crossposted from Kos
His good friend Jen says tonight:
Gilly is NOT doing well. He backslid last week, just as an overzealous (and cost-conscious) hospital was trying to push him out of the ICU and in to rehab well before he was ready.
More after the jump.
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Then…one night about 4 nights ago, he had complications with an infection–very serious stuff; that’s all I’ll say for now. When I got to finally see him-now back in the full bunnysuit ICU, he looked and WAS worse than ever before. He’s not going anywhere for a while. He’s suffering from a system-wide infection, heavily sedated, and hooked up to more tubes than a plumbing supply store carries.
In short, a full recovery is pretty much out of the question. Getting out of the hospital PERIOD is an unknown percentage also, one that can’t be ignored.
I don’t know any other way to say this:
He may not make it.
I hope that one day he laughs at me for even positing this. But the day when he’ll be anywhere near communicative, nevermind near a computer, is very far off.
Health care in America, folks.
Steve Gilliard needs our prayers, our expertise (for you medical Kossacks) and the stomach to fight for quality health care based on patient needs, not the need for the hospital to empty a bed.
I’ve missed Steve’s voice on so many issues: Sharpton, Sean Bell, Imus, the surge, Cheney in Iraq, the levees. It cannot be time for him to leave us yet.
Write Jen at jenonymous@gmail.com.
Or visit The News Blog at http://www.thenewsblog.net/ to at least show some love and get some word.
I’m just not impressed with Steve’s mom and what I see is her seeming inability to fight for her son.
Granted that she may be ignorant about how to go about it, and kept in the dark on top of it. The way that certain doctors and surgeons can overwhelm patient’s families and friends with we know best because we’re the experts particularly with blacks and people of color–sometimes these good patients end up dead because this so-called expertise. My term for some of this is they’re experimenting on us.
Added to this–from what I’ve been able to gather piecemeal from Jen’s reports–is (1) the mindset of some black mothers who are very religious and want to leave it to Jesus; and/or (2) the mindset of some black mothers who may distrust close friends of their sons–like white and Jewish Jen–at a serious time.
Jen has reserved and limited her criticisms about Steve’s mom because she wants to continue to have access to him, if not just for her own benefit, but for Steve’s readers to get progress reports. Frankly, who am I to say all this, since I don’t really know and have never met Steve Gilliard or his family or his circle of friends.
However, I have worked as a medical secretary in university hospitals. I know how draconian the system can get. I’ve heard that it has gotten much, much worse in certain places from the doctors and surgeons and specialists to the nurses to everyone else. I know patients sometimes have relatives see them everyday just so the staff keeps them clean, hydrated and comfortable. Or to make sure if something happens that there is a witness.
I know that some hospital staff–Asians, Latinos as well as whites–have big problems/issues taking care of black people. A black woman I once knew was queried several times by Asian nurses, because she was so light-skinned she looked like them–but they were so sure. They addressed her in several dialects, then gave up and gave her the best of care. She knew better from previous experiences not to say who she was, after having lain in her own filth for several hours or having an I.V. run out of fluid.
I also know black mamas. This is the time that they could be questioning, getting other points-of-view, keeping track of his physicians and insisting that he get the best from the staff. I read little or nothing about this regarding his mom’s efforts. Which is why, at this moment, I feel disturbed for her.
I also know that you can be as rich and famous as Andy Warhol and still die in the hospital without the right care.
I hope I am proved wrong on these suppositions. I’d love to be. I’ll be chanting for Steve to stay with us. Visit The News Blog when you can.