Staff Ills

Well, I was back at the hospital. This time with a very, very sick staff person. What I hadn't realized until yesterday, is that Shaare Tzedek is a religious hospital. I've never been there on Shabbat, so if I did know, it just hadn't mattered. We actually drove down in two cars and I was in the second car. It turns out, that unless you are the sick person, or have them in the seat next to you, you cannot drive into the hospital on Shabbat. No amount of "she's my student and he's just the driver (he's not) would get me in. So I parked a few blocks away. Oh well.

The good news about being at Shaare Tzedek in the emergency room, is that based on my last trip there, I know where things are. Which means that when she needed another blanket, and a pillow, I could go to the supply closet and get them. The bad news, is that never having been there on Shabbat, I didn't know where the Shabbat elevators are.

I left for about an hour in the afternoon and when I got back, she was on the 7th floor. By the time I got up there, she was already back down on the 2nd floor. They released her as soon as Shabbat ended with a really, really bad virus. Thankfully she's got family here and they picked her up and she'll recuperate there.

The three times I've been in the hospitals this round have all been with staff people - one gastrointestinal, one with mono or Epstein-Barr (I don't know if they ever figured it out). And we've had a few others that weren't "hospital-worthy" but who were also very sick.

And one staff person's grandparent died on the 2nd day of the trip, and another's grandmother is not looking long for this world either. I'm not sure what it is this round....