ALMOST EVERYTHING, except the orthopedic surgeons, who did a good job repairing my fractured…read morekneecap, and the aides who were friendly and sympathetic.
After a fall at our B&B at about 20 heures on June 3, 2024 (a Monday), where I broke my kneecap horizontally into 2 large pieces, I was taken by ambulance to this hospital. Upon arrival in the ER, I was transferred to a gurney and waited to be seen. We asked for ice or ice packs to apply to my knee to reduce/minimize/slow swelling (standard practice, in our experience, in the US). To our great surprise, there WASN'T ANY ice (glace)! They offered a thin, totally inadequate small bag of frozen platelets, which did nothing to help. A visitor to Paris who goes to a cafe or restaurant who asks for ice in a drink WILL GET ICE FOR THEIR DRINK!! NOT IN THIS HOSPITAL!! Plus they acted last like ours was an unreasonable request! While I was in the ER, a staffer took photos (rather than photocopied) of my medical information--a 2+-page paper document that details my medical conditions (all medications [dosages and times of day taken], past surgeries, past surgeries, past vaccinations, etc.)
Eventually X-rays were taken, confirming the break. Around 4am on Tuesday, June 4, I was admitted and temporarily put in a double room in the vascular unit because they were full up everywhere else. After being fed breakfast, I was taken to a private room in the ortho unit.
A staffer eventually came to tell me that my surgery would be the next day (Wednesday). After a very uncomfortable night in the most uncomfortable bed I had ever experienced (the mattress was thoroughly bottomed out; there was padding only on the sides), I made sure to tell them that I was on a major blood thinner, Plavix, which they should have known from the paper document they took photos of in the ER. Evidently, that crucial information WAS NOT SHARED beyond the ER.
On Wednesday, I was told surgery would be Thursday, but then an anesthesiologist came in (after learning about my Plavix use perhaps--which I had taken last on the morning of my fall) and said it would be Friday. On Friday, an orthopedic surgeon informed me that surgery would have to wait until either Saturday or Sunday because 5 days without Plavix was required -- to avoid bleeding out on the table during surgery. He also indicated that, on Saturday, only one operating theater would be open in the entire hospital and that emergencies would be given priority. He also said: on Sunday 2 operating theaters would be open, one of which is devoted to orthopedic surgery. So.....
I anticipated waiting until Sunday for the operation. (Our return flights home to the US from CDG airport were scheduled for that Monday!)
To my surprise, I was taken to surgery Saturday morning!
All this while I was communicating with Generali Global Assistance. (I had the foresight to buy a travel insurance policy with them before going to France--Generali was a life saver!)
All the surgeons and medical staff had to do for Generali to begin arranging alternate ground and air transportation for our return home was to provide a filled-out Fit-To-Fly form (indicating it would be safe for me to fly), and a summary of my my medical treatment. Staff really dragged their heels putting together this information! (TERRIBLE INTERNAL COMMUNICATION AND A LACK OF A SENSE OF URGENCY characterized my entire hospital stay.)
We also needed prescriptions for medications and--more importantly--full-height crutches (bequilles axillaires) and a folding walker, for my wife to take to a nearby pharmacy in the morning and retrieve later that afternoon.
The prescriptions were given to us late in the morning June 11. When she went back to get ever, she was told that the walker and crutches had not come in. That she WOULD HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE PHARMACY THE NEXT MORNING AT 8am!! I HAD ALREADY BEEN DISCHARGED. I WOULD NOT BE GETTING MEALS, MEDICATIONS THAT NIGHT OR THE NEXT MORNING!
I could not walk out of the hospital without those crutches, so......
We collected all my items in the hospital room, I got dressed, and WE WALKED OUT OF THE HOSPITAL ON OUR OWN POWER WITH THE HOSPITAL CRUTCHES I UAD BEEN TOLD I COULD NOT TAKE WITH ME!!!
Walked out through the lobby and got in a taxi right out front, which took us to the hotel nearby where my wife had been staying!
I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS HOSPITAL!
