I’m looking at and talking to you, HARRIS METHODIST SOUTHWEST EMERGENCY ROOM in southwest Fort Worth, Texas, to be exact. I just want to make sure EVERYONE KNOWS how ABYSMAL THE QUALITY OF CARE IS THERE.  

How would you feel if you showed up to an Emergency Room, with your mother on her deathbed, only to get a staff full of physicians who couldn’t care less about her? All they wanted to do was to get her out of there and I AM APPALLED.

I drove her there today because she had a severe bowel blockage – after X-rays, all they did was come in and pump my mother’s abdomen full of fluid, neglecting to fill her in on the X-ray results.

As she was being discharged, I happened to see a screen shot of said X-ray slides as a nurse looked over it while my mother writhed around in her hospital bed, screaming. And I casually brought it up again, discussing it with our main nurse on our way out.

They let her leave with copious amounts of backed up stool filling her abdomen. They didn’t offer surgical removal as an option, and, instead, made my 57 year old mother sit on a makeshift toilet until she couldn’t feel her legs. She was crying, screaming in pain, and pleading with them to just stop and help her. And let me tell you something – my mother is tough as nails. She NEVER cries. NEVER.

“I can’t breathe,” she kept telling the nurse. “My chest feels heavy.”

WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT DID THEY DO OR SAY?

NOTHING.

Putting her through such a rigorous physical ordeal that I felt could have been avoided if they would have LISTENED to her and stopped minimizing her concerns was APPALLING. IT WAS DEPLORABLE. My mom has severe back injuries (documented, multiple back injuries – as well as multiple, documented back surgeries and procedures) – all of the eight hours we were there, it seemed as though my mom was being tortured.

“I’m starting to lose feelings in my legs,” she cried weakly to the nurse.

Empathy? Solutions? Answers?

HA!

Apathetic, disillusioned, empathy-lacking medical staff far outweigh the opposite. They’re overworked, don’t care, and if you cry in front of them, they frown and hand you a box of tissues.

No wonder America HAS BEEN CONSISTENTLY LAST among developed nations in terms of care quality, results, treatment over the years. And it’s only continued to get worse. I saw it today in front of my own eyes.

DO BETTER.

My mother is no stranger to traditional western medical practices – she’s been an LVN in the state of Texas and in the state of Florida since 1978. She understands that they have their marching orders, but today, they crossed a line that I refuse to let them get away with.

I received better medical care in Paris in the ’80s when I had a stomach bug. That is the truth.

America also boasts the MOST EXPENSIVE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN THE WORLD.

IN THE WORLD.

Get your shit together. Care less about your pharmaceutical buddies and care more about the person in front of you who’s lost feeling in their legs and whose lips are white, while you’re looking at an X-ray full of bowel blockages.

YOU’RE BAD AT YOUR JOB. YOU’RE BAD WITH PEOPLE. You don’t have a God complex-you have an asshole complex. 

Told you I was going to shout this from the rooftops. 

Kelly Fitzharris Coody

Editor-in-Chief

CEO