Do you know the way out of San Jose

A recurring theme ... How bad could it be
to go to Santa Clara Valley Hospital in San
Jose. During the admit appointment Friday
we find out we will be sent to a new Hospital.
How lovely that is. A Patient at Stanford
Children's Hospital but being sent to San
Jose; about 20 miles further south.

Off we go, determined to make the best of
it. So ! During the night the Nurses cement
the conclusion that Stanford Children's is
the best. On 3 occasions during the night
it takes 3 calls each time to get a response
to the IV pump alarming. What's a little
missed sleep. Oh, Stanford didn't tell us
but we ended up in a County Hospital.

How bad ? All throughout the day the IV
pump continues to alarm. At least every 30
minutes. We have a very sweet Nurse but quality
here is the issue. Instead of bringing a new
pump she removes the Antibiotic from the pump
and uses Gravity feed; not an accurate means
of delivering the Antibiotic. This slips by
us for a couple of hours but when we quesion
how she fixed the pump we get the real story.
Ah, that's not that bad ! Rosie's on the
phone to Stanford; Dr. Maureen O'Brien ( how's
that for Irish ) please get us out of here..
Paige is being transfused to increase her
hemoglobin and red blood count. The alarm
on that pump goes off and I buzz for help.
No response. About 10 minutes go by and it
alarms again ( pressed the good old mute
button on the pump ). I buzz again. Finally
the Nurse gets there. "Oh", she exclaims this
isn't good. What's not good, no response ?
After a quick visual inspection on my part
it not good. The line carrying the blood
to Paige's Central line has about 12 inches
of blood left and then it's going to be
pumping air ! Gasp ! No idea how bad that
really was, but Rosie is back on the phone
to Stanford; "Get us the heck out of here".

Finally around 8PM ( 5 hours later ) the
Ambulance to take us home ( Stanford ) is
on the scene. That sense of pending doom
is gone and off we go. In hindsight you
have to ask ????? How can the quality of
care be so different ? We had 4 shifts of
the Nursing staff and it was consistently
poor ( except the Ethiopian woman Makta
that had us the first few hours Friday before
her shift changed )!