Dear Editor,
Please understand that I am not writing this in bitterness, but as a reference that can be used for improving the care offered by the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC).
We recently experienced how the staff at SMMC treat patients. The term I would use to describe the experience would be “inhumane.” Regrettably, our requests for improvement fell on deaf ears. This includes the formal complaint that was submitted as directed by the SMMC website.
The three basic concerns that were not addressed at SMMC were:
- Pain Management: little attention was given to the pain she [my wife – Ed.] was experiencing after surgery, and she was often in tears due to its level.
- Comfort Level: she was sweating through her clothes and sheets because the room temperature was around 30 degrees Celsius as measured by the thermometer I brought in.
- Humane Treatment: she was upset most of times I visited, because she was forced to lay in her own waste or was left on the toilet for three hours unattended. She spent about a week in SMMC during her recovery, and she slumped into self-pity and depression.
After finding nursing assistance and a physical therapist that would come to our rented apartment in St. Maarten, I requested that she be released to my care where I could manage the three key issues. This proved to be a wise decision, because she immediately responded to the positive environment.
Unfortunately, she was still in pain after we returned to Indiana, so we set up an appointment with a surgeon at Ortho Indy. He discovered the rod that was installed in St. Martin between her femur and hip ball was “pistoning” in the joint – moving up and down. Since it wasn’t secure, it had scraped the hip socket. There were also several bone splinters left unattended. It was apparent that this was the root cause for the pain, and he performed surgery to install a new hip to repair the damage.
The surgery, similar to that at SMMC, was quite invasive, but her recovery was significantly different. The three things missed by SMMC were clearly being addressed at the St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis without even asking. The outcome was short of amazing. On the same day as the surgery my wife was sitting up, had a great meat loaf dinner and was laughing at the “Jingle All the Way” movie. On the second day she was moving around the room with assistance and had a positive attitude. We expect her to be discharged in three days, and her surgeon will have follow-up appointments to check her progress.
My only hope at this point is that this note reaches the right individual that can make the changes necessary to improve the care of patients at the St. Maarten Medical Center.
Rick Parrish
