My wife attended a funeral today. The man who was the guest of honor had died of COVID, and was the father of a friend. My wife went to pay her respects. The story that she was told left me speechless.
When the man became sick to the point where he was not doing well, they took him to a local hospital. (Not the one where I work). It turns out to have been the worst mistake that they could have made. After he was admitted, he became sicker. They would not allow any family in to see him. For the next ten days, his health began to suffer. He was moved to the ICU.
A wealthy friend of the family hired a medical evacuation team and a private jet to fly him to a larger, better equipped hospital. The better hospital agreed to accept him. The medical team arrived at the airport and was ready to take him to the other hospital. The small, local hospital refused to allow him to leave.
A few days later, he died. A Catholic, and a priest was not even allowed in to give last rites. He died alone, having not seen his family in over two weeks.
I would find out the name of the doctor that did this to my family. He would receive a visit from me, where I delivered some hard lessons.
I recently had a similar situation occur at my hospital. A fellow employee came to me because she needed help with obtaining information about her mother, who was a patient in the COVID ward. I helped her. She and her mother were both thankful.
I was called by my boss and told not to help her and used HIPAA as an excuse. I said OK, and then told my fellow employee what paperwork to fill out that would require the hospital to release the information.
My boss found out, and I got a HUGE ass chewing. I asked her how she would feel if that were HER mother. She told me that was beside the point. Things got heated, and I am surprised that I wasn’t fired myself. My wife was concerned.
My wife is upset about the death of her friend’s father. I told her that was the exact reason why I would not violate my principles for a paycheck. “I was just following orders” is not something I am prepared to try and use as a defense.
She understands that I have morals and principles that I live by. There are some things that I just won’t do. One of them is to violate those principles, and I don’t care how big of a paycheck I lose as a result.
The doctors and other healthcare personnel who did this should be ashamed of themselves.
