Helen Keller Hospital — Local services in Sheffield

My grandbaby had a seizure went unresponsive requires cpr by family. 1st thing is we were on the phone with 911 for 20 minutes as they were telling us no one is in route or available. I mean how does that happen to a toddle in distress. We had to rush him in our own car with 911 on line. That’s the first mistake for the shoals. 2nd arrived to ER had us sitting in waiting for about 40 minutes with no urgency with a baby lethargic and postictal. It took my wife calling the house supervisor to get him back to be looked at. The real issues is with Peds department. They forced him to take po Tylenol as his fever was so high and neeeded to go down to prevent seizure. He was vomiting anytime he took medicine and they would not listen to reason only forced him to take. They were other options available but honestly too lazy to act on them. There were only 3 patients on Peds unit at this time. Once the doctor came in and did understand the need for suppositories or Iv meds to keep his fever down it was still an issue because one nurse was just insitant and forced on Motrin. The nurses were emotionless of what our family went through even the nurse manager Pam who came and spoke with us she never apologized for the care and questioned why in an ugly tone why would we even bring our child in a car to the ER well again the ems wasn’t coming and that was a life or death choice in our minds. Again if you haven’t been in this situation and resuscitated a 2 year old then you may not understand what we went through. I really pray someone can read this to fix the situation on Peds and some issues that are at Helen Keller. The shoals is our home and has been our whole life. My grandson is now diagnosed with a rare condition only 1% of children in the world are diagnosed with. that is very life threatening if not acted upon quickly and scares our family of what to do in this area because of the lack of knowledge and care. It’s not only the knowledge sometimes but the compassion for what someone is going through is lacking. I mean when a 2 yr old blows you kisses after you torture them with stick after stick and unsuccessful and nurses just walk out the door no response to him. It broke my heart. They are more concerned with talking about their life and plans at the desk and being on their phones not wanting to be interrupted but they are at a job not at home. Even the nurse manager was present during a situation when he was mottling and was very lethargic. The issue was ignored as she took pictures with the nurses that night because she brought crayons and books. We were never offered crayons or books for him either. During their celebration of recieving crayons and books I was standing outside the door holding him not understanding why this is happening. I relied on god I went in the room and prayed with him in my arms that nothing was going to happen to him. I was not at the hospital for them to take care of him and I realized that in that moment it was a paycheck for them and a social event. it was god that got us out of there. We were finally transferred to UAB after begging to go to get him help. When we left by ambulance the nurses hid in the small break area the nurse manager present never spoke to us just as they were glad we were leaving. I pray god puts his arms around these peds nurses and ER and ems give them maybe what they’ve lost in their nursing medical career to do what they should do for people in need. Praise him for getting us help and experiencing what it should be like when you are needing...

I've been here over the years for surgeries and emergencies and it is always hit or miss. The emergency department is zero stars from me. It is dirty, they don't have enough or keep enough staff to clean the emergency department rooms immediately after a patient is discharged leaving those in pain to sit hours on end waiting for treatment. They don't staff doctors who can help with complex problems, just regular MD's. If you have any complex medic problem they just send you home with pain meds and a referral, often causing you to wait weeks to get an appointment with a specialist. I refuse to ever set foot in there again. My recent visit was to the day surgery area of the hospital February 3rd 2025. In December of 2024 I also had a colonoscopy in the same day surgery. Let me start by saying the day surgery center staff are wonderful. Now what is bad about the place. 1. You share a bathroom with the room next to you, when you are in recovery waiting to be discharged after some procedures this is not ideal. 2. Here's how scheduling works. You are called days before to get your arrival time. Your arrival time will be 3 TO 4 HOURS BEFORE YOUR PROCEDURE. Now why is this a problem? Well for later in the day appointments it's probably a good idea, your doctor is probably performing surgeries that may have a complication that takes them longer. However, my appointment was the first of the day with a 5 am arrival. So you do preoperative evaluations, confirm medical histories medications etc... So when you get there you shouldn't need anything but your IV and to get changed for surgery. This isn't the case, you will again spend 20 to 30 minutes going over the same things you did just a day or two days prior. Remember when I said my appointment was one of the first? So after you are done re-re-re-affirm your medical history and get your IV you get taken to the surgery area to watch them stock the procedure rooms and wait for another hour or two until your surgeon arrives and for them to gather the needed items for the surgery. Now since you get your schedule days in advance that means they know exactly what they need to have prepared in the operating room, yet they want to prepare the day before. I have a problem with this because it is so inefficient and a lack of care on the hospitals part. But this is healthcare, their goal is to make you wait and do everything they can to make the job harder than it needs to be. My point here is respect the patients time, just like you want them to be there on time, be on time yourself and stop wasting peoples time. Don't schedule so many patients at one time that you can't handle. Integrate your systems and eliminate...

If it wasn't for the reception crew I would have been trying to give this rating a 1 star. In actuality they deserve a 5 star. Let me explain, after being screened and interviewed as to what bought me to the emergency room today, a nurse told me that she spoke to the doctor and that the doctor would not be able to issue me any type of pain medications. I again explained to her again, that the advice of the V.A, I was instructed to go to the nearest emergency room of a hospital. My medications were lost or delayed before and I came to this hospital for a temporary relief of pain medications until I can get my regular medication. This nurse told me that I was never issued any type of pain medication from this hospital at no time never. I told her that there is some kind of big mistake. Your E.R. seen me for a fall I had 6 weeks ago and at that time I was prescribed pain medication and followed up with your wound clinic with weekly appointments including today, they cleaned up my wound again told me all the swelling has gone, and the hole in the leg looks like it's starting to close. The V.A is treating me for failed back surgeries ( 25 ) but this nurse was still telling me that there is no records of me being given any type of pain medication, and none will be issue at this time. So you need to leave have a seat outside, we have other patients to see !! Now is when I was totally wrong by shouting out " this is totally Bull ** !!! Then the 3 people at the reception desk asked me to calm down. They told me that she doesn't have the authority to make the decision on who would receive medications, only the doctor, so don't leave without seeing a doctor. I apologize repeatedly to the staff and security to let them know that, this entire situation on my behalf was totally out...