Lakeland Regional Medical Center LRMC, Lakeland, Fl Hospital LRMC, Cyst, Infection, RN, Harrassment, worst hospital InternetLakeland, Florida

I was admitted to Lakeland Regional Medical Center (hospital) on March 9th 2012 Due to a cyst on my face the size of a baseball. I got to the ER at aprox. 9am (roughly). I walked into the ER to be signed in and the RN said, "Oh my!" and asked my information and said that I would need to go back in the back to the main ER to get IV meds for the cyst on my face. I went to be triaged and there were two blonde snooty girls who was triaging me. They got my vitals and immediately said it wasn't that bad and they were sending me to Fast-trac (basically like a Dr's office rather than actual ER. It just on the ER property just outside the Main ER entrance.  I was  seen at Fast Trac.

The ARNP seen the cyst and immediately said why did they send me to them it is huge, I told her the girls who triaged me said it wasn't that bad. And then I told her I was having pressure in my chest but I knew it was due to the pain I was in. The actual Dr at Fast-trac came in and seen me and immediately said I should have been taken to the Main ER..... he made sure there was a bed ready and had a nurse take me over to the main ER. (The ER nurses were so nice and even the Dr. I was seeing in the ER was great. They ran several test on me and gave me something for pain (Dilaudid) and made sure I was comfortable. Later got admitted and sent to 3rd floor in B Building (new building), this is the cardiac area. I got put there since I was also having chest pain due to the pain and I have a RX of Tachycardia and high BP (which I am seeing a Cardiologist for). 

Anyways..... My regular PCP was on vacation so my admitting Dr was a Dr. "filling in" for my PCP. And that was Dr. Dario Fernando. I did not see him at all that Friday (March 9th 2012). I had gotten to my admitting room at aprox. 3pm. He had plenty of time to come and see me. I was in a lot of pain. Granite I am already on pain medication due to having a degenerative disc disease and a bulging disc.... and yes I do go to pain management. That Friday around say 6pm I alerted the nurses that I was in a lot of pain and the pain meds I normally take that they were giving me were not working.

The nurse ( RN ) said she would page the Dr. She also said she knew he was at the hospital because she had talked to him a few minutes prior to me letting her know this. Every time she came in to either give me meds or to ask how I was doing I would ask if she had heard from Cardona and she continuously said no. Come bed time (roughly midnight) I finally got mad and asked why hasn't he called..... it had been hours. So according to the charge nurse on the floor that head paged him even several times throughout the night. The RN I had Friday night was alright. I have had better but at least I was getting care. 

And when 7am came around ( shift change) that nurse paged him as well (when I got up early that morning to take my meds I informed her and she said she would page too). Finally Around noon the nurse came in and said that Dr. Cardona said I can only take the pain meds I am currently taking (15mg Oxycodone which if anyone knows about pain management, if you have a chronic problem where you have to take something like this on a daily basis, your body does get use to it. Yes I take it for my back but this just wasn't helping the pain with my cyst on my face). This was the worst pain in my entire life.

When this Dr. Cardona finally decided to come see me, which was about 3-4pm Saturday March 10th 2012. He was in my room all of 4-5 min. He basically said, "yep you have a cyst..... when did this start?...... I asked if I could have pain medicine that would work and he said I will see what I can do..... that is all he did.... next thing I know the nurse is coming in and giving me 2 regular Tylenol...... Really? Do you honestly thing with what I take Tylenol is going help the pain more than what I am already taking...... Wow..... he had also referred me to a pain management Dr to come and see me that day or Sunday to possibly give me something that would work. 

Anyway.... I also seen the Infectious Disease Dr. Saturday and he put me on a higher dosage of antibiotic twice a day in hopes the infection would come to the surface. Saturday evening around 7:30pm I met my night nurse. She came in and introduced herself to me. She had a slight attitude with me but I brushed it off. She asked me if I was in pain, I said yes, she said on a scale of 1 - 10 how bad was it, I said 10. She immediately rolled her eyes. She then said where is the pain at. I turned my face and showed her the cyst. Her eyes got big. She said, "Ok I see you take a lot of medications..... She read through them and asked if I would like my pain pills, I said yes.

I then asked when the pain management would be coming by. She said why do I need them when I was on all the pills listed and it included my Oxycodone 15mg. I told her, "yes I am on Oxycodone 15mg due to my back but just because I am on it doesn't mean it is helping me with my face. And it wasn't helping me with the pain on my face.". She then said, "If I were on all the drugs you take in a day, or even at night for that fact I wouldn't be able to stand here. I would be out. I might be able to take the Valium you take and that is it.". 

I was like (but didn't say)..... that is really rude. She doesn't know my situations, probably didn't even look at my chart which lists my medical RX, which in turns would have explained why I was on a lot of meds. She went and got my meds for the night at about 9pm. She came in with an attitude as usual. She started to read out what she was going to be giving me. When she was done I started thinking she was missing a few (I do have memory loss due to one of my meds). I told her I needed my Visteril and my Ambien and I could take care of my Melatonin. She said that she didn't get my Visteril because it is marked "As needed". 

I told her it might be marked as needed but I take 2 (50mg) at night no matter what. And then I told her I was missing my Ambien. She said it was too early to give me my sleeping meds. She said I would have to get it at 11pm. I was mad. Why do I have to wait until 11pm. And she said because it is convenient for her. The entire time she was rolling her eyes and giving me a VERY bad attitude. I was tired but I do have severe insomnia, so even if I am tired I will not be able to sleep with out my sleeping meds. I called my husband crying.

I could not believe how this RN was treating me. Well while on the phone with him the PCA came in to do my vitals for the night. She asked if I had any pain, I said yes, she then asked on a scale from 1 - 10 what would it be and I said 10. (No reaction) she asked where the pain was, I showed her my left said of my face and she said, "Oh! So you are the one with the cyst on their face.). I was like wow!!! So apparently the workers in the section know about me. That is nice. I already felt like a freak with this thing on my face and now finding out people were talking about me really didn't help things.

I told my husband everything that was going on so he said ask for the charge nurse. So I pushed the button for the charge nurse. The RN came in with an attitude as usual. I said I would like to speak with the charge nurse. She said what about. I said I would just like to ask her a few questions. She said, "Well she is busy with an emergency so tell me and I will see what I can do. ". So once again I told her I wanted to speak to the charge nurse. She kept insisting she was really busy, but she would let her know. I told her I was willing to wait (this was at about 9pm). Ardoun 11:05pm I pushed the call button for several reasons. The PCA came in and I said, " I am waiting for my bed time pills that the RN said she would give to me at 11pm because it would be convenient for her, and I am also waiting on the charge nurse."

She said she would let the nurse know. 2 minutes later the nurse came in and said she heard I was asking for her. I said, "yes you said you would be in here at 11pm it is 11:05pm you were not here so I called. She said she was busy. I said ok. She began naming off the meds I was getting and they were all oral and she mentioned I was getting antibiotics. I stopped her and said, "I thought they antibiotics was suppose to be up there (pointing to the bags on the pole for IV). She said up where? Obviously she wasn't paying attention to me, and I said up there point once again to the ple. She said, very rudely and even with her voice a little louder than usual, "It is IV form. I didn't say it was oral." I said, "well you were naming off oral medications so the way you were saying it made me think it was oral." she rolled her eyes at me.

So as she was getting the antibiotic on the pole I said, "so how is the charge nurse doing?". She asked what I meant and I said, "Well I have been waiting since 9pm and it is now 11:15pm and she still hasn't came by". She then came back with a smart a*s comment, "she is putting out fires!". I looked at her and said a smart comment back to her, "We have fires on this floor?". She gave me a God awefule look , rolled her eyes and said, "No there isn't any fires. She is busy.". I said, "Well then why did you say she was putting out fires?". She didn't say anything about that. By this time I was wondering if she even told the charge nurse I wanted to speak to her. So.... she put my pills in a little cup, handed them to me and I kept it in my hand. She said I had to take them before she could leave. I told her I will take them when she brings me the charge nurse.

She said She couldn't do that. I said well I want to be able to talk to her so I will wait until I talk to her to take my pills. She said I would either have to take them or give them back. I said I wasn't going to give them back that I wanted to talk to someone, charge nurse, floor manager, president of hospital SOMEON!!! She said if I didn't take them or give them back she was going to call security. I said, "Atleast someone will come up here and listen to what I have to say about her.". She stormed out the room. I then put the cup of pills on my bed and dialed the operator. I told her I wanted to speak to the charge nurse on 3 B Cardiac floor.

She said she knew what was going on and she can only send me to her phone, (so now this nurse is calling GOD know who talking bad about me. GREAT!!!).  So the operator sent me to the charge nurses phone. The charge nurse picked up the phone and hung up. I called the operator again and it was the same one and I told her the charge nurse hung up on me. She said she told her what was going on and sent me to her phone. She said this time she would stay on the phone. Amazingly enough she answered her phone. I told her everything the nurse was doing. She began defending the Rn saying maybe we got off to a bad start. Um NO!!!!

She had an attitude from the very beginning. I told her I would like to speak to her in person. She said she was too busy. I told her she was sitting outside my room at the nurses' station. She could take a few minutes out of her time to come and see me. I had been waiting since 9pm and by this time it was 11:30pm - 11:45pm. The charge nurse finally came to my room. I told her everything. And of course she said that that particular nurse had been there for like 15 years and she is awesome and she couldn't have done any of that.

I told her I wanted off the unit and I wanted off the unit NOW!!! She said there wasn't any beds anywhere in the hospital so I would have to stay. I told her then either I get another nurse or I will yank everything off me and walk out. She said I shouldn't do that and that I needed to be there. She said she could get a nurse from another area but she couldn't guarantee when they could get to my room. I asked her if there was anything the RN would have to do to me that required her to have to come into my room. She looked over things and said not here wasn't any reason why she would have to come into my room.

So I told the charge nurse the RN was to NOT come into my room but the PCA could. Well.... Sunday March 11, 2012. at about 5am - 5:30am..... I wake up to the RN I specifically did not want in my room wanting to take blood from me..... She wasn't supposed to be doing this..... but I was in so much pain I didn't want to argue. And of course she was rude. when I finally woke up  I was waiting for Cardona to come and see me so I could tell him nothing was working for pain. Well Sunday I seen the infectious Disease Dr. He took off the scab and puss was coming out. He swabbed it and sent off to be tested. I was in so much pain I can't even describe how bad it hurt. I asked that Dr. if he could give me something for the pain and he said Dr. Cardona would have to do that.

So once again the nurses, even the charge nurse blew up his pager.  He never called and never came by Sunday, and the pain management Dr never came by. Later Saturday night the nurse did tell me that the pain management Dr would not be coming by that the hospital is sending someone from the pain management team with the pharmacy to see what they could do. Well they didn't come Sunday as well. With all this and some other things that  happened (read the report on LRMC and you will see what I am talking about) I called the floor manager, she came to my room and I told her how bad the care I was getting. When I was done she called the pharmacy and basically told them to come now. And then she said she would talk to Dr. Cardona.

I also told her about the nurse from Saturday night and she said she would take care of it (after all that has happened I seriously doubt that she did this). Guess who came to see me finally Tuesday night..... yep at about 7pm Tuesday night he finally decided to come and visit me. On the other hand the pharmacy management team came by Monday and was able to give me what the ER gave me with the exception I got it only when the dressing was changed. I was fine with that because by that time that was the only time it hurt. I went all weekend in excruciating pain but once the scab had been taking off and it was draining it did help.

The next time I would see Dr. Cardona  would be Wednesday. The infectious Disease Dr came by Wednesday March 14, 2012 and said they found out what I had (a type of staff infection) and it is healed up enough where I could go home and take oral antibiotics. He said Dr. Cardona would have to release me though..... He said this around 11am..... at 7:30pm Cardona finally decides o bring his butt to my room (I was in the bathroom) and my husband says let me get her she is in the bathroom, and he says, "no I will just go sign the paperwork to let her go home." He didn't even want to discuss what was happening what will happen, what I needed to do, or anything.

This Dr. has horrible bed side manners. I would not recommend him to anyone. He acts like he doesn't care. Not to mention I asked why he didn't want to give me something for the pain and the floor manager, nurses, and charge nurse all said they didn't understand it either. He had the ability to be able to give me something so I was comfortable. And just because I was on 15mg of Oxycodone that seemed enough for him..... just because I am taking that for my back doesn't mean it will help with the pain on my face (and it didn't at all).

Luckily the pharmacy pain management tech came and seen me and basically said, "OMG he really didn't want to give you anything?" he then asked what I was allergic to. I told him and I also told him I was given something in the ER and it worked for several hours. I was lucky to get the same thing. I think they said it was Dilaudid. This Dr is awful...... do not go to him..... he doesn't care and barely wants to talk to his patients.  I almost walked out of the hospital after all this and the situations happening Saturday night with the nurse I had..... yeah read about that one on my post for LRMC.

This Dr. needs to care about his patients more even though I wasn't one of his patients on a regular basis the least he could have done was car. He only seen me 3 out of the 6 days I was there......  bad Dr. I had the WORST experience at this hospital when I stayed Friday March 9, 2012 - Wednesday March 14, 2012. I on several occasions seriously thought about walking out and either going home or going to another hospital to get better care.  What I went through Saturday night with the nurse was outrageous. And then of course the hospital is all about making sure you are comfortable, why do they ask you your pain level if they are Not going to do anything about it? It was like pulling teeth to get comfortable.