Elaine Sullivan was an active seventy-one year old, living on her own in Chicago. One day while getting ready to take a bath, she slipped and fell, striking her head and mouth on the side of the tub. Her neighbors didn't see her for a few hours and called the paramedics who went in and found her, conscious, but unable to speak. Elaine had been a patient at that hospital before, she had private insurance, Medicare and everything she needed. Or so she thought. Even though she was stable, injuries to her mouth made her unable to speak or swallow. Over the next few days after a series of serious medical errors and a critical drug interaction, her condition worsened.
Elaine Sullivan was my grandma. Despite the fact that the hospital had my mother's and my contact information for our home in Los Angeles, the hospital neglected to call us for 6 1/2 days. By the time they did, Grandma was in critical condition, from a lack of the most basic care. By the time we found out she'd been hospitalized, it was too late and we were unable to get to her bedside before she died, unnecessarily and alone.
As we found out the hard way, some hospitals don't make calling your next of kin, their priority.
Even though most hospitals try to find an unconscious patient's emergency contacts and notify them in a reasonable amount of time, sometimes they're just too busy, distracted or understaffed.
Later we found that one of the main factors that caused Grandma's death was the fact that the doctors treating her didn't have her medical or prescription drug history at their fingertips.
Of course the reason they didn't have it, is that they didn't call us to obtain it. But through this, we found out first-hand how critical communicating that information can be.
In the years since, we've found that our story is only the tip of a very deep iceberg. There are hundreds of stories of people who were literally minutes away from the hospital where their family member lay dying, but were never contacted. When the call came it was hours, days or in some cases weeks later, if it came at all. In many cases, just like ours, the loved one died completely and unnecessarily alone.
Recent natural disasters and terrorist attacks, have only amplified the need to get a trauma victim's identification, medical history and emergency contact information as quickly as humanly possible.
When a patient is brought in the emergency room unconscious, besides obvious injuries, the doctors caring for him, have basically no information about their patient. They have no idea what he might be allergic to, what medications he's taking or the surgery he had the month before. When it comes to you and your family, it's up to you to fill in that missing piece BEFORE emergencies occur.
Making Emergency Information Accessible
You may have done a lot of work in finding and gathering your family's information, putting it into your own or Grab It And Go Forms and securing it, so if emergency strikes, you'll know where it is. But all of that hard work will do you absolutely no good, if a hospital treating your loved ones, can't access it. If your spouse or child is in a situation where they can't speak for themselves and you aren't there to speak for them, something has to do the speaking for them.
When someone you love is injured or sick, the first thing you want to do is make sure that she receives the care she needs - immediately. And nothing can stand in the way of that happening. It's easy to do and it only comes down to one word - communication.
