RE: [QUAD-L] What would you have done.

[Jason Thurston]

W- I guess that's what you get sometimes for being a good Samaritan. I personally have been burned but never that bad. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't help anyone I can. I have always been that way. JT From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, August 06, 2006 10:53 PM To: quad-list@eskimo.com Subject: [QUAD-L] What would you have done. This week has been crazy.  Let me try to explain....   Mr. X of New Jersey called a couple of months ago to tell me that he was coming to Chicago for a week to visit his aging Mother and celebrate her 100 year birthday and see a couple of Chicago baseball games before returning to New Jersey.  His method of travel was AMTRAK.   Mr. X is a 62+ C5 quad, trach user, prostate cancer and bad lungs that need mechanical cleaning 4 times a day.  Mr. X chose to travel with his girlfriend which is 1/2 his age and his mentality.  Mr. X doesn't wish to fly so its AMTRAK for him to Chicago.  His arrival was supposed to be a week ago Friday at 9am.  He actually arrived 3 hours late and his lung cleaning broke down 1/2 way to Chicago. He uses a Permobil wheelchair and he had 16 pieces of luggage 6 critical and 10 bags of clothes and tubes. No charger for his chair or cell phone.  I proceeded to take Mr. X and his 1/2 x girlfriend to an assisted living center in a community North of the city.  My plan was to leave the van with him to use while he was in town.  I used public transportation to work my way back to my office some 65-70 miles away.   6 days later, I had heard nothing from Mr. X or his 1/2 x girlfriend.  I call the center where I dropped him and discovered that he left the center the day after I dropped him and hadn't return, but my van was still at the center.  I called his 100 year old mother only to discover that he was admitted to the city hospital on the past Saturday and was still there. I used public bus to find the hospital that was 3 miles away and .... yes he was there in the pulmonary ward and isolated.  He missed his Thursday Amtrak departure and the hospital didn't know when he would be released because of his condition.  Mr. X made a command decision that he would release himself the next day and asked me to be at the hospital at 9am to help 1/2 x to remove his luggage from the center he wasn't staying at.  The center bill had been prepaid so he didn't receive a refund.  I headed by to the hospital with his 16 bags and he was signing the release papers against the wishes of his doctors and nurses. They were concerned that fluid would build up in his lungs during the 15+ hour return to NY and AMTRAK would not stop the train if there was a 911 event.  You can imagine the tensive situation of this.  He signed the paperwork anyway and was released... under written protest. I took Mr. X and 1/2 x and 16 bags to the AMTRAK Station 90 minutes before the train was to leave.  There must have been 250 people standing in lines, on a Friday before the weekend, waiting to take the train to New York.  I caught a red cap and loaded 10 tag'd bags on his cart and said that they were going to NY.  The other 6 bags with critical needs I keep for the Xs to take on the train.  60 minutes later 1/2 x comes out of customer service crying and having a tissy fit.  Apparently when they missed the train on Thursday, they thought that they would be rescheduled to the next day.  AMTRAK didn't think that way and placed them on a train leaving "this" Thursday.   So here's the situation for those who haven't kept up with this story.  Every hotel and motel is booked solid for the Lollapaloza Music Fest. Mr. X and 1/2 x have no where to go and no place to stay.  The Amtrak train leaves full.... without them and its 8pm in Chicago on a Friday NIght.  He hasn't had his lungs suction'd and the sitution doesn't look promising.   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   I take Mr. X and 1/2x back to the hospital emergency room and advise them that his running a temperature and needs his lungs cleaned.  I got him re-admitted thru the ER and finally got to leave about 1am on Saturday.  I called him today Sunday and asked how he was doing. The original cultures from his previous stay had finally come back and the bacteria was ID'd and Mr. X was on 3 IV drips.  1/2  x was sleeping by his bedside.   I told him that I would call him Wednesday this week while I was on my way to St. Louis to see how thing were going.   I only ask that you think of this ... the next time you plan on traveling. W