Anyone ever have a horrible hospital roomie?

[luvwinnie]

My mom's new roomie is driving us nuts. She is elderly. I am not sure if she is lonely and wants attn (no visitors) or if she has no visitors because she is such a wacko...she asked my mom to put her light out but she LEFT HERS ON, ok no big deal. Then she wants the tv down low (my mom's hearing has gotten bad but when we were there it was LOW) so we turned the sound all the way off and had the captions on.5 minutes later she calls the nurse to say "Their tv is driving me NUTS!" Ummm, it's OFF! The nurse said "it's off" and she said "Oh, thank God". The nurse was getting fed up with her too. She said "Why don't you try to sleep?" So she said she would and shut off her light. THEN the room was in total darkness so my mom wanted her low light on. She says to the nurse "Her light is bothering me". "THE CURTAIN IS CLOSED and face the other way", is what I wanted to say. Nurse said to her "Well, everyone has their own light. You are just going to have to live with it." I heard her muttering to herself "I have to get a new room." PRAYING she does...but the only person she could be happy with would be someone comatose I guess.
Her face is all bruised like she fell or was in an accident, but I said to my sister "I bet her last roommate beat the heck out of her."
My father said the day nurse could not wait to go home to get away from her.

 

[Jolie C]

Oh, how I feel for your mom! I had a HORRIBLE room sharing experience in the hospital once and it's miserable.

 

[Fire14]

Sounds like some of my residents at work.

 

[Sleepy]

11 years ago I had a breast reduction. I was in alot of pain and all I wanted to do was go home. My roommate was an elderly woman who had failed to keep her colostomy bag clean so she was in the hospital for problems associated with that. When I was finally conscious enough to realize what was going on around me (getting 2 pints of blood can do that to a person ), the room felt like a sauna to me. It was March 17, so outside, the weather was cold. However, inside my room was so hot I could not breathe. I asked a nurse if she could turn down the heat and she said she would have to ask the doctor if I could have a humidifier. i said no, I want you to turn down the heat. Well, heat was never turned down. She came back later and again I asked her to turn down the heat. She informed me that I had a roommate and I had to consider how she felt. I said yeah, let her put on a sweater and use some of those blankets. She could consider how I feel over here. She once again muttered something about a humidifier. My husband later came in and his first reaction in the room was how hot it was. i said yeah, I keep telling them it is hot and they won't turn down the heat. Hubby walked over to the thermostat and it was set at 85 degrees Given the fact that blood I donated for myself was not double checked for names (I had to half consciously remind the nurse to check...she was TRAINING another nurse ), I was ready to go home, so at 11pm 2 days after surgery, I went home. I call that hospital the halls of horror.

 

[TinkBoo&ElliesMum]

I did and I was ready to hit her after about three hours! I had emergency surgery to have my gallbladder removed and for some reason they put me in a shared room (my ins. will pay for private) and she was having parties on her side of the curtain. There were 10 people over there and they brought wine and food. They were there for HOURS! DH came in to visit with the kids later in the afternoon and she *****ed to the nurse about how many people I had visiting - uhhhh whatever! The nurse told her flat out that she really didn't have anything to complain about, especially after her party for the morning.

My second roomie was just as bad, she whined to anyone that would listen and complained that I was throwing up too much

I finally got discharged even though I could barely walk, I would rather be miserable at home!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Ask if she could be moved. Or go for a walk down the hall and look at what beds are empty. They gave my grandma a new roomate because my granny couldnt use the bathroom and her new roomate just had a colostomy and had to spend lots of time in the bathroom. This lady asked to be moved from another room as she was having a roomate nightmare too. Didnt they give you a patients rights booklet upon admission etc. I am sure it states the policies in there etc. Good luck and best wishes for the speedy recovery.

 

[Disney Doll]

If you're roommate is bothering you, request a room change, or request that she have her room changed. Generally, at my hospital, if roommates are having a problem and we can figure out who is the bigger problem, we move the problem, and usually to a private room. For example, if we have a confused patient and they are noisy and annoying to their roommate, we will move the confused person, since they are the problem.

However, I still say ask for a room change, and ask for a private room. I have often siad that when I get a little older I am going to have "DO NOT RESUSCITATE" and "PRIVATE ROOM" tatooed on my chest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mickeyboat]

I had a great roomie when I was waiting to give birth to DD#1. My water broke at 31 1/2 weeks and I was kept in the hospital until I was induced at 34 weeks. The Birthing Pavilion got busy (full moon) and I was given a roommate for a couple of days - a girl who had low amniotic fluid. We were together for three or four days and had a blast. We were so bored on our own and it was great to have someone to talk to. We liked the same soaps, we shared books and magazines.

I really missed her when we got our own rooms back again.

My DD was born a couple of days before hers. She made me a sign spelling Hannah's name our of that plastic sheeting (you put yarn through it). I hung it in Hannah's ICN room and again in her room when we got home.

Her DD was named Emily, that's what I named DD#2.

Denae

 

[TEENEE]

The las time my dd8 was in the hospital we had terrible roommates. I say roommates because she was in a childrens hospital so one parent can be there at all times. The little girl she shared the room with didn't sleep. I had never heard of JJ the Jetplane until we had to listen to it for 3 days. The girls mother stayed with her but at night her older brother and father would come in along with many other family members. They would stay really late, even after visiting hours whenever they could get away with it. My dd and I were so happy to leave that hospital and go home and get some rest.

Another time my dd was in the hospital she had a great roommate. The little girl she roomed with had been in and out of the hospital for months. This kid new the ins and outs of the hospital. When we were moved into her room she very quickly introduced herself and offered to show my dd where the patient playroom was. I often wonder what happened to that sweet little girl.

 

[noel]

I'm sorry to hear that - have you asked if she can be moved to another room?

DH had reconstructive foot surgery on 3/2 of this year. It was only supposed to be 2 1/2 hours but ended up lasting over 5 1/2 hours and then had breathing problems while in recovery, so didn't get up to the ortho floor until 7pm and got the last bed.

Although I try to understand the fact that other patients have their rights as well, his roommate was overly chatty and loud with his guests and their TC was loud. He at least was kind enough to turn that down, but all night and the next day he would not shut up. For someone who was ill enough to stay overnight in the hospital, he was very chipper and even told the nurses he felt fine.

When I nicely voiced my concerns to the nurses (we asked for a private room in advance and were assured he'd get one) the nurses told me we were "out of luck" and had to "deal with it" and I was told this by 3 different nurses on 2 different occasions.

It was a nightmare (well this is just the tip of what was bad with his hospital stay, but that's another thread) and we have a formal complaint in with the hospital.
Both my DH and I agree that unless we're in a critical medical situation, we will avoid that hospital at all costs!

 

[Chattyaholic]

Hmmmm, so it's the "problem patients" that get moved to private rooms, huh? Guess I'll have to retain that little piece of information for the next time I have to stay in the hospital!!
I'd LOVE a private room!!!

 

[Pin Wizard]

Not always, Chatty. When I was pregnant I was in and out of the hospital constantly because of my blood pressure. The first time I had a roommate, she was great. We both had the same doctor and got along well. She had to transfer to a different hospital because her insurance would no longer cover her at this one. So I had the room to myself for a while. The next one who came in was a pain in the neck. Snotty thing in my book. LOL! Never even said hello, took over the TV with whatever she wanted. It wasn't long before I WAS MOVED TO A PRIVATE ROOM! I guess she made my bp rise. LOLOLOLOL! Any time I was admitted after that, I got a private room. And I was NEVER billed for a private room! Always billed as semi-private. LOVE my doc!

 

[ilovepcot]

Yeah....had a bad experience. Won't bore you with the little details, but.....my roomie was an elderly lady who had a son living in California who happened to be a doctor. She was a very outspoken woman who was used to getting her way. We were both to have been in private rooms, but none were available. When she saw that she couldn't push me around, she phoned her doctor son and reported me to him, even though we were in a Florida hospital! Ohh.....bad, bad memories! (By the way, that's roomie crying, not me! )

 

[Talking Hands]

Had several bad roommates in the hospital. First was when I had my second daughter. My roommate was the DIL of one of the city comissioners and very active in politics and there was an election coming up. She tied up the phone all the time (noone could get through to me), demanded that my daughter be removed to the nursery so her family could visit at off hours and complained that I was breastfeeding and they would bring me the baby to nurse at night.

Second one was when my 2nd daughter was in the hospital after ingesting my meds. Her roommate was a 16yo boy. He was very nasty. Cursed because she wanted a night light (see was 2 1/2 and scared), didn't want me in the room, complained that when he turned out the light she would cry, complained about her monitor going off and disturbing him. We asked to be moved but there was no other room available. Thank goodness she was ok and went home after one day in the hospital.

Third was when I broke my leg. My roomie had a monitor so I was not allowed to use my hearing aids at all. Ok fine but she refused to allow closed captioning on the tv, complained when my husband visited that he had to talk too loud for me to hear him, and insisted that the lights be out at 9. Yuck. Fortunately I was moved after surgery and didn't get a roommate. Started to give me one but changed their minds after a cussed out the aide that slammed a chair into my bed while trying to bring her into the room. The jolt hurt big time.

 

[aprilgail2]

I've had two roomamtes I could have done without....the first was when I had my daughter....her husband would come at 8am and stay until 9pm and they played jazz music all day long,.all I wanted to do was sleep and she was breastfeeding so they would bring the baby in to her, flip on all the lights, she would put her TV on and watch it while she was breastfeeding keeping me awake the whole time!
The next time was for my weight lose surgery.....my room mates husband would come in at 730 (visiting hours are over at 8) and the first night I woke up to go to the bathroom at 11:30 and heard a male voice in my room..he was still there!! The next day he came and borught their two kids who ran all around the room, onto my side, knocking into my bed, knocked over my water pitcher....then 11 other family members come in at 7 and I hear him say "well you take the kids home I am going to stay a few more hours "...I thought to myself "the hell you are!!" I went to the nurses station and asked what time visiting hours ended and that last night her husband was in the room after 11pm and it made me uncomfortable and they sent up security to my room at 8pm and made him go home! She was up most of the night vomiting, not that she could help that, I understand that part, but by the second night I was tired and cranky! I would turn the lights off on my side so I could sleep and I would hear the husband complain about how dim it was in the room (now her light was on!) so he would reach over and turn MINE on!! And the first night I couldn't move so I had to call the nurse to come and turn it back off!!

 

[Princess_Aurora]

I had to go back into the hospital for pnemonia shortly after I was released from the hospital after giving birth to my DD. The first night was horrible, but that's mostly because they told me there were a lot of people with pnemonia (it was winter) and the hospital was full and my daughter couldn't come in since she was just a little newborn. It's horrible to be seperated from your child when they're only a few days old.

The second day they gave me the roomate. She was an elderly woman from across the street (nursing home) who also had pnemonia. They put an oxygen mask on her to help her breathe, but she just would not keep it on. She would take it off and start saying, Help me! I can't breathe! A nurse would come in, put the mask back on her and tell her she had to keep the mask on. As soon as the nurse walked out, she would start it all over again. She kept me up all night and she never went to sleep. The next morning my doc comes in to tell me I'm doing a little better and all I needed to do was to get some sleep and my fever would probably break and I could go home soon. Well, I didn't get sleep the next night either and all I could think about was getting home to my baby and this lady was keeping me from going home! I NEEDED sleep.

I do have to say that even though I had the worst roomate, I had the nicest nurse on that third or fourth day. I was suffering from that post-pardom depression, I missed my daughter and my temp was 104. She came in and talked to me for hours. I told her how the lady next to me was keeping me up all night and she said they would give her something to put her to sleep that night. So that night the lady FINALLY slept and so did I and I was able to leave the hospital the next day