I was taken to Cochin Hospital by ambulance about midnight on Friday, July 11 after I fell in Paris. I had a fractured femur and ended up having a total hip replacement. My husband and I are on vacation. I speak limited French, and the ITranslate app was a big help filling in the gap. I spent my first night in the emergency room. My husband was allowed to stay with me in the emergeny room. The emergency room staff did a great job. I was in extreme pain, close to unbearable. I was admiited on Saturday and moved to a room in the orthopedic building. I could not move my right leg and foot was flopped over. The room was fine. Very basic. I spent the first day on morphine and pain pills. My husband was told by a very surly night nurse in French that night that he could not stay and could not return until 1 pm. She only spoke French and was literally screaming at us. My husband wanted to stay because of my pain, but left. That night was my first harrowing experience with the night nurses. It took them 30 minutes to respond to my calls for pain pills or to pee. I tried not to drink any water because going pee was torture. They push a hard plastic bowl under you. The pain while they were doing that and while I was on it was excruciating. Rather than wait the few minutes while I peed, the left the room and I had to call them back, waiting while this hard plastic bowl dug into my hip. They had closed the door to my room. I was the closest door to the nurse's station. At one point, I resorted to screaming: "s'il vous plait" at the top of my lungs. Still no one came. Every attempt I made to speak in French, they acted like they either didn't here me or understand me. Complete indifference to my human suffering. They were not overcrowded. Every 2-person room had only one patient. The surgery was pushed off until Monday, so I had to endure another night of the malevolent nurses. At one point, they changed my sheets and roughly rolled me back and forth, I just started crying. They didn't care. On the morning of the surgery (night nurses still on duty), 2 nurses burst into my room at 5:45 am, poured water on my head and very roughly washed my hair. Then they rolled me over to wash my back while I writhed in pain. Pure torture is the only way to describe. I was told by friends who live in Paris that nurses are not required to speak any language but French. The day nurses were great. They spoke some English (some very good English) and listened to me when I tried to communicate. I realize that I'm in their country and I certainly don't expect everyone, or anyone, to speak English. But it's Paris and even the waiters speak English. Why not nurses?? Here's the good part, although we were never given a time of the surgery, we knew the day. As soon as the torture nurses had finished with the wash, I called my husband so he could Uber over. He got here before they wheeled me into surgery. The surgeons, interns, anesthesiologists, surgery nurses and physical therapists were wonderful. Cochin is a university teaching hospital with an excellent reputation for orthopedic surgery. I felt confident in the surgical procedure itself. But, the absolute disregard of the night nurses for care of the patients and the horrendous pain I endured as a result of their indifference will never be forgotten read more