Efrat & Lenny Nearly Died A Few Days Apart
I (Lenny) was never in a hospital in my life. One day around 6 AM, I woke up with a serious sort of anxiety problem. I didn't have any pain... just an overwhelming sense of serious something... "I gotta go to the hospital" !........ I drove (barely) to NW Seton just 8 minutes away I started feeling so so so "ILL"... Seton couldn't not figure out what was wrong with me... I was sooooooo sick. After a few days they took me by ambulance to the main Seton on 38th st. They too couldn't figure out what was wrong... I was getting very close to death by that time. My family and some friends sat in the hospital room and watched me turn grey and clammy and slowly pass away... Margaret was there and jumped up, ran out in the hall and accosted the nurses to "DO SOMETHING.. HE'S dying!!!")... by some chance a surgeon overheard her (she was screaming) he took one look at my chart and me and rushed me into surgery (he was a chest/lung surgeon!)... sliced me open like a bear tearing to get to the salmons eggs... he found my chest cavity filled with puss... cleaned me out and sewed me up.... a couple days later I was ready to leave.. (I recovered fast and was very healthy) Efrat volunteered for me to recover at her house and being VERY weak... went to bed right away. Next morning at 6 AM (again!) I woke up to Efrat's screaming in pain... her hip dislocated again.... We called 911 and her orthopedic surgeon to ask him where he wanted her to be taken... he said he had some rounds at the 38th st Seton.. to go there... even though she lived in far SW Austin they rushed her there and I followed... the emergency room people recognized me and thought i had a relapse!... they put her in a private emergency room... they had to give her morphine and oxygen... she stopped breathing a couple times and since they had her monitored the bells and whistles went off each time... they rushed in revived her and stabilized her... (twice)... at some point just before noon they moved her out of the ER to a room of her own. As the nurse was getting her situated in bed I said to the nurse... "shouldn't you put the monitor clips on her and fluff the pillows later considering what happened in the ER?"... the nurse told me to mind my own business - they knew what they were doing... finally the nurse connected the monitor clips and Efrat was stable and sleeping so I decided to go get a cup of coffee (I was sooo tired still recovering from my surgery)... went down to the cafeteria... I couldn't believe it... the cafeteria was closed for an hour between breakfast and lunch time!!!!!!!.... I shuffled back upstairs... the nurse was just outside Efrat's door and I went into the room... the monitor was just about flat-lined and Efrat was stone-cold grey. The only monitor that was connected was not a monitor that beeped or any-other notification!!!!!!!!!! I screamed!!! The nurse rushed in and hit an alarm button that set the entire floor into high gear.... within moments there were a dozen people in her room with a couple doctors on her bed trying to resuscitate her. Took 'em 45 minutes to get her revived and breathing on her own. The hallway was filled with nurses and every other type of hospital person (guess it was a slow night!)... This all happened about a week apart... my near death and Efrat's!... both at the same hospital.
Seton nearly killed us both!!!!
