Fall in hospital lead to extended stay.

[Silverplum]

@justalayman:
Not every patient, no, but one who was clearly unsteady? yes.
As to my being there, what has been suggested is that I trust the medical professional's judgement, they left her alone so I didn't see a reason not to.
But yes, I continue to blaim myself for not catching her in time. I will spend the rest of my life feeling that it was my fault. (that's not meant as a guilt push or anything, just acknowledging it).

@ecmst and lealea:
Thank you for your input. Might not be the preferred answer, but fact is more important than desire and I appreciate your taking the time to talk to me.

As a small aside, ecmst, I'm aware of the concern, but when you're the brand new doctor who doesn't know the patient, and the nurse tells you she's fine, maybe you should take the circumstances of the conversation into account and check with their doctor before sticking them with more tests. Specially since the next day her real doctor even stated that they were not needed.

@Silverplum:
A suggestion, though it may come as offense. Parroting what someone else already said without adding anything new or useful just makes you appear antagonistic and useless. No matter what your real personality is, if you come off as those things to people all you do is get them to ignore you, which seems counterproductive to the purpose of this board.

@Elvin and lealea:
Again, thank you for the correct information. I would like to state the "intense" reaction to being woken up to bad news was that she "seemed down" and "didn't like looking me in the eye". The first is expected, the second is something three seconds of conversation with her nurse or real doctor would reveal is just her normal behavior (she's doesn't like eye-contact with strangers, she's working on it, but there it is and her doctor and nurse knew about it). Covering yourself at the expense of doing the right thing is a major issue for me, but not a legal one. So I'll close with again saying thank you to those of you who provided information.

What a joy and a pleasure it has been.

 

[justalayman]

=KakitaOCU;2779635]@justalayman:
Not every patient, no, but one who was clearly unsteady? yes.
As to my being there, what has been suggested is that I trust the medical professional's judgement, they left her alone so I didn't see a reason not to.

suggested? by whom? You are an adult and so is she. Do you require a person to tell you when you should sit down because you are unsteady? Regardless of them leaving her alone, she acted on her own. On top of that, this was due to a new and previously unknown situation and not actually due to the unsteadiness already present. Were they to see into the future and know she was going to seize? You were the one there and if YOU believed she needed assistance, then you should have done so or suggested she sit down until somebody that you were willing to pay to help your wife get undressed come to aid her.

But yes, I continue to blaim myself for not catching her in time. I will spend the rest of my life feeling that it was my fault. (that's not meant as a guilt push or anything, just acknowledging it).

yes, you have more blame here than the hospital.





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[commentator]

And even if you were going to sue them, you'd still have to pay the bill. Not paying the hospital bill because you did not like the way the situation went or the way they treated you is not ever an option.