Norton Children's Hospital — Local services in Louisville

ABOUT THE NICU: I'm honestly not even sure where to start. From the very beginning it was a nightmare being there, having the kind of pregnancy that I had and then going into the NICU with my 7wk early baby was traumatic, I honestly didn't expect it to get much worse. Early on it started bad, i was immediately judged because I'm a RECOVERING addict, people will say they didnt judge me,but I watch actions & listen to people very carefully & I was most definitely judged. I've been sober for 2yrs, & I CONSTANTLY felt like I was having to explain my every move to those nurses because of how they were acting towards me....I should NOT have had to feel that way, even if it was just my mind playing tricks on me. my son was NOT born addicted to any narcotics, he did have Effexor in his system but that's an SSRI for depression, not a narcotic and I was safely detoxed from it during my month long stay in the hospital. I was judged on my PAST from the second we entered that NICU. I also had EIGHT Intrauterine Transfusions & was given opiates & benzodiazepines as sedatives for every procedure, every drug test I took during pregnancy was normal. As if that wasnt bad enough, we were also exposed to Covid within DAYS of being there and on the same day, the breastmilk I worked so hard to pump, was given to another baby and I had to go have blood drawn to prove I didn't carry HIV or HepC. That HUGE fact was never passed on between nurses, so when I would get concerned about them storing my milk or bringing it to me, they would get very rude & condescending with me. Theres so much wrong that happened & honestly, if I had the energy, I would file a lawsuit. My son is about to turn 3 months and has had 3 blood transfusions since birth. The antibody that I had in my blood that caused him to be anemic was looked past while we were there. I demanded blood to be drawn and they treated me as if I was crazy. Within 3 weeks of us being home, his hemoglobin was CRITICALLY low as was his hematocrit. He is still anemic now, but its getting better. If we had consulted with w hematologist like I asked SEVERAL times, that would have been caught early on & treated before he was so sick. The ONLY good thing that came from our time in the NICU was meeting Joan, the lactation consultant. All of the nursing staff was bad, especially a male which I forgot his name now, but he was a heavy set bald man. He had my son for an entire weekend & did nothing for him. When I wasnt there overnight, he kept tube feeding him bc he was too lazy to sit & feed my baby a bottle. Everytime I would come in from his shift, the tube feed would still be beeping and my son's diaper was SOAKED and full of feces from where he was just sitting there for hours alone. I still get anxiety talking about our experience & it makes me want to cry. This is a time in a babies life & a mothers life that we needed some love & extra care & that was not anything we received. Since we were on isolation precautions the room was never cleaned either. I knew this because there was times I saw something on the floor & noticed it again days later. The trash would only get taken because I tied it up and put it outside of the door. My son should NOT have had to live in that smell and environment with the nursing staff for the first 3 weeks of his life when he still should have been safe inside of me for 7 more weeks. I absolutely am appalled & hurt by all of this & I thank God every day that we made it out of there! There's so much that didnt happen & there's so much that did happen that I wasn't even made aware of. It just really hurts my heart to know that this probably isnt the first or last time this has or will happen. I cant change how it was for us, but maybe I can save someone else from going through the pain we went through. I waited so long to write this because I thought maybe I was just being sensitive because I just had a baby, but no, even almost 3 months later it's still a horrible time for me to even talk about. I pray that you all do better for these babies...

Horrible experience. I’m 17, will be 18 in a month. First night here I had already had an IV in from another hospital before transferring here, 2am it started to hurt really bad. After 15 min of calling and waiting for a nurse, the nurse said it was a perfectly good IV and wouldn’t take it out, instead she put new bandaging on it. All throughout the night the pain got worse, I had also gotten my birth control shot that same day in the same arm that my IV was in. I was in screaming pain and I got no rest that night, it wasn’t until 2pm the next day they removed it because I couldn’t get up to use the bathroom I was in so much pain. I also had a no daytime nap rule so I was constantly exhausted.Talked to the eating disorder team and told them Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday AND Friday that I did not eat eggs. Every single day being there it was eggs. Saturday I had asked my nurse for something else, she said I couldn’t get anything different. Same thing happened Sunday. It wasn’t until Monday they fixed my menu and let me choose, which showed a huge difference. While making HUGE progress the nurses and other teams were pressuring a feeding tube saying It would happen if I didn’t progress. Every single team talked down to me like I was a child, like a 10year old. They would explain the same thing, even the same people, would explain the same thing over and over again. They would also constantly ask if I would ever make myself throw up or used any medication to make me lose weight. They were persistent even though my answer had always been no, like they were wanting me to admit yes, even though that’s not the case. I’ve also had multiple sitters blast whatever it was on their phone during my SLEEPING hours. One would also take phone calls, and another would eat, which all are against the rules given it’s the eating disorder floor. I would tell the nurses that I was hot and sweating and they would refuse to let me change the temperature below 75° which that by itself is absurd. When my mom visited she had to basically beg the nurses to do something because I was overheating, my heart rate was skyrocketing to 180, never dropping below 145. I also couldn’t sit because they were making me drink 7 boosts a day and it was backing me up. They were giving stool softeners which never helped, yet they continued to give. I had to get 3 laxative dissolver just do complete one bowel movement. They would also put in the wrong information to mychart. They would read my vitals to me everyday because they would do labs everyday at 4 and 6am. Sitter also have horrible experiences here, not getting their LEGALLY REQUIRED BREAKS, SPECIFICALLY on this floor unless you BEGGED over and over. I would also have to earn privileges, like showering, which took 6 days because my goal was set SUPER HIGH. They also didn’t tell me until the next day that I had earned it. It took 2 hours for scrub pants, then they wanted to say I couldn’t shower because I already had my bedtime boost, WHILE I WAS WAITING FOR SCRUB PANTS, so they said I couldn’t shower. My mom would visit late, around 5:30ish and stay till 9. Dinner I’m able to earn privileges, but since my mom was there I wouldn’t use them at that time, so I’ve had unused privileges. The nurses then wanted to say that the privileges didn’t carry onto the next day, so I had basically lost those privileges. I would also have to wait HOURS for any kind of answer. Asked them to call my mom to come up and visit on Sunday, no response for 40 min, called again and they said they talked to her and the nurse would let me know. 2 hours later with NOTHING, called again asking and then 20 min later the nurse comes to tell me “she said she will tomorrow”. Been here for 2 weeks and the teams haven’t at all talked together to get an estimate of my discharge. There’s absolutely no communication, no need to “help” the patients, sitters don’t get breaks, sitters have to wait past the time they SCHEDULED their lunch....

My son broke his arm on a playground in Frankfort. We were given the choice of sending him here, or to Lexington. I chose here, because it is closer to where his mother now lives than Lexington. I chose wrong...

First Red Flag: While the address may say Chestnut Street, that door isn't open after hours. In fact, the only door that was open was in the parking garage off of the alley behind the hospital. So, arm broken and in a sling, we're walking him around the block trying to get inside. But, you know, it is after hours on a weekend.

Second Red Flag: Despite the X-Rays and Discharge paperwork from Frankfort being sent over ahead of time, Norton's took the paperwork from me to double check everything and kept it. Now, I don't know why they needed the discharge paperwork from another hospital, or the documents saying that I had taken my son into my care instead of waiting on medical transport, but Frankfort had already called Norton's and sent over the paperwork ahead of time, and got confirmation from the doctors in Norton that they received them. And, even giving them that benefit of the doubt, you don't keep my paperwork. (I guess my receipt of payment for Frankfort Regional was somehow vital to his treatment?)

Third Red Flag: The resident doctor comes in within the first few minutes of us being given a room. She says that she's reviewed the X-Rays, and it should be rather simple to get the cast put on my son, and we'll be on our way. Three hours later, an RN comes in the room to put an IV into my son. Why? I don't know. Nobody told me about any procedure requiring an IV. In fact, the only thing I've been told is going to happen is that they're going to put a cast on him. Now, was there a reason for the IV? Yes. Was it logical? Yes. Was it necessary? Yes. Did anybody explain any part of that before they were told that they would not be terrifying my child with an IV Needle until somebody told me any medication that would need an IV? Nope. Because why should they?

Fourth Red Flag: Because the RN was told they would not be putting an IV into my son until somebody explained to us what medication was being given, why it was being given, and what steps were being taken, we 'lost our place' in line for seeing the actual orthopedic surgeon there that night. So, what had already been a 3 hour wait, turned into a 4 hour wait, because we had the audacity to demand that somebody explain to us what the recommended treatment was going to be for my son.

Fifth Red Flag: Once they had finished the procedure and put the cast on my son, we had another hour of waiting before we were allowed to be discharged. Now, it is absolutely true that, when someone is coming out of heavy medication to make them sleep through a medical procedure, they're going to be extremely tired and disoriented. It is also true that you don't want to discharge them until you have confirmed that they are safe. But, can we pretend for just a moment that a kid who has waited on treatment for 5 hours in your lobby and exam rooms, and was given anesthesia after midnight, and is being asked to rouse back to full consciousness after one in the morning, isn't going to make it there? Just maybe? Or maybe, if we're going to set his monitors to make sure that he's coming out of the anesthesia correctly, we don't set the warning alarms to go off at normal sleeping heart rates, oxygen levels, etc.?

It took less than 2 hours for Frankfort Regional Medical to take my son in, check vitals, X-Ray him, confirm the break, put a splint on him, call over to Norton, send all of his charts, and discharge us to have a pediatric orthopedic doctor put the cast on him. It took Norton over 3 hours to attempt to treat my son in a different manner than we were informed, and another 2 and a half hours before we were able to get the treatment and be discharged. Next time, we're going to Lexington and I'll commute...