This week's blog prompt reminded me of a letter that my grandfather, Sig Levy, had stashed away in the metal box where he kept many (all?) of his "important" papers which now resides in my home. I've looked through it several times and there really isn't much other than insurance policies and jewelry appraisals but each time his notes about a fall piqued my interest. So, here it is.
September 18, 1966
This is what happened to me at the Community Hospital Fresno. I was a patient under Dr. Knudson’s care in room 429.
He had taken me over to the hospital I believe on Monday Sept 12 for Xrays because I had terrible pains & a swelling in my right chest under my ribs. He suspected a stoppage in the ducts of my pancreas and came to the house in the morning of that day and gave me two injections. He came back again around noon time & the pain was still severe so he gave me another apparent stronger injection and ordered me to the hospital for Xrays but by the time I arrived at the hospital the pain had subsided & the swelling was down. But he had the Xrays performed which took about an hour or more & he and Dr. Mayhee (?) said they could find nothing serious after reading the Xrays.
I was sent to my room & put to bed and ordered on a liquid diet. During that afternoon Dr. Nielsen came to my room; examined me & said I was OK. I was on a liquid diet for 2 days – during that time I was given several pills, a cup of liquid & a shot in the arm – all this was given me to get ready for more xrays. This medication caused a stoppage of passing any urine so that night they dumped (?) my bladder. In the meantime they took 2 blood tests & reported all OK. Then on Thursday they took me down for another complete almost 2 hrs xray & forced liquid thru my veins. The result was that all showed OK so I wanted to go home on Thurs but Dr. Knudsen said he wanted me to stay another night for medication which he gave me causing me to go to the toilet to urinate about every 20 minutes or so. So late Thurs aft I asked the nurse if the side of the bed could be left down so I could go to the bathroom & she said yes but that I was not to get out of bed at night. And I said then you will pull up the side of the bed & she said she would before she could go home from her shift & that was the last I saw of her. Later that eve another nurse came in and gave me 2 large red pills & a sleeping pill and shortly after I fell in a dead sleep. Later on I was awaken by having to urinate so in a daze I was feeling on the bed to reach for the urinal which the previous nurse told me to do. I reached the tube alongside the bed which moved & I together with the urinal fell on the side of the bed & landing on my head & shoulders on the hard floor. It hurt terribly & I grabbed ahold of the sides of the bed & tried & tried to get on my feet but the floor was so slippery I kept falling flat on my face. After about 10 minutes or more of struggling I finally made it into bed.
At once I buzzed for a nurse and an orderly & nurse came in. I told them I had a bad fall on my head which was cut & I hurt badly. They put a tape on my head & left the room. I & the bed was soaking wet & I thot they came back change my wet bed clothes etc. but that was the last I saw of them.
Later about 10 minutes I couldn’t stand the pain & wet any longer so I buzzed again and a different nurse came in I told her of my fall & condition & she at once changed the bedding & gown to make me comfortable. She said no one told her that I had fallen on the floor so I asked her to notify my doctor which she said she would. Later I called again & asked a different nurse to bring me aspirin to relieve the pain which she did. I also asked to notify my doctor & she said it had been done.
The doctor finally arrived about 9:45 the next morning Friday. I told him of the accident & he said they notified him during the night & told him I wasn’t hurt badly. He at once ordered Xrays to ascertain if I broke any bones & the result was that I had not.
When I hit the floor on the floor [sic] it almost knocked me out completely but I finally struggled to bed with a painful chest & ribs. He released me for home by my wife later Friday.
Sig Levy
And almost as an afterthought, he added this.
When the second nurse came in Thurs eve and gave me a sedative even tho the previous nurse forgot to pull up the side of the bed rails the nurse should have taken care of it because she might know I would become dazed later in the night. It appeared to be gross negligence on the nurse’s part.
Why did he write this? Was he anticipating a lawsuit of some kind? Was there a lawsuit that I just haven't found evidence of? So many questions.
I wasn't quite 14 when Sig died so don't have a ton of memories of him but I'm learning that he might have been a bit quirky. He also, apparently, like to document things "just in case".
What's interesting is that just 2 years later, August 17, 1968 Sig died from pancreatic cancer. You can see that the death certificate states he'd had it for 1 year.
Was this event he describes above the beginning of the illness that took his life? Who knew?
