If You Have To Go To The Hospital

May 7, 2010

Interview with Dr. Laura Nathanson, author of the book What You Don't Know Can Kill You: A Physician's Radical Guide to Conquering the Obstacles to Excellent Medical Care

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Mike Carruthers:
We have great medical care in this country but still things can and do go wrong in the hospital. So here's some advice…

Dr. Laura Nathanson:
Every patient who is in the hospital overnight for anything but the most basic and simple problem needs to have somebody with them twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
 

Pediatrician Dr. Laura Nathanson, author of the book What You Don't Know Can Kill You.

And there are several reasons for that. The first one is that we have a severe nursing shortage and you can't count on somebody being there even for an emergency. You have to be prepared to step in and take over. In my husband's case he was having more and more trouble breathing through the night - the doctor was unresponsive, you have to go to the nurses and yell to get a doctor to come in.

Although she is a medical doctor, Laura's husband died after being misdiagnosed. She says you simply must get involved with your own healthcare.

There's nobody who cares as much as you do. And there's nobody who would be so familiar with the patient, whether it's you or a loved one, than you are.

Dr. Nathanson says if you or a loved one goes into the hospital please make sure that a friend or family member is with the patient as much as possible.

You can be a hero, you can be your own hero or your spouse's hero or you child's hero - and I've seen that happen a lot.