Whitney Huber

Review of Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medica...

In February of this year, my 5 week old son was di...

In February of this year, my 5 week old son was diagnosed, by Dr. Blithe, with a communicating hydrocele. He advised that we schedule him for surgery as soon as possible. We were told that because of his age, and being put under anesthesia, he would have to stay in the hospital overnight to be monitored. We were happy to pay for the surgery and the overnight visit to assure our sons safety and health.

We were scheduled for surgery on February 21st, 2012 where he was treated for two communicating hydrocele s. Dr. Blithe did a great job and was extremely professional. As this is our first child, we were very concerned about the anesthesia and surgery. The nurses taking care of him before and immediately after surgery were very comforting, nurturing and helpful, putting us at ease.

His overnight hospital stay was not so pleasant. I stayed overnight with our son and my husband left, as there was sleeping capacity for only one. And sleeping capacity is used lightly. The hospital is not made for parents to spend the night with their children, which seems absurd to me. This would have been fine except that a random man walked into our room at around 2:30 while I was feeding our son. I felt very unsafe and no one seemed to notice that this even happened. My husband was also able to come and go with no guards or locked entrances. Even more concerning was when our son s monitors started beeping many times throughout the night. Nurses did not come in to check on him, so I finally called the nurse s station. They told me they would turn them off so I wouldn t have to listen to the beeping all night. The reason I was told he needed to spend the night was so he could be monitored. This obviously didn t happen. The nurses were extremely unhelpful, unfriendly and seemed annoyed at our presence. I felt he was neglected and the entire stay was unnecessary as far as his health was concerned.

Having recently spent time in another hospital facility for the birth of our son, this experience was terrible in comparison. We were recommended by our pediatrician, Dr. Gablehouse at Peak Pediatrics, and by other friends and family in the health care profession to go to Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children. I would find it impossible to recommend your hospital to anyone and now feel obligated to relay our experience to anyone who may be thinking of going here.