Marie Morris

Review of Park Ridge Health

A two star is generous. My daughter had a pacemake...

A two star is generous. My daughter had a pacemaker put in this morning and from the moment she arrived she was hurried along so that the doctor could work on three other heart patients scheduled that day. When she voice her fears, the attendant nurse told her, "you're the first patient the doctor has. It's the third patient that should worry."

My daughter was already very stressed at the prospect of getting a heart pacemaker at a young age, but that's not the issue. The issue is that when she got back to her recovery room she was in very bad pain and the nurse in attendance wanted her rushed out after about a little over an hour in her recovery bed.

My daughter, on a pain level of one to ten with ten the worst was easily at the level ten. She was in horrible pain. The nurse could have been a lot more gentle, but it was very obvious that they wanted my daughter sent home.

My daughter threw up for over 1/2 hour all the way from Chattanooga to her home. Once we arrived back at my daughter's home, she was having a bad reaction to the anesthesia and fainted in her bathroom. Only my grand-daughter's quick catch of her mother prevented further injury to my daughter.

I believe that heart surgery patients should stay at least overnight at this hospital and get better stabilized. You can't expect a major surgery patient to take an oral pain reliever on an empty stomach and keep it down. My daughter was in such distress right after waking up from surgery when they brought her some breakfast, which she couldn't eat.

This hospital's policy is not in favor of surgery patients but might be the standard in most hospitals in the area. Given a choice, I will not choose Parkridge East Medical Center for any of my surgeries.