Pain and Confusion at the Hospital, a Tough Lass, Weed Popularity Peaking?, Cybersecurity Switch, Women in Construction, and Newspapers Dying
The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell
A MISERABLE LAST few days for a Marquette resident…At 1 am, Friday morning, the resident awakens to severe abdominal pain. Food poisoning ruled out because others who had eaten the same meals were fine…Pain continues, blood appears in the stool…Still, the resident decides to gut it out on Friday, hoping for a let-up…Nope. No sleep. The pain persists.
Early Saturday morning, the resident, fearful of losing too much blood, is driven to the UPHS Marquette Emergency Department…Given a CT Scan and morphine, preliminarily diagnosed with diverticulitis/colitis. Then told that a trip to a Green Bay hospital was likely, because no doctor was available at UPHS to provide the needed care…Patient waits in the ER for 10 hours before being told that, no, the patient would, instead, stay at UPHS and be moved upstairs…and a visiting doctor, a specialist, would be available on WEDNESDAY…Three long days to wait, while suffering from severe pain, inability to eat, confusion, and fear.
Nurses repeatedly express their concern and apologies—“Sorry! Sorry!”—to the patient. One quietly suggests the patient really needs to go to Green Bay; another says if this ever happens again, don’t come to UPHS. “They’re good people,” the patient says. “They cared about me. They were really trying to help me but they kept telling me the hospital doesn’t have enough resources.” Patient starts calling friends to see if they know of any doctors, unassociated with the hospital, who might be able to help.
Monday arrives. “I’m in pain,” the patient says. “I can’t eat anything (except by IV), I can’t pass anything, and I’m scared because I’ve been told I won’t see a gastroenterologist until Wednesday.”…Patient seizes the initiative— calling doctors’ offices outside the hospital, pleading for help…No answers at first, but then a friend in the medical field responds by phone and promises to help…
Meantime, a case specialist for the hospital arrives and informs the patient that since the patient may merely be “under observation,” insurance may not cover the hospital stay. What?!!
A few hours later, the friend shows up, surprisingly with a gastroenterologist who’s on staff at the hospital…Previously the patient had been told that no staff specialists were available at all, and a visiting gastroenterologist wouldn’t show up until Wednesday. So, how did this doctor suddenly show up and why? No clear answers for the patient, but at last, a specialist with comprehensive knowledge of the patient’s condition is in charge…Relief for the patient finally, even though the pain persists.
UPHS-Marquette’s responds that there are, in fact, two gastroenterologists on staff, along with three Family Nurse Practitioners. “Due to circumstances beyond our control—whether it’s a holiday weekend, illness, or provider being out on reprieve—there may be times when we must send a patient to a nearby facility in the event a patient would require a higher level of care,” the hospital statement explains.
Further: “Like all health systems, we are continuously recruiting new providers to our markets across the Upper Peninsula. Gastroenterology is a recruitment focus for UP Health System in 2024, and we are confident we will be able to continue to improve access to high-quality gastroenterology services in the communities we serve…We continuously evaluate the specialty services we provide to ensure our care is reflective of what our community needs—when they need it…”
Tuesday afternoon, the patient remains in the hospital, and the gastroenterologist orders a colonoscopy for Wednesday. Progress, it seems. But wait! A lab test from the stool sample the patient personally collected comes up positive for C diff— a bacterium that causes an infection in the colon. Maybe that’s been the culprit. Or maybe not. The patient is dismayed and frightened by the finding, but at least and at last, there’s confidence that a proper and informed course of testing and treatment is being followed…And, unfortunately, the patient, exhausted and undernourished, is still wondering if insurance will cover the last five days of pain, misery, anxiety, and confusion while “under observation”.
SHE’S A FIGHTER…Marquette resident Anna Dravland’s story makes the previous story seem like a cheery walk in the park on a sunny day…Six years after suffering a stroke in her thirties, Anna’s been in and out of hospitals ever since. Literally, dozens of ER visits…Her insides—stomach, large and small intestines, gall bladder, and appendix—have all been malfunctioning. And most of those problems aren’t even related to her stroke…She just got saddled with a body that didn’t work properly.
She was due to have the last part of her colon removed in a recent visit to the Cleveland Clinic—a surgery she had helped arrange—but the night before, she contracted Covid. Surgery postponed…She returned to Marquette to await rescheduled surgery in December. “When I came back to Marquette,” she explains, “I wasn’t able to get proper nutrition, I was losing more weight, I couldn't get out of bed, and I passed out.” Back to the ER where she now resides. “I’m grateful for all the people who have helped me—the doctors, the nurses. I’d be dead without them.”
But these last six years have taught her an important lesson: Don’t wait for hospitals, clinics, doctors or insurance companies to tell you what needs to be done.“You have to take charge of your own care because you know your body better than anybody,” Anna says. “Nobody else knows how I feel.”
A THINNING OUT of the marijuana market…The Munising Cannabis Company is closing its doors by the end of the year. “It’s too expensive to operate,” says General Manager Jody Irving. “We grow our own weed here on site, we make our own products, but it’s very labor-intensive, and the price of marijuana keeps going down.” The good news for consumers? Big discounts on the remaining inventory…The closure will leave two marijuana stores in Munising…Will Marquette, with its plethora of weed shops, eventually follow suit? Seems likely.
“IT WASN’T A good fit for me.” The words of Bill Vajda who held the job of NMU Cybersecurity Institute director for only about two months before leaving. Vajda, a former, highly regarded City Manager in Marquette, has now taken a job as senior advisor in the federal Department of Treasury. He lives in Marquette but travels internationally.
His successor is Michael Sauer, an NMU grad and a former IT project manager at Kimberly-Clark…He sees the job as a good fit for him, and the Institute as performing a vital role. “There are 650,000 open cybersecurity jobs in the US,” he says. “We need to fill them. It’s a national security issue.”…And the Institute is growing: 80 students now majoring in the program—a 38% increase over last year, with another 14 individuals taking certification courses to get their foot in the door of cybersecurity.
WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION? You betcha…They’ve been crashing through the doors and busting through the glass ceiling to get into NMU’s construction management program…“We’ve made a herculean effort to get the message out that we want women in construction,” says NMU professor Michael Andary. Nationwide, only 9-10% of the industry is women. The last three classes at NMU were 22% women…“They are problem-solvers, they are analytical, they get the job done,” says Andary.
The NMU construction management program overall continues to grow—up 33% in the last five years. And they’ve started an increasingly popular online program.
NOT A GOOD trend…The decline of local newspapers is accelerating, according to Axios. In 2005, there were nearly 9000 newspapers across the US; now, there are only about 6000…Young people, of course, don’t buy them, and many don’t even bother reading them online. Instead, many get their “news” from social media…from journalists like Elon Musk.
A TROUBLED ECONOMY? It hardly seemed like it at the Somerset Collection Mall in downstate Troy last Friday afternoon…Wall-to-wall people, jammed stores, lines outside Pandora, Apple, and Bath and Body Works—people waiting for shoppers to leave so that they could get in…And of course, a half-hour line outside Starbucks, and what had to have been a one-hour line outside Chic-fil-A…Are their chicken sandwiches really that good? Seriously?
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice."
—Bob Marley
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This is a very hard comment to make, we need to use this hospital as for most of us, this is the choice we have. We also need to shout out loud when bad service is what we get. How do we get the message to the leadership of this for-profit business all while giving them our business.?? Many negative experiences for my family, right down to their family practice clinic. Bad medical care of a simple gall bladder problem almost killed my husband. When I expected at least an apology from treating DR in ICU, he qualified it with a BUT. When you BUT someone, it is no longer an apology. I feel bad for employees. Duke needs to move on.
The story about the dysfunctional hospital in one that many have experienced. People have died due to lack of proper care. It is horrific! Sad that what was once stellar is now a failed system. Thankfully there are dedicated personnel trying to keep patients safe.