Hilary Rose

Review of Brotman Medical Center

By far the most traumatic, horrific hospital exper...

By far the most traumatic, horrific hospital experience imaginable. Under no circumstances should anyone consider going to this hospital by choice. My godmother was transferred here from her nursing facility when she tested positive for Covid. I am her medical conservator but never received a call. I had to hunt her down and when I finally found that she was there, was given no information on her condition while she waited in the ER for hours to be admitted. Once admitted the only information I received was by calling the ICU which I did every few hours during the 8 days she was there before she died. I left message after message for her/any Dr. to call me and never once received a call back. In fact, I never received a call from a nurse, caseworker or hospitalist until I finally spoke to a nurse, Jonathon, who was willing to take the time to answer my questions fully and truthfully. He let me know that she was not going to recover and her family and I could choose "withdrawal of care". Hours later a hospitalist called to confirm that these were our wishes which he then authorised. I learned later that day that he had ordered a morphine pump vs. a drip, despite her being unconscious so unable to control a pump to relieve what was finally admitted again by Jonathon was "some distress" In other words, she was in pain but the hospitalist could have but chose not to order a morphine drip to ensure the end of her life would be painless. Days earlier the PM nurse complained to me that the AM nurse had left her all day in a soaking wet bed, never changed her, she just had changed her entire bed and inserted a Foley. I learned only that she had died when I called for my regular evening check in and was told by the nurse, "oh, I was just about to call you. Your mom passed, sorry for your loss". No time of death, no other information. It has now been 13 days since she died and Dr. James Burrows who was presumably overseeing her care has not yet bothered to sign her death certificate. Because of this she has been lying in refrigeration at the crematorium despite my repeated calls to his office - mailbox is full - the charge nurse at Southern California Hospital - and requests made and ignored to speak to someone in administration. Im horrified by the lack of professionalism and compassion and cannot begin to imagine what her last days and moments were like at this disgusting excuse for a hospital.