To the Editor:
We gave up a few years ago going to The Villages Regional Hospital. The emergency room is a joke and you could die while waiting to be seen.
My husband went into the ER because he was short of breath and could not breathe and we waited hours and no one ever saw him and we finally just went home with no help at the ER. We went to the doctor’s office instead the next day.
My dad was brought into the ER and later put in intensive care and almost died there because of poor treatment, non-interest, on-call doctor not knowing what she was doing and very under staffed. It was horrible, people calling for help and moaning and there were only two nurses for 20 ICU rooms.
We started using the Urgent Care centers for things we would normally go to The Villages ER for.
If you are brought to The Villages hospital by ambulance, you cannot see or have your own private primary or specialist come to treat you. You have to use whatever bozo is on duty at The Villages hospital at the time. At one time, my dad (in his 90s) went in for a stuffy nose and next thing they admitted him and almost killed him and gave him every test known to man that they had at the hospital for no reasons other than money. They said he had to have a lung doctor see him, he had no lung problems, just a stuffy nose, then a heart doctor. They had a bracelet around his wrist saying that he was allergic to a certain medication and someone gave it to him anyway. Then they tried to cover it up by loading him up with Benadryl and he was so out of it he started hallucinating and did not even know that I was there at the hospital. He did not remember what they did. They kept him for six days using up his insurance and when they had done every test they could, they released him in the middle of a breathing procedure. The nurse could not understand why he was being released when he still having breathing treatments. What is that about? Apparently they needed the bed. If he had not had a relative coming to see him, he would have died in ICU. If your own doctor admits you, you have no problems, but otherwise they really scare me. I am afraid to go there. I do not trust any of the staff or their doctors.
Judy Reeves
Village of Polo Ridge