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.
You can link
to Laura's
website from ours; Somethingyoushouldknow.net - I'm Mike
Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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