Don't Ask Me

"So tell me...What happened?" Another doctor appointment with yet another doctor.

 

There's something wrong with the system.

 

A person ends up in the hospital. That person is found to be PVS. Put that person in a care home and forget.

 

10 years later that person is putting stuff on the Internet.

 

What happened? You are the one who forgot about that person, and you are asking? Isn't that your job? Don't ask me.

(I'm used to doctors asking me what happened and getting a funny look. I hate first appointments. What about the patient who doesn't know what's going on? What if that patient can't talk? You can't ask them. They are probably still in the care home, anyway.)



[At the last hospital I was at, there was one person who started pointing at letters on a communication board. This is what I did! He went to a nursing home when that hospital unit closed, though. The hospital staff person that worked with him on the communication board wouldn't be there. There's no guarantee that the home even had communication  boards. They usually don't. He would have lost those skills in the first few months-use it or lose it. I'm sure he lost it. All the patients in that ward were "semi-vegetative." It was mostly funded, if not all, by Medicaid, and was closed due to cost. Nursing homes are cheaper than hospitals. I was released to family which is no cost at all. There could have been two "talking vegetables", but money was more important. Also, at this hospital, one could communicate, but be "semi-vegetative", probably because "once PVS always PVS." I hope it's not because of funding, but it was once explained that the government paid more for the more one is disabled.]