Dear Tammy,
It seems like "Hurricane Lifespan" has hit with deadly force as reported in the press this weekend. The death of a patient, after the failure of the back-up power system to activate, is tragic and unforgivable. The explanation of a "100% mortality" chance, which was made by the Lifespan physician representative, is callous and contemptuous. When did Lifespan become God? There is no excuse that Lifespan can offer in this horrific way to die.
Let me describe the horror many patients felt when their respirator shut down during the power failure. Most were medicated, but conscious, so they would be aware of their care, but wouldn't buck the respirator. They knew what was going on. Now imagine losing your oxygen supply. There is no way to breathe and you think you are going to suffocate. It is no different than someone putting a pillow over your head to cut off any chance of breathing. Try holding your breath for 60 seconds and when you try to take a breath, you are unable to. This is what happened to our friends and family members in this preventable crisis.
Brain damage can occur if your oxygen supply is cut off for as little as five minutes. With the skeleton crews on the third shift at Rhode Island Hospital, do we really know if any patient suffered permanent damage? I have spent time as a patient advocate for a family member in an ICU at Rhode Island Hospital. It took threats of legal action and press notification before safe staffing and care was provided.
The tragedy of a patient's death was reported in the press. How many other patients have died or suffered needlessly from Lifespan's conscious nursing short staffing and other reductions in ancillary staff? There have been staff reductions in maintenance, housekeeping, dietary as well as nursing. These daily incidents are not reported in the newspaper. It's about time that all local newspapers talk to the patients who have spent time in any of the Lifespan hospitals or the nurses who work there. Ask any nurse about the times she has cried in her car after working a difficult shift and is in fear of her patient's safety. This is all because of Lifespan's fiscal decisions to reduce the care patients receive. The anecdotes are not definitive individually, but collectively they will prove to any reasonable reader the dangers of spending any time in a Lifespan Hospital without a patient advocate.
A full independent investigation into the causes of the two-hour power failure must be made. The results must also be made public and not kept shrouded in secrecy as so many things are within Lifespan hospitals. Maybe some of former Lifespan President Bill Kreykes' $3,000,000 golden parachute could have been used to upgrade the back-up electrical system. I'm sure some of the $15,000,000 financial consultant fees could have found its way to the ICU for additional nursing and possibly prevented a needless death. What other cutbacks could be eliminated by just using the income from Lifespan's $500,000,000 endowment.
Mr. Vechionne, as President of Lifespan, you should know that the people of Rhode Island deserve an explanation of this unnecessary death and the reduction in the quality of care that is occurring in Lifespan hospitals. How do you expect the people of Rhode Island to believe the proposed merger of Lifespan and Care New England will provide better care and services when Lifespan can't even keep their own hospitals safe for its patients. Is this what we can expect from our own Kent County Hospital? I dare you to open your records so everyone can see what Lifespan is really all about.