The Horrors Of Salem Hospital In Salem, Massachusetts

 Photo courtesy of Marcelo Chagas

 

March 13, 2009, I had been feeling sick for several days with a really bad stomach ache and decided I needed to go to the Emergency Room.  There had been a stomach flu going around and I figured I just had that.  The pain was getting worse, so I wanted to be sure it wasn't something else.

IT WAS SOMETHING ELSE

I went to Union Hospital in Lynn, Massachusetts, thinking it would just be a couple of x-rays and maybe an antibiotic and I would be on my way.  What I was told is not the shocking part.  The treatment I received within the next five days would leave me seriously maimed and eventually completely disabled, by a negligent nurse, then the doctor whose "care" I was supposed to be in.

The news itself was disappointing, but not life threatening or anything. I was told after a CT Scan or MRI that I had Diverticulitis and would need to be admitted and placed on IV antibiotics because in my case, the inflamed area had abscessed. 

I told the doctor that I had dogs at home and would have to go home first to speak to my two roommates, who happened to be my best friend and another more recently met good friend.  Then after making sure my friends knew the dogs were in their care for the next five days, I would immediately return.

The doctor said that was perfectly understandable, but told me instead of coming back to Union Hospital, I should go to Salem Hospital (also in Massachusetts) when I returned.  He said they were better equipped to handle my case and he also mentioned that there was a large team of surgical residents, who would be able to monitor me when the doctor I would be assigned was not around.

When I arrived at Salem Hospital, it was already dark outside.  I remember the long corridor and the blue haze of the ward and room I was sent to.

Something felt incredibly ominous about my walk down that corridor to the ward where my room was.

 My grandmother died in 2002 at this very hospital, in the same ward, just two floors away from where I ended up.

I wish I had listened to my gut and turned around, then had gone to a hospital in Boston, like Beth Israel.  

After getting settled into my room (that I shared with 5 to 7 other men) I was given and EKG because I was breathing so heavy and the first nurse who showed me to my room thought I was having a heart attack.  After explaining that I was breathing that way because it helped with the severe pain I was in.  I was given morphine immediately for the pain and another nurse joked that it was smart to breathe the way I was, because women have been doing that since the beginning of time to help with birth pains.  The guy in the bed straight across from me rolled his eyes.

The pain medication was starting to work and I was feeling like I could rest a little finally. I had only drank water and a little orange juice for the last several days and hadn't been sleeping well.

And just like that, a few minutes later, the nurse that would eventually destroy my life walked in and shot something into the IV and when I asked her what that was for, she said Dilaudid for the pain.  I told her that I had just been given morphine minutes ago to which she replied "oops".

Anyway, I was completely out of pain at that point and saw a radiating purple haze around all the lights in the room and around anything that reflected light.

So, within minutes of being admitted to Salem Hospital, I was probably close to being overdosed, but I can't even complain about that.  What this nurse would do next, would leave me bedridden for around six years and sicker than I've even been, wiped out of all finances (from not being able to work) and disabled.

As soon as the doctor came in, I recognized his name, Dr. Russell Ryan.  Twenty one years earlier, my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer and he was her surgeon.  He was amazing and she recovered quickly and made a full recovery.  

My concerns were basically gone at this point. I trusted this doctor.  And when I mentioned her name, he actually said he remembered her and started singing a song he would sing along with my grandmother in 1988.  

He told me my diagnosis and told me that I would be having a catheter inserted into my colon, where the Diverticulitis had abscessed, in order to drain it. This procedure happened at around midnight, March 14, 2009.

 I was sent to imaging, where the catheter was successfully inserted and sent back to my room around 2 a.m..

I tried getting as much sleep as I could but was woken many times over the next few hours.

However many hours later, a wonderful nurse came into my room and told me that the catheter would need to be flushed every so many hours, to clean out the infection and speed up recovery.  She did this procedure very gently.  I did feel a good amount of pain in the area being flushed, but could feel that the cold saline solution was going to the affected area. 

Later that afternoon, this wonderful nurse came in to say goodbye, her shift was over and told me that the next shift would be coming in, along with my night nurse. Who of course, ended up being the same nurse that gave me the second dose of pain medication.

My life changed from that very moment she walked into my room to do the second flush.  Like the night before (I haven't mentioned this yet) she was preoccupied with socializing with all the guys in my room, who were doing their cat-calls, which she ate up.  Mainly, the man across from me, who rolled his eyes over my breathing technique for the pain.

She shot the saline solution in me so fast, I felt a huge surge of pain and a pop on my right side, below my ribs, in the area where the catheter was.  I could also feel the sensation of the cold saline solution going all over my right side, instead to the affected area.

I told her this immediately, which she ignored and went on socializing. I told every nurse and resident that came in the room what had happened and was told it was fine.

When I asked to speak to doctor Ryan, he came in, told me it was fine and even got upset that I dared question anything coming from a doctor, even asking me "are you a doctor"?

For five straight days, I told them this was happening with every flush, and was ignored.

On the fifth day when I went to imaging to have the catheter removed, the resident who removed it said: "this isn't even attached, it's just floating. This happens all the time". 

This was the beginning of my end.  I had what is called a Colocuaneous Fistula, basically a tract connecting from my colon to the surface, through the muscle and fat, which leaked blood, puss and actual feces for three years.  I just recently saw this in my medical records from Beth Israel, the hospital that finally corrected this three years later in 2012.

For the next thirteen years I would be forced to sell my home, buy something for less in order to survive a few years, twice and now it will be the third time when I am forced to do that again.

I would lose my health and what seems like any chance of ever having a normal life again.

I would lose family members and friends, I never got to see before their deaths because of how ill I was, and I would be denied the chance to properly mourn them, when I was mourning my own death sentence, given to me by Salem Hospital.

Thirteen years of losses, because of one negligent nurse and one doctor who couldn't have been bothered to treat a patient who was injured severely, while in his care.

Doctor Ryan is a liar and he is a manipulator. He looked me in the face many times over the next three years, convincing me that the drainage at the entrance where the catheter was inserted was normal.  And for a time, I believed him. I thought, like he said, "it's just residual matter working its way to the surface" and eventually will clear and everything will be alright.

It was a lie and that doctor that cared for my grandmother years before, was no longer the same man.

This is the first part of my descent into despair and not only losing my financial stability, but losing my mind, when I realized all was lost and I was never coming back from this.