Hostage Situation? You decide. Part 2

This is just the beginning of my daughter's story. I thought I would be able to do this in 3 posts, but it looks as if it is going to be 4 posts. So here is number 2.

My daughter has asked me not to use her name, nor to give too many identifying details because she is very sensitive to what happened, and she is still deciding how she plans to handle this situation. Personally I would really consider suing if it was up to me, but as much as this has effected her I will be glad to get her to file a complaint.

I took my daughter to the ER on Monday at 1:30 pm, she was admitted to ICU at around 8:00 pm that evening until 6:00 pm on Wednesday night when she was transferred to the psych ward until a little before 4:00 pm on Thursday.

Was she crazy? No.

Had she attempted suicide? No.

Was she suicidal? No.

Was she a threat to anyone? No.

Did we think she needed to be in the psych ward? No.

Did most of the nurses, student doctors, and one of the therapists in the psych ward think she should be there? No.

Did the counselor that has worked with our family think she should be there? No.

The head psychiatrist was sure convinced of all the above. He was convinced he would show her it was in her best interest to be there.

He never did convince anyone of that, except maybe himself and perhaps the head of the ICU that only saw her once and was convinced we were taking everything too lightly.

When she was admitted to the hospital, all the things (her purse, the things in it, her clothing, and her shoes) she brought with her were taken and locked away from her including her phone. A security guard was posted at her door.

When she was moved to ICU, even with me staying there, they posted a person in the room for the first 24 hours at all times. She was not even allowed to close the bathroom door while she was in there.

She complied with all this, whatever treatment they suggested she complied. Not once did she argue or raise her voice. She did cry when they took her phone because she and her boyfriend talk a lot on the phone since he lives 4 hours away. I was there to calm her down and hand her my phone to talk to him.

From Monday to Wednesday she was not offered a change of hospital gown, but she was not allowed to wear her own clothing either. She wore the same underwear for three days!

She has long hair, and she was not offered a brush or comb, yet I could not bring her anything either-- even if I would have dared to leave.

She was not even offered a bed bath to cleanse herself.

In two and half days she was not offered a simple toothbrush. They had a sign in the room that they were suppose to make sure that patients brushed their teeth twice a day!

In all the time she was in ICU the sheets on the bed were not changed.

She has a special diet because of allergies and foods that she is sensitive to. They had that she was gluten intolerant in her chart, but they didn't ask about any food needs nor preferences beyond the gluten intolerance, nor did they give her any kind of menu. Here's an example-- She can't eat apples. They make her sick to her stomach and sometimes cause her to throw up. Three times they brought an apple and apple juice. She doesn't eat rice for the most part. Each meal was served with rice. She doesn't drink milk, every meal came with milk. I wasn't suppose to bring her food, but meals were just served and many things they gave her to eat-- she couldn't.

The nurses thank goodness didn't watch that closely. So finally Tuesday night, my husband brought food for her because the choices she had were ridiculous.

Then there were other things... When she was about to use the shared bathroom. I opened the door to see blood on the seat and floor from the other patient... That one I called the nurse on.

The psychiatrist saw her first on Tuesday morning. He was convinced she had some depression. He talked about starting her on medicine. Mind you my daughter has pretty severe chemical allergies and really is not comfortable taking an anti-anxiety or depression medicine. He pretty much minimized that as if it didn't matter though he could look at her allergy record and see if he had taken the time.

This is the girl that has a medical exemption because she turned blue and stopped breathing from vaccinations. This is the girl that a medicine to combat her allergies left her unable to walk and talk at 8. It took us three months to help her recover from that reaction. This is the girl that when she tried asthma medications it made her lungs spasm almost continuously. Do we really want to try a medicine for a problem we don't even agree she has?

Though she has panic attacks sometimes, they have never caused her a problem. Beyond that, anyone that actually knows her would never think she had any kind of depression. She literally has no symptoms of depression. She is almost always easy going with just as easy of smile. She is one of those people you like being around just because they see life as sunny. She is soft spoken, but she knows her path-- Well she did until this hospital stay! She has so many things she is looking forward to-- a job she enjoys, and a boyfriend that is her best friend. To top it off eventually they are planning to get married. Does this sound like depression to you? It doesn't to me, and my daughter said she didn't feel depressed.

This is where he first talked about admitting her to the psych ward. This is where he felt like she and I were taking this to lightly. She nor I agreed with the meds or admitting her. We told him so, and he said he would return in a couple hours and we could talk about it some more. Later another doctor came in and talked about releasing her Wednesday morning. He was pretty much ready to take her off the I.V. and just wanted to monitor overnight because she was still having some dizziness. The I.V. drip was going about every thirty seconds-- if that. It should have been taken out.

It was left in.

The psychiatrist never came back that day. The rest of the day the nurses checked on her about every 4 hours. Her blood work showed everything was back to normal. So we hoped that maybe they would release her Wednesday morning.

At around 8:00 pm the nurse came in and told us they were ready for her to go to the psych ward. My daughter and I told her that the psychiatrist said he would be back, and we hadn't agreed to any action yet. She left the room quickly and gave him a call and a little while later came back and told us he would be back early in the morning.

Then Wednesday came around...

And Wednesday is going to be part 3.