I’m just totally disgusted with this new Eastar Health System in Muskogee. Years ago, when it was Muskogee Regional Medical Center, it used to be a really great hospital with some pretty great doctors and nurses, including my mother, who I was really proud of, although I had heard that in past years there had been problems and many of the better doctors had moved elsewhere. When I was young, I was hospitalized from a car wreck, and then a brain tumor, and then I had my daughter there. I always received excellent care and the whole staff was very competent and nice. I was sad to see that Eastar had bought MRMC out and had taken over, but, I didn’t think I would be so upset with them as I am right now. My daughter and I went to the emergency room this morning at about midnight due to her having what seems to be a terrible sinus infection with laryngitis plus the other symptoms that go with it that were making her just feel terrible. She was too sick to make it until Monday to see a doctor and we sure don’t want little Kaleb to catch this as he’s only 3 months old. James and I are keeping him so he’s not so exposed. Anyway, the first thing that made me angry is that when we pulled up to the ER, we pulled into a parking spot that had no sign of any kind. The two spots to the left had signs that said “Emergency Vehicles Only” or something to that effect. The space to our immediate right had no sign either. I don’t know about farther down the row. We went and checked in and were waiting in the waiting room when two young security guards who displayed the attitude that said that everybody in the room should know that they were important guys walked in and asked who was driving the red car and the PT Cruiser in the parking lot. Patience whispered to them that she owned the red car. They told her that she had to move it across the street because those spots were for emergency vehicles only. I spoke up and told them that we had only parked there because there was no sign stating such. One guy got kind of snarky and said, “There ARE signs posted.” So, Patience went out and moved her car. I wanted to because she was sick, but since I’m epileptic and have no driver’s license, I couldn’t. She came back in and we settled in for what looked to be at least a 4 hour wait as the waiting room was about half full. We were watching the TV when a young black woman ran in and started calling, “Hello! Hello! Hello?” at the window. She started screaming that her son had been shot. The woman, who was away from her desk came back and went and got help. We were wondering what had happened and how old the kid was and how bad it was. Sadly, we found out that it was a little six year old boy. I have no idea what happened or if he survived. I pray he’s all right. Things kind of settled down again in the waiting room when the security guards came back in demanding that people move their cars from the spots that had no signs. Then a tow truck showed up. Patience looked out the window and said, “That’s that lady’s car. The one with the boy who was shot.” I walked up to the window and told the lady at the desk, “I think that the car that they’re getting ready to tow belongs to the lady with the little boy.” She replied that it was not her car. Well, by this time my back was hurting so badly from those waiting room chairs that I decided to walk out to the car and sit for a little while where I could be comfortable and let it ease up since I knew it would be at least a couple of hours before Patience was called back anyway. I made a point of walking by the parking place that we had parked at just to double check, and just as I had known, there was no sign of any kind. There were police by this time around the lady’s car and they were marking the area off around her car with crime scene tape. I don’t know if the boy was shot in the car or what. I went ahead and walked to the car and sat down and called James to let him know what was going on. I looked up and Patience was getting in on the driver’s side looking really upset. I hung up with James and asked what was going on. She said that she had to leave, that she just couldn’t stay in there with what all was going on. Apparently, the mother of the little boy’s sister showed up and was at the window begging the lady to please let her sister know she was there. She kept saying, “Please! Just tell her her sister is here! I’m here! Please tell her!” She was so upset that the woman at the window apparently told her that if she didn’t calm down and sit down she would call the police. At this point, the sister yelled, “Fine! Call the f***ing police!” She went back outside and was calling somebody. As we drove by, Patience pointed her out. She was an attractive, well-dressed black lady, mid twenties, and had a little girl with her about 4 or 5 years old. Patience said that more of the mother’s family had come in and that nobody would tell the mother that her family had shown up. This is probably who the woman had been calling as she had run into the hospital because as she ran up to the window, she was also talking hysterically on the cell phone. I know from being in the ER from a car accident that when you’re in there from a trauma, or whatever reason, that it is NICE to know that you have family there for you. I don’t know if the lady at the desk was refusing to inform the mother just to be a b**** or because they were black, or what her reasons were, but as far as Patience and I and apparently a lot of the other people in the waiting room were concerned, there was no excuse. I’m hoping that surely it wasn’t just because it was a black family. I don’t see color. I see trash and not trash. This family was definitely not trash. They were all well-dressed and the mother drove a rather expensive really nice car. But, had they been total trash, it still didn’t matter. They were people who were going through a crisis situation and the mother should’ve been informed that she had support at what is probably the worst time of her life. I was so upset by the whole ordeal and the way that family was treated that I called the house supervisor when I got home and filed a complaint. I also filed a complaint about cars being threatened to be towed from parking spots with no signs. I guarantee if mine were towed, it wouldn’t be me who paid the tow bill! I also told her that if I had a choice, I would definitely not be using Eastar Health Systems again and would go to the other hospital in town. But, that I knew I had no choice because Eastar has bought that one out, also. I’ve never heard of Eastar before. But, then, I’ve not lived in Oklahoma for several years until the last two. All I’ve got to say is that so far…I am NOT impressed!
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 07:16:26 +0000
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