Madness

I just heard from the hospital. They are releasing dad, they decided about an hour ago. They have no idea what brought on the abdominal pain, nor the second heart attack. They did not run a stress test, they have not given him solid food for two days. Are they nuts?

I think they are trying to drive this family nuts. My two uncles haven't slept much for days, nor has my mother nor myself. And they're sending him home without testing his heart first!?!?! Are they insane?

I tell you, this could drive someone to drink!

Update (2004/12/28, 17:17 PM): The general practitioner was doing a discharge on the advice of my father's normal doctor, who is presently on vacation and not credentialed at this hospital anyway (hence the need for the temporary general practitioner who is credentialed at this hospital). My mother just talked to me after she heard from the doc again, who apologized for overstepping his bounds. Seems that the good doctor was relying on the said normal doctor's advice rather than the cardiologist's. After talking to the cardiologist, they have determined to wait until tomorrow when they can have dad run a stress test. Thank-you!

Dad's normal PCP is a jerk. He's released my dad early once, was trying to do so again, did not call for an emergency angiogram two weeks ago when the chest pains first occurred, and previously put my dad on statins (step as far away from cholesterol medicine as you can, it does far more harm than good from what I've seen, although I'm no doctor), which — it seems — have caused the vein growth that requires a rare procedure in the future to keep them from stealing blood from the heart. He also screamed at my mother over the phone before seven in the morning yesterday for having my dad at the wrong hospital (which was the only choice, given the severe pain, but the doctor didn't care about that).

At least this doctor apologized for the misstep, I know that's hard for an M.D. to do.