Vanderbilt Tullahoma –Harton Hospital — Local services in Tullahoma

My mother is currently in the CCU, she has COPD & severe emphysema and honestly she is dying. My mother is all I have and I am all she has, so I am up here everyday, all day. For past month and half she has been bounced between the hospital and a care facility. She is extremely weak, her oxygen drops fast, her heart rate spikes fast at times, she is also on a BYPAP and does take narcotics for pain.

The day time nurses are getting “annoyed” with her because she is asking for a bedpan to make a bowel movement. Today, I had called the nurses and asked if they could help her with going to bathroom, the response was: “she’s already tried to go three times”. And your point is???? If she feels like has to go, then let her try. Don’t be annoyed because she keeps asking.

I know an employee that works at Harton outside of their work and she pulled me aside to tell me that my mother, earlier in the day before I got to the hospital, had noticed her walking by her room and called out to her by name because she had to make a bowel movement. The person we know notified the nurses and their response was “oh she’s fine”. How do you know she’s fine? I understand that there are other patients and they have other work but when I poke my head out and see 4 nurses just sitting at their desk, looking at their phones or chatting, I don’t think taking 10-20 minutes out your time is too much to ask. Also, I should note, my mother isn’t demanding these nurses to come right away and help her with a movement, she’s patient and understands there are other patients that need help too.

We are coming to you on our worst days and you are annoyed because my 100 pound mother needs to try and make a movement. How would these nurses react if someone was acting and saying the same things they are saying to their own mothers? I bet you they would be pretty upset and a bit put off by it like I am.

I am extremely concerned to even say anything to the CCU floor and the hospital in fear that my mother receives lackluster care and gets neglected when a true medical emergency occurs again with her. I have no concerns about the nighttime nurses, they are great and very, very kind. But these daytime nurses, I worry about them neglecting my mother because she is “bugging” them. This is my worst nightmare, my mother’s care being ignored. This has already happened at NHC Care Facility and now it’s happening again INSIDE THE HOSPITAL. If I could take her home, I would in a heartbeat so she wouldn’t have to deal with crap like this.

My mother is scared, confused and has been out of her comfort zone, her home, for over a month and half now. It is breaking me to see my mother like this, I want to scream to these nurses, “TREAT HER LIKE YOU WOULD TREAT YOUR MOTHER”. I understand it’s hard to understand her but she is on a BYPAP machine for a reason. Please don’t treat my girl like this. My mother is the most wonderful person in the world, she is kind, loving, caring, giving, empathetic. She is the whole package and you are treating her like she is nothing. That she is just a nuisance.

I’m sure by posting this review with my name attached might be seen by someone who “matters” within the hospital and my fear of my mother getting less quality care could come true but I had to state my feelings somewhere before it boiled over and I was seen as being rude or a bully by advocating for my...

I checked into this hospital with chest pains. After 5 hours, only a Very Kind nurse had seen me. While I realize they must have been busy, what followed was VERY uncalled for.

Finally, a female Doctor entered my curtained room with a padded table. I had been unable to turn, eat, urinate, drink, etc. I was VERY RELIEVED! But, in less than 2 minutes, she told me it was time for her to go home.

While I understand she was tired, MAYBE she should have chosen a profession that was more suited to her (such as a Bad Social Influencer).

She told me NOTHING. ZERO, except that another Doctor would se me “LATER”… And then she was gone…

(BY THE WAY, THIS WAS ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 3O, 2022 at about 10:49 PM.) The so-called “Doctor” should be easy to identify AND AVOID….

As UNPROFESSIONAL as she was, the WORST was yet to come…

After HOURS with nothing but an unprofessional LAZY 2-Minute visit by a Kardassian Wannabe, two hospital-employed men stood right outside my curtained torture chamber. Certainly, other uncomfortable patients surrounded me. They were speaking in voices LOUD ENOUGH to be ANNOYING, even if their words had been kind.

But they were NOT.

After one of the men stated he “MIGHT” get a Nursing degree from Motlow College because he was making NOTING here, he continued to BLAB on and on about himself…

THEN he said THIS:

“We have NO beds! Last night, at least 10 people checked in between 5 and 6 AM! Literally! And these are people in their 70’s! Like, a lady fell in her bathroom. She LITERALLY FELL INTO HER BATHTUB and Broke her hip! And, like, other people were like, “I have chest pains”. Like, just STOP! We don’t have beds!”

So…I kept my mouth shut, I stood up, I unplugged my IV and my Monitors…

And I flagged down a nurse.

I was very polite. I said, “I understand you don’t have beds, and I don’t want to take one away from someone who needs one. I have been here for 5 hours without seeing anyone, and I am TIRED, and HUNGRY, and THIRSTY, and SORE. I need to PEE, and then, if it is OK, I would like to go home.”

The kind nurse said, “I don’t blame you.”

I had no phone or money on me, so, at 60 years old, I walked 16 miles (in dress shoes with no socks) at MIDNIGHT trying to get home. When I collapsed 5 hours later, the kind Police drove me the final 3 miles to my house.

SO: I understand that I must NOT have had a heart attack. And it is a good thing. I ALSO understand that I am OLD. BUT, being OLD is something I worked HARD to be.

And, SOMEDAY (and sooner than they think), they will be old, as well…

They didn’t check my heart, but NEITHER did they KILL it!

GO...

It’s hard to leave a one star review because we’ve recently had two interactions with this hospital. I guess I’ll start with the best. We just had a baby there. This is our third and I have to to say this time was amazing. Mrs. Mable, Lola, Ivy, and Melissa was a few that I caught their name but their actions means so much more and all of the staff there in OB truly show how much they care about their job which leads to how they treat their patients. Thank you to everyone up there in OB that took care of mom and our baby girl. Unfortunately now comes the bad. We had a family member come to the ER. I know for sure 4 hours went by and the patient never seen a nurse or anyone and this is after he’s already in a room. The patient is diabetic so you can judge that lengthy time for yourself with having nothing to drink or eat. Of course during this time Covid-19 is always a worry. Of course this patient was around my kids last weekend due to us having our baby so we’re extremely worried. They done a test that may take a few days to come back. Ok that’s fine. Then he gets admitted/ transferred so they decide to do a rapid test. Made us feel better because we would know sooner. Test came back negative. Awesome because a positive would have been a huge game changer with our kids being around him. Later to only find out that a quarantine letter was given out for our kids (without contacting the parents)because of the test was still being waited on. So the questions come up as to why is the rapid test not good enough? Don’t y’all use those to test prior to surgeries? I don’t see how you can put lives on hold to quarantine because one test is waiting and the other test is negative. I’m sorry but this is just aggravating. I get it if there wasn’t a test that wasn’t negative but otherwise this just increases numbers that’s not true. A number that for every time it increases just makes everything worse. Y’all have to do better with this it’s so easy for y’all to set back and just quarantine people but lives, jobs, schools and everything is being put on hold when they...