"A Good Idea"
Misty has a good idea that could save lives.
Here's how it came about:
Several days ago we had a memorial service for my sister Ginny,
who passed away last week.
My sister Val had made a large framed collage of photographs of Ginny…
as a curly headed little girl,
a hauntingly pretty teenager,
a grown woman, and so on.
There were maybe thirty pictures or more,
all showing Ginny as somebody with personality and soul,
doing things with people who love her.
A real live person.
Ginny had spent many years in and out of hospitals and nursing homes,
and I can truthfully say most of them were pretty horrible.
She was overmedicated, undercared for, abused, and neglected.
I understand that in some other countries the medical care is better,
but here in the U.S. it's mainly for the rich.
It's a fact that NON-profit medical institutions hire more staff
and give better care than the ones that are run for profit.
The for-profit hospitals and nursing homes are motivated to cut expenses,
and the care is poorer,
due to cheaper help, longer hours, understaffing, and more.
Many of the doctors, nurses, and other "care-givers"
obviously just didn't care about our sister Ginny.
They didn't see her as a person,
but just as a body in a bed,
or worse, as an annoyance.
This morning, over coffee, Misty said:
"They shouldn't wait for the funeral to use those photo collages.
They should put them up beside every patient's bed in the hospitals,
so the staff could see they're working on a PERSON,
with a personality and a life and a family,
instead of just a body in a bed".
What a good idea!
Copyright © April 7, 2002 by Jack Blanchard. All rights reserved.
