In other news, my 70 year-old brother-in-law fell and broke his arm last week. We called 911 and had him taken to the local hospital ER by ambulance. After a couple of hours and an X-ray of the arm, they first said they were going to send him home in a sling. A few minutes later the ER doctor came in and said she'd changed her mind. He was probably going to need surgery and the best thing would be to take him to a hospital in Columbus.
I'd never been to that particular hospital so I asked the for directions. They gave me a sheet of directions from Google Maps, no actual map though. I read it over carefully, thought I could find the hospital, and headed North.
Two and a half hours later I almost found the hospital...almost being the key word. I got within one turn of getting there. It was rush hour and starting to get dark, I couldn't see the street signs very well and missed a turn. After going about a mile or so, I realized I'd missed it and turned around. I missed it again on the way back and ended up on the Interstate going in the wrong direction. I finally found an exit to turn around again but it was completely dark by that time and there wasn't an on-ramp to get back on the Interstate going back to my destination. I pulled into a fast-food joint with free wi-fi and looked up the street map on my smart phone. After studying the map for a while, I headed out again...in the wrong direction again. After about 10 miles of driving I came to a dead end and turned around and went back to the burger joint. This time I got my directions straight and got back on the Interstate and eventually found the hospital.
This particular hospital is apparently considered the place to go for trauma cases. They are located in the middle of town and get all of the really bad injuries including gunshot wounds, etc. with some rough looking people wandering around the halls at times. After waiting a while he was given a bed and I followed the gurney up to his room. A couple of doors down was an old drunk berating a young nurse who was only trying to take his vitals. He was calling her some pretty nasty names but she was professional about it and kept a smile on her face the whole time. Another lady was talking on a cell phone in the hall, explaining to someone what the word "incarcerated" means.
After more X-rays the doctor decided that my brother-in-law didn't need surgery, all he needed was a sling. That was seven days ago. He's still in the hospital. His blood work and urine test indicated he had some kidney problems. We already knew that, he's been seeing a kidney doctor locally for about a year...but they don't want to release him until they get some better numbers.
I was in to see him today and noticed a few minutes after arriving that someone in the next room was making some loud noises. At first I thought that it might be someone was being moved and was experiencing some pain...but soon realized that the exclamations didn't really fit that scenario. It was more like the script from an old Batman TV show with strange hoots every thirty seconds or so. After a few minutes of this, I started writing down all of the exclamations. Here's a list: Bang! Pow! Hoot! Yeehaw! Woo! Whoop! Woot! Ahhhh! Lalalala! Yay! Boom! Fight-fight-fight! Whoooo! Yahhhh! Noooo! Hey-ho! Awwww! Ohrah! Yes! Oooo! Yahoo!
Heading back tomorrow, hoping they'll release him but not too optimistic about the chances.
No comments:
Post a Comment