our surprise when two days into our stay the stroke doctor arrives and is absolutely appalled that we have been trying to wake him up. The revolving door of doctors and nurses continued. We were constantly probed on insane questions such as "does he use cocaine?" Alarming to hear seeing as he's their employee. We had nurses who couldn't be bothered. We had a nurse that spoke to me like a child after she failed to inform us that she was going to be taking him to remove the ventilator. The Doctor Who removed the ventilator had not read Our father's chart, had no idea how long he'd been on the ventilator, and removed the ventilator without knowing our father had pneumonia. then the nurse who was supposed to stay with him didn't. During that period where my father lay hunched over in bed alone struggling to breathe the nurse explained away why she doesn't HAVE to call anybody to let them know they're taking him off of a form of life support . Then while in the room the doctor decided my father didn't have any idea what was going on., that It was actually fine but of course now we need to reinsert the breathing tube. I am the younger sibling so I needed to call my older sister and at that point while hovering over my father the doctor had a very condescending conversation talking about how our dad's failing to thrive and asking my sister do you want me to do everything I can to save your father? Even though we were not in a pull the plug situation. It absolutely doesn't get better after this either . We finally get moved to another department when my father is awake and no longer on the breathing tube and we've already had to have a meeting with the hospital administration because we have doctors coming in daily asking us why we made such and such decision. decisions my sister and I , who are not doctors , were simply doing what we were told by the doctors " treating" our father. You think since he was an employee of this facility and they want to keep dropping the term VIP things would've gotten easier at some point -wrong . We couldn't get these people to fill out the disability paperwork. When my sibling asked the doctor about it because obviously our father would need to be getting paid he stated perhaps we should start a go fund me.. honestly, if your family member could die in a parking lot, they'd be better off than going to antelope Valley . Both of my parents have worked in the medical field for my entire 36 years of life. The negligence, the disrespect, the constant inappropriate questions and behaviour of the staff at this facility is truly disgusting.. I highly recommend taking any family member to any other location no matter how far the drive. It's more likely that antelope Valley will kill your family member...

Jeez, where do I begin with this. Well, there's a lot, too much, but the basic gist of it all - my grandmother was taken to the ER on Feb. 8, 2025, after falling twice within 24 hours; after two or three different kinds of CAT scans and an MRI later, it turns out she'd had a big stroke, caused by AFib (atrial fibrillation), on top of having gone through dementia for the last 5 years or about. She was kept for a grand total of FIVE DAYS, and the hospital could not get rid of her fast enough "to hospice care" on the 13th.

Backing up a little, to when she first was taken to the ER, she got the attention and care of Dr. Pejman Mansourian. I really wish that doctors like Dr. Pejman Mansourian could be held accountable for giving patients, or loved ones / caregivers of patients FALSE HOPE on recovery; he was telling my mother and me about how, "she's a perfect candidate" on things like a Watchman for her heart, physical rehabilitation, "The good thing is we know what caused the stroke and we can fix it", and how we were going to get her back to walking and back to, well, as physically active as she was before the stroke...

She passed away on March 4, 2025.

Backing up a little AGAIN. She was admitted to the hospital on a Saturday, and was under his care for about 2 or 3 days, AND THEN when Sunday came, he told my mother and me that he "was not going to be in the next day, and that a colleague of his... the two of them run a clinic" and yadda yadda yadda. Well, his colleague, Dr. Vaheh Shirvanian, was basically all doom and gloom with us, going on about how "he's a realist", and all the complete opposite of how his colleague Dr. Pejman Mansourian was sounding. Oh, and come to find out, the two swap with each other for every 1 or 2 weeks, SO, we weren't even going to get to see Dr. Pejman Mansourian again for the duration of my grandmother's stay! Although, in hindsight, my mother and I should have listened to the second doctor; however, the two colleagues, should be on the same page as each other!

So, the hospital discharged her on Feb. 12, and she came home into hospice care, where the LVN nurse, kept nearly scolding us daily, "SHE'S IN HOSPICE!", "THIS IS THE END OF HER LIFE!", and other similar things, because, NOBODY, I repeat, NOBODY!! Gave us any kind of a "hospice care 101", never told us what to expect or look out for, or explain to us what the point or idea of it all was, here again, since Dr. Pejman Mansourian was sounding like physical rehabilitation and the heart Watchman. We thought the entire time that she WOULD make a recovery!

All while, the whole time with hospice care, all we were doing was giving her Lorazepam, Morphine and Haloperidol constantly, making us feel like that all we were doing was "keeping her drugged up at all times", but kept being told by the LVN that, otherwise she's just going to be agitated all the time and unable to sleep good.

"She's a perfect candidate... we can put a Wathman in her heart... She can have physical rehabilitation and get back to walking again...",

D-E-A-D as of 3/4/2025.

I just hope that people beware of being given false hope on either themselves or loved ones that are admitted to this hospital, like we were.

P.S. during my grandmother's stay in the hospital, she slept continuously, and would not even wake up when we visited, and when we asked any nurse looking after her what she had been given, we were ALWAYS told "nothing". Later, after we received the hospital bill, we saw on the detailed billing, how many times she had been given Haloperidol. SO, beware of the LYING nurses (which makes no sense anyway, when you get the bill later that...