HCA Florida JFK North Hospital — Local services in West Palm Beach

My name is A. And I will say that this was the worst first and likely last hospital visit I will ever have, I had a mental health episode and I was taken voluntarily into the psych ward where my property was taken from me into a bag, fair enough. But nobody would tell me what was going on or who I would be seeing, I also was extremely intimidated by the police officer who was rather short physically in the night shift claim that It didn't matter if I was voluntary or not, they'd be treating me like I was involentary. I'm homeless so I wasn't the best hydration wise and the doctor and nurses at patient intake also made fun of my urine being extremely brown.

Despite one of the male nurses who I thought I was getting along with relatively well having a LGBTQ friendly symbol on himself, I hinted I was one and he seemed extremely uncaring and generally treated me like any other person which wasn't helping my mental state at the time,

I was then told by the man that I would see a psychiatrist in about ten minutes and they'd discharge me if I needed it from their perspective, and, rather rudely I found out this was a lie from the man. I was then placed into the psych ward room where there was 4 windows, 5 if you count the door window and it felt like I was a zoo animal from lack of a better word. I was placed in a room with one man who looked extremely uncomfortable and I later found out via my own observation that something was physically wrong with him, as he was unable to walk or get up, and the female staff refused to help him as it was "out of her pay grade"

It then became apparent my room was I guess the highly autistic room, because several individuals were extremely incapable of rational thought (not of their own fault, obviously.) and were mocked by the staff.

One younger gentleman was severely autistic and looked like his mental age was about five or six despite being a teenager. The attending nurse, I suppose as I was asleep, had gave him something to eat and he just threw it on the floor. The nurse then instructed him to clean it up by himself and that it "wasn't her pay grade to deal with this shit" yet again. Eventually, he had a breakdown and started slamming on the windows repeatedly, causing a obvious breakdownnas staff flooded in.

Ther was also a older woman about 70-80 who was just thrown in a room away from me, and the staff didn't address her all night until tye morning shift took over. They just locked her in a small observation room and it was clear later they soilded themselves.

Eventually I spoke with the mental health advocate and she told me it was obvious I didn't belong there, and that I'd be discharged at 6 am in 5 hours. never saw her again.

Eventually day shift comes and it was a light and day difference, a heavyset African American/black man came into the room and I asked him politely if he could tell me when exactly was I supposed to be discharged, he looked extremely confused for half a second and told me he'd find out for me. He also attended to the woman, him and a younger a nurse also checked a unresponsive man in my room and said he was fine because of his vitals. Honestly, rock star guy. Wish I got his name.

The previous night shift belittled me, never once told me what was happening and one of the black male nurses also told me I wasn't allowed to go to the restroom, yet the African American man who was on the spectrum was allowed three blankets and was allowed to go twice. I don't want to claim discrimination because one of his coworkers was white, but, I'm not sure.

Overall this was an extremely disappointing and disatisfactory experience, I don't want anyone to get in trouble or anything like that and I get my experience was likely worsened by my mental state but the way I and other patients were treated was genuinely horrible and I didn't appreciate the fact they put me in a room with barely conscious, fully grown men (I am in my early 20s, the oldest looked 60), and generally treated me horrible. Day...

A negligent hospital! The worst experience! We arrived at this hospital with my husband with a cholecystitis on Sunday, May 19 at noon, they received him and confirmed an inflamed and infected gallbladder and they referred him to a room since he had to undergo surgery. Since we went up to the room around 3 pm, we were told that we should wait for the surgeon Dr. ALVARO CASTILLO to arrive to perform it, and in the meantime my husband would be on painkillers and antibiotics. Sunday, passed without Dr. Castillo arriving and without us being told when the surgery would be performed. On Monday noon we still had no status about Sx. Everyone indicated that they were calling the Dr. and that they could not locate him (something It seems absurd to me that in a hospital of this magnitude there is not a surgery team with more doctors) my husband started to have a fever and they said it was normal because of his condition and he would be fine with antibiotics, medications that nursing team also forgot to bring him on time.

20th at 5 pm and my husband still in the same situation, lot of pain, with fever and Dr CASTILLO NOT APPEARING. At that time, together with my mother-in-law, we had to complain by phone and hold the hospital responsible for anything that could happen to my husband and threaten legal action so that they could take action and otherwise if they were not able to operate on my husband, they would refer him to another serious hospital where they could operate on him since his life was in danger there. After all of this, my husband had already gone a day and a half without eating or drinking because he had to be ready for the surgery that no one knew when it would take place. My husband started asking for food since no one had any idea when he was going to have surgery and a Doctor appeared ( Dr Ignacio) who got upset because he was asking for food and my husband told him how many more days he had to wait for the arrival of the ghost Dr Castillo and even more so when every night the bill increases, where Dr Ignacio indicated that if my husband didn't have money why he was in the hospital and that he as a doctor was also a cost to the hospital (disastrous response from a health professional). (30 hours since we arrived at the hospital) Dr. Castillo appeared, apologizing that he was very busy (unacceptable) and that the operation was going to be performed on Tuesday, May 21 at 12 noon. (When this had to be an emergency due to how inflamed and infected his gallbladder was)

May 21 at noon and no doctor arrived to take my husband to the operating room, many hours passed and our anguish over the risk of sepsis that my husband could run We began to press again and we were not given a clear answer, after 6 more hours and finally around 6 in the afternoon (80 hours after admission) my husband was taken to the operating room for an operation that would last approximately 1 hour. Finally my husband undergoes surgery and the team informs him that his gallbladder was gangrenous, inflaming the liver, stomach and pancreas and that is why the operation took longer than expected (obviously it took more than 80 hours to operate on him) but Dr Alvaro Castillo never He did not see my husband nor did he give him any explanation of what he did, much less did he leave a prescription for medications for him. My husband was taken to the room and the nurses had no idea what medications he should have since the doctor did not leave any indication. and after 5 hours they had to go to the doctor of the care team (Dr Pazin) to be able to have an order for medications, since Dr Castillo could not be contacted, that is, a total IMPROVISATION.

Wednesday 22nd, DR Castillo was supposed to come to check on my husband and tell us next steps, because he NEVER showed up, some doctors came in and They asked us if Dr Castillo had passed by and the truth is that I never saw him, its a true mockery and disrespect for how this Doctor and the...

Came here on November 7th,2023. NEVER GO HERE TO BE BAKER ACTED. I was baker acted 11/7/23 for depression, thinking it’ll help… WORST experiences. I was on level 2 I think is what they call it idk, when I was down in the examination room for 12hrs sitting in a recliner, in a room with 6 other people that need help, doors kept closed. Not allowed to walk around as you sit for 10+ hours waiting to get a bed, the nurses were complaining to each other about a lady that was there and told the them she has social anxiety and if she can be put in a room alone.(which they have those rooms it was empty, light off, not being used) but no she wasn’t in there, they had her sit in a CHAIR for idk how long but more than 8hrs. So the lady OBVIOUSLY can’t keep sitting any longer so ask if she can just walk up and down HALF of the hallway, nurses said no sit down. I tried asking the psychiatrist that was working that shift in the observation room, couldn’t even get my question out my mouth and she opens there door “if you don’t go sit down your gonna get a shot” woah. Ok all I wanted to know was what time is dinner. But went back to the room they want you to stay locked in, and just drank the water there nice enough to leave in the rooms… and that doesn’t count as day 1, so just off that alone, could you imagine how nasty and rude the nurses were once I got a bed? How much more it made my mental WORSE. My anxiety was off the walls EVERYDAY they took me OFF my anxiety medication that I been on for 2+ YEARS, and give me GABAPENTIN! That’s for PAIN if you don’t know. That did not help at all with my panic attacks, they put me on this blue pill called “abilify” for my “mood” which my psychiatrist says he has no idea why they did that when I’m not bipolar so I stopped taking what they gave me, and got put on the RIGHT medication. They do not help at all. They make your anxiety level off the charts, your depressed everyday because your stuck in a place with rude nurses that’s just there to be paid, they don’t help there just there. One lady was screaming crying she couldn’t breathe she’s having a panic attack, as the nurses just all sit there and look at each other like wow what’s wrong with her? they told her “stop over reacting go lay down and go to sleep your fine” . All day everyday all you can do is sit and watch tv(if you find a chair or open spot on the small couch) do these bullshit “group therapy” where it’s no help at all, people need one on one sessions not everyone is gonna speak openly in a room with other people. I asked if they had an idea of when my discharge is since I was feeling better, so I can call my job and let them know so I won’t be fired, they told me one day, that day comes they tell me “2 more days I promise”, they said they were gonna give me a note for my job but I didn’t get one in my discharge packet, so I lost my job. That’s only half. But thanks for your...