In this blog I wanted to talk about my experience in Rehab at Vibra Hospital of Southeastern Massachusetts. In 2018, I suffered a nearly fatal respiratory failure which landed me in the hospital ICU for two weeks and led to me getting my Trach. At the end of those two weeks, I was discharged from Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, MA and sent to rehab in New Bedford just to teach my mom the basics of trach care and to try to acclimate me to my new life(teach me to talk again, i.e). Unfortunately the Cape has no rehabilitation facilities that deal with people on vents so that's why I got sent so far from home. It's a very scary experience especially when you can't have anyone you know stay with you.
So I was taken by ambulance from Hyannis to New Bedford, which is about an hour and a half away, while my mom followed behind. They got me to a room and settled me in and my mom was able to stay the first night. Everything seemed to be okay, the nurses and CNAs were pretty nice so I was a little more relaxed. After the first night, my mom could only come and visit during the day until around 9pm but she was staying at a friends house about 5 mins away. I was as comfortable as I could be for the first week. The speech pathologist came in every day as did the Respiratory doctor and physical therapist. Everything was going good until the weekend when the nurses and CNAs you usually hear about neglecting their patients in rehab came to work. I'm about to talk about some really personal stuff lol so prepare yourselves.
The first upstanding employee was the CNA with an attitude problem. Before I left CCH, they removed the catheter from my.. well you know.. because I regained control over my bladder. At Vibra, I peed myself a couple times because it took the nurses or CNAs a few minutes to come to my room because they had other people too. The first time I did it, it was a few days after I got there when the assholes had their shift. This woman comes in and is like "where's his condom catheter?" to the nurse with her. The nurse tells her that the doctor said I didn't need it. Now anytime I've used a condom catheter, it never has worked out. Since I couldn't speak I couldn't tell her that and she said she wouldn't use the word board because "she didn't have time". She cleaned me up and left without putting on the condom catheter. About 45 minutes later I did it again. The same CNA comes in with an attitude problem. Since the nurse wasn't with her and she was with another CNA, she figured she could get away with being an asshole and since I can't talk who am I going to tell. She was like "I was in here a half hour ago for the same thing, I'm not coming in here all night to do this" and then addressed me like I was a hard of hearing caveman. It was slow, loud, and full of condescension. "Sweetie you don't have control of your bladder and I don't have time to come in here every 5 mins. We're putting a condom catheter on you so you don't pee the bed" Thanks bitch... you act like I'm doing it on purpose. I don't know how these people get a job working with people. She put the thing on and I ended up getting a sore on my... private parts.
The following night, I had a nurse who decided to totally ignore me. At first she seemed like a sweet older woman. I was wrong. I still had the condom catheter on and as I said before, they don't work for me. I ended up peeing the bed anyway and the nurse was like you can't pee the bed with that on and refused to check. Then I ended up shitting myself due to the drugs they were giving me. I was able to get her attention and she says "okay honey I'll get a CNA" and walked away. I don't appreciate being called honey and I'm pretty sure a nurse isn't supposed to use words like that. After about an hour, there was no sign of any CNA. The nurse comes in to check the vent and I start making a clicking noise with my mouth to get her attention. The nurses knew that if I was doing that it meant I needed something. We went over that with the staff as soon as I arrived. Yet this nurse was pretending she didn't hear me. After that happened several times she then comes in with a couple residents to check on another patient. One of the guys happens to look over at me and I mouth help. He tells her I think he needs help and she says something like "just ignore him he's fine". I was NOT fine. By this point I had been sitting in human waste for 4 hours. I had a pressure sore on my tailbone also which got a lot worse from this. She leaves the room again and I don't see the bitch again. Finally after 6 hours I finally got a CNA to come and clean me up and change the saturated bandage on the pressure sore. Unfortunately I never got that nurse name and I wish I did so I could come for her license.
Last but not least was the CNA who had a hard time speaking English. She comes in the next morning to do a bed bath. I knew something bad was going to happen due to the language barrier and my inability to speak. She rolls me on my side to get my back and knocks the vent hose off the trach. The ventilator begins alarming and instead of checking why, this women continued to wash. I started making my clicking noise because I couldn't breathe. She was like "don't worry you're okay". I was beginning to lose consciousness. A respiratory therapist saw that a vent was disconnected and ran into the room to see what was going on. She reconnected me and gave the CNA an earful. The CNA tells the respiratory therapist that I didn't come off the vent. The RT tells her she had to put it back on so yes it did come off. As soon as the RT left the CNA did it again and again didn't look to see what the problem was. The RT comes right back and says "what the fuck are you doing?" then is like "okay you are done with him, Get out!". The CNA tried to argue and was shut down because this RT was a tough chick. So the CNA left and I burst into tears because I got scared. The RT gave me a hug and said "it's okay you're okay Mike you're safe she's gone" I'm guessing that particular CNA probably does it all the time. It was a weekend from hell.
I did have a few great nurses and CNAs though during my stay. The one that stands out the most was Francesca or Frankie. She was really good at her job and I felt very comfortable with her. She was a sweet person. I tried to contact her on Facebook and Instagram to say thank you but she probably didn't remember me. So Frankie wherever you are now thank you so much for making me feel at ease. You're a great person and I wish you well on your career I hope you are doing bigger and better things.
If you or someone you know has to go into rehab, if you can stay with them or you can have someone stay with you, do it! Also make sure you get the names of the health care workers and the time of their shift. Most of the people will treat you well but there's always a couple who shouldn't be working in a hospital and if you get mistreated you need to be able to identify that person.
Thank you for reading!
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