My appreciation for our medical system increased greatly after interviewing my Aunt Jilla who told me about her husband’s diagnosis of stomach cancer and their journey of being in and out of the hospital for five years. My aunt emphasized how optimistic her husband was throughout the five years, never giving up hope that sooner or later he would be discharged from the hospital. He was admitted to the hospital multiple different times commonly for Pneumonia infection, which lasted about a week to ten days before he was released. After a while, his wife, son and daughters expected his stay to be no longer than a week until his last admission to Cedar Sinai hospital came around which lasted for one year before he passed.
“The whole five years was overwhelming” Jilla stated when talking about the process of dealing with the hospital. She mentioned that sometimes the process was fast and sometimes they were waiting for hours before a room was available for them. Every patient is different based on how serious their medical diagnosis is and how many times they were admitted to the hospital. For the first few times her husband was admitted to the hospital, they would usually go to the emergency room where a full checkup would be done before he was admitted to the ICU where the treatment would be continued. After about a year or so, Jila’s husband had become a regular at Cedar Sinai hospital. He had a whole team of doctors assigned to monitor and watch him closely as he was getting more infections than normal. Jila trusted the staff of doctors to look after him and run the necessary tests he needed in case she briefly needed to step out of the hospital. Since Jila was not very knowledgeable about the proper medication, procedures and treatment needed to help her husband, she let the staff take full control and she knew that any question she or her husband had, they would be able to answer. She mentioned that when they would enter the room to give medication or do a treatment they would first ask how her husband was doing and then continue to let him know what they were going to give him or do next so her and her husband never felt lost or confused. During his last year at the hospital when his sickness was at its lowest point, he was receiving many services from physical and occupational therapists. However, there was a point where he was too weak and unable to continue his Physical therapy sessions so he was solely working with an Occupational therapist for some grooming activities in bed. The Physical Therapists however, were still doing stable exercises with him to strengthen his legs and prevent any blood clots from occurring. During the last year at the hospital, there was an unfortunate incident where insurance did not cover her husband’s stay for any longer. A lot of sacrifice had to be made by Jila since she could not afford to bring her husband home and he needed to be under doctor supervision. His infections were rapid and consistent and they had a stable team of doctors so Jila made sure that her husband stayed at Cedar Sinai hospital. Jila also sacrificed many sleepless nights at the hospital since the nurses were always in and out of the room checking on her husband and monitoring him throughout the night. Despite the lack of sleep, Jila was very thankful for the nurses keeping her on track of her husband’s journey. The nurses always made sure to have his medication prepared beforehand in case he was being discharged and they had a list of doctors available 24/7 in case of an emergency. Even after the tragic day occurred on February 23, 2013, Jila still spoke so highly of the staff, commenting, “Nobody understood how I felt in my family the way the nurses and the hospital staff did. They mourned with me, they cried with me, and they hugged me and assured me that my husband was in a better place.”
After interviewing my aunt Jila, it was hard to see her go back to a dark time and remember the memories she had with her husband, but hearing all the wonderful things she experienced from the staff at the hospital made me happy that they were able to make a very non-enjoyable experience somewhat bearing.