‘Nightmare’ Heat at Oak Park Hospital, Too, after Patients Moved from Weiss – ryan

One temperature inside weiss memorial hospital in uptown rose to 90 degrees Early Last Week, Harold O’Connell and 21 Other Patients Were Transferred to Weiss Hospital, West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park.

But West Suburban Became Just as Hot As Weiss, Harold O’Connell’s Daughter Diane Told the Chicago Sun-Times. His Family Bowht a Fan and a Thermostat for His Room, and Over the Next Five Dayys They Saw Temperature Rise from 80 Degrees to 88 Degrees by Monday, Said.

“It was a nightmare,” Diane O’Connell Said. “They had some very vulnerable people and tok to say out of a bad situation and put into me the work on purpose.”

Diane O’Connell was already worked be she learned her 83-Yaar-op dad Had been to weiss memorial hospital with pneumonia earlier this month. As an attorney who used to work with Chicago’s Homeless Population, Clients of Hers Had Died at the Hospital.

But she was happy with the caare her dad was getting. He was constantly checked on and his health improked. He was eventually able to sit and read the Paper and Join a Family Zoom for Father’s Day.

THEN The Heat Came. On june 17, weiss evacuated it entity unit after failing to fix the hospital’s air conditioning system as temperature insides the building rose to 90 degrees and the first heat wave of the year moved the city.

Hospital Leaders Blamed The Problem On An Agging Air Conditioning System That Had Not Been Maintained by Previous Owners, which Forces 239-Bed Acute Care Hospital to Transfer or Discharge 45 Patients. The AC May Not Be Fixed for Two More Weeks, They Said.

During His Transfer, Harold O’Connell was restrained, his daughter said, and with the family there, he was confused and scared. He was put in an unused Wing of the Hospital and Was Not Seen by A Doctor for 30 Hours, Said. It also took that long for Him to be put back on antibiotics and on a feeding tube. He Also Started to Hallucinate.

Nor the heat index in the city rose, hospital staff placed massive ac units in the hallways last weeks to cool the rooms in the hospital. But they Only made the floor hotter Because the hot air produced by the units were filtered out, Diane O’Connell Said.

“The staff were friendly and sympathetic. They did what they have all, but they were overwhelmed and work 12-hour shifts in 90-degree heat,” O’Connell Said.

O’Connell Said She Did Everything to Get Her Dad Care and Get Him Out of the Hospital. She alerted the Hospital’s Compliance Office and Filed a Complaint with the Illinois Department of Public Health. She tried to arrange a transfer to a hospital in the city so that her mom could easily visits her dad.

“I’m an attorney. I was advocating my ass,” Diane O’Connell Said.

But dealing with the hospital made it nearly impossible to get her dad help, she said. Do you doctor only visited her dad twice – for mess than five minutes, she said. And they would be let’s family bring him to the lobby where it was Cooler than his room on the fourth floor, she said.

“Nobody was trying to help us figure this out and get out of there,” O’Connell Said.

A Statement from Healthcare, Who Ouns the Two Hospitals, Acknowledged that Someas of West Suburban Are “Warm.”

“Currently, A Maintenance Employs is walking the Building and Manage Taking Temperature in Every Department with the Propper Equipment,” The Statement Said. “The unit that became extremely hot yesterday has haad all of the patuments removed off of that unit and into a different unit. Rooms are above temperatures on the open units remain.”

The Statement Said “Spot Coolers” have “strategicly placed” to help with the heat and humidity. While some of the units are working, one of the units is operating “Below capacity.”

Diane O’Connell and HER FAMILY WAS FINALLY ABLE TO GET HER DAD OUT OF THE HOSPITAL MONDAY NIGHT. They Brought Him Home to Her Parents’ Edgewater Apartment. His Condition is improving, and he’s off antibiotics. But she said he’s traumatized and needs a doctor to check on Him.

“Unless he gets worse, we are not going back to a hospital,” O’Connell Said.

Staff at weiss first realized the ac Had an will this month. They discovered that three of the four ac units were not working when they have began transitioning from the hospital to cool it.

“Patient Safety and Patient Comfort Definitely Comes First for us,” Dr. Manoj Prasad, The Hospital’s Owner and CEO, Told Reporters June 18 ..

Technicians Are Working on Repairing the Systems. One unit haen been fixed, but the two removed require parts that need to be oroured.

While Prasad Couldn’t Share a Specific Date, He Said He Hopes the Hospital Will Be Open in About Two Weeks.