parents often need to teach their children how to be honored. ms. lynn savage, a dedicated mother, has taught both her daughter and the united states an important lesson: “how do you take care of a sicked loved one?”
her story is also about the ever increasing intellectual dishonesty, corruption and dysfunction with medical institutions. their actions are are crippling quality care. these institutions appear to have forgotten their role: treating patients. ms. savage’s story may perhaps awaken them and others concerning that role.
ms. lynn savage’s daughter was in the hospital for a very serious medical condition: a stroke. ms. savage was attending to her daughter. she was there in the hospital and had been there for a significant amount of time. thus, for our purposes, an assumption can be made that she entered the hospital as a visitor following the hospital’s covid-19 protocol. in other words, covid-19 was not a concern over her continued presence. she was screened.
one doctor on site understood and appreciated that value of having a family member present. while she assisted her daughter who was non-verbal and was paralyzed on her left side from a stroke, the physician brought ms. savage into the intensive care unit in order to help calm her daughter down after the operation.
at 7 pm, when visitation hours were over, totalitarianism took hold. she was told to leave by a nurse. ms. savage rightly resisted. COVID-19 protocol and rules took priority over common sense and good medical practice. ms. savage rightly refused and after a significant period of time was arrested and placed in jail for trespassing.
ms. savage told them that “i said, ‘i’m not going to leave. i want to stay here with my daughter. can you call the doctor because the doctor is the one that wanted me here with her?’” she said. “and [the nurse] said no, that they couldn’t do that. that COVID rules said that visiting hours were over at 7 and i had to leave.” ms. savage noted that “they were also very polite. they kept trying to get me to leave and i said, ‘i’m not leaving,’” savage told the outlet. after several hours of not giving in to officers’ pleas, savage was taken to jail, where she spent roughly a day. “it was just terrifying, but i would rather be there than know that i had walked away from my daughter…” savage said. nypost.com
sometimes medical facilities get it right. in taking care of hospitalized elderly parents, our family have experienced both nurses and hospitals who have understood that relatives and loved ones can assist in the medical care process. when our father, with alzheimers was in both a hospital and rehabilitation center, various family members and assistants provided essentially 24 hours of assistance. being at locations other than his home, he was frequently disoriented and required constant assurance that everything would be acceptable.
in ms. savage’s instance, the hospital failed. her story should be a topic at every hospital and facility. provisions should be made to consider that relatives can play a role in the treatment protocol. in ms. savage’s instance, one physician on site appreciated her value to provide additional support that the medical facility couldn’t.
we wish her daughter a healthy and safety recovery.
in sum, one day, ms. savage, perhaps, may be ill and ms. savage’s daughter may be there to assist. she certainly will know, from her mother’s story, that taking care of family is something that you might need a conviction to do.
be well!!
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