https://blogs.mercola.com:443/sites/vitalvotes/archive/2019/12/11/patients-tormented-by-the-sound-of-hospital-alarms.aspxThink of a few sounds that would make you cringe, if you had to hear them over and over and over again. Nails on a chalkboard? Balloons popping? What about the constant noise of an alarm? Every day in hospitals across the U.S., tens of thousands of alarmsenCommunityServer 2008.5 SP1 (Debug Build: 31106.3070)https://blogs.mercola.com:443/sites/vitalvotes/archive/2019/12/11/patients-tormented-by-the-sound-of-hospital-alarms.aspx?ShowAllComments=True#97442512/12/2019 1:31:14 PM24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:974425healer99<p>Over the years as an RN, I saw the number of alarms on patients increase to the point that I could no longer recognize what alarm it was or in what room. Multiple IV pumps, bed alarms, pulse ox, telemetry, vents, etc. The sounds started to become meaningless and lose their urgency when multiplied by impossible patient loads and staffing levels cut to the bone. I was fighting with a sense of hopelessness and creeping numbness to it all. </p> <p>Patients would come into another patients&#39; room where I was initiating a code to &nbsp;complain about a pulse ox beeping because it had come off their loved ones finger. There was no sorting out what was urgent and what was not. Reading this, I guess I am still a little PTSD about the whole thing. Thank heavens I got out and am doing natural health care now!</p> https://blogs.mercola.com:443/sites/vitalvotes/archive/2019/12/11/patients-tormented-by-the-sound-of-hospital-alarms.aspx?ShowAllComments=True#97420412/11/2019 2:12:34 AM24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:974204Almond<p>If I enter a hospital again, I will be carried in unconscious. Otherwise, the risks are too high. &nbsp;(They may be even higher if I am unconscious.) &nbsp;There is nothing in a hospital situation that I am capable of coping with. &nbsp;It is difficult enough just to figure out how to navigate the medical system for simple stuff when I can choose my doctor and staff. &nbsp;I cannot heal in a place where I cannot eat the food, tolerate the lighting, the drugs, getting jabbed repeatedly, be exposed to infection, &nbsp;have constant noise/commotion, and people walking in and out of my room at all hours of the day and night to do who knows what, and who do not share my belief system. Where I do not control the thermostat and have to sleep on a bed with a rubber mattress liner under the sheet.</p> <p>I understand I can say &quot;no&quot; at any time. &nbsp;I can also get up and leave when I feel ready. &nbsp;(It helps to have someone supportive at your side. &nbsp;My husband can be quite intimidating.) &nbsp;The last time I was hospitalized was decades ago. I crossed out, dated and initialed parts of the hospital admissions contract I did not agree with--also informed my doctor of it. &nbsp;I also listed unnecessary services that I refused and did not agree to pay for.</p>