Nurse fails to notify doctor, patient’s life in danger

A nurse at a hospital in Budapest didn’t inform the doctor when one of the patients fell out of bed. Six hours later, the night nurse did it instead of her. CT has shown intracranial bleeding.

Saturday, 22nd July 2017. The night nurse (MM) arrives at the hospital at 5.45 pm. She notices that one of the patients vomited a lot. Since she was 15 minutes early she could contact the day nurse (KJ). Her response:

“Bless her!”

MM, being conscientious, cleaned up the patient, although it would have been the duty of KJ. Feeling no guilt, KJ only asks:

“What did she throw up?”

The night nurse, annoyed because of her colleague’s behavior, tells her that it’s unacceptable. Instead of feeling any repentance, KJ leaves the hospital huffily without saying goodbye. It turned out that the patient fell out of the bed at around 11 and KJ called the patient-carriers to put her back into her bed. But she didn’t tell the doctor, nor the night nurse. She didn’t leave any written documentation about the accident. MM only learned about it from the patient’s roommate.

She reported the case to the doctor, who sent the patient to CT. It has shown subdural hemorrhage, which is a sort of bleeding inside the skull, a potentially life-threatening state.

After all paperwork, the patient finally got carried away to a Traumatology department at 11 pm, 12 hours after her fall. The doctor had to lie about the time of the accident because they wouldn’t have taken her over.

Why?

You could ask why such a tragedy happens in the capital of Hungary. How can be such irresponsible persons, like KJ, get jobs in hospitals? The Hungarian health care system suffers from shortage of labor. It doesn’t even matter if KJ beats the patients regularly. They can’t fire her, because it’s hard to find someone to replace her as a professional nurse.

Thousands of health workers are leaving Hungary for better working conditions. They don’t want to work in a country where they don’t get the respect they deserve, don’t get reasonable wages. They don’t want to work in a country where such things happen.

Circulus vitiosus, a vicious circle.

Ce: bm

Source: Daily News Hungary