I wanted to tell you about my experience on your Neuro Stepdown Unit. My husband was admitted to the Neuro Unit with Stage IV Lung Cancer. Over the next 5 months he was bounced between the Neuro Unit, to the Rehab Hospital, back to the Neuro Unit, then to the Rehab Unit at Warwick Forrest and finally sent back to the ED at Riverside Regional Medical Center. Unexpectedly, he died within a couple of hours of being back in the ED. I and all the doctors thought that we had a least 6 months left with him. The one big goal was for my husband to attend his son's High School Graduation this past summer.
The most important thing you need to know is that the entire staff of the Neuro Stepdown Unit took care of him as if he were related to them. He was going through a transition and trying to accept the fact that he did not have much time left. Our family stayed with him as much as we could knowing we still had to work and participate in our son's senior year activities. When we were not there we were not worried about his care. 3 of the nurses actually came to his memorial service. It was the first time I saw my son that entire day. Wow! Is all I can say on that. Our son received a card in the mail, not only did they give our son a gift card for graduation but the notes that each wrote in the card from the conversations that the nurses had with my husband in regards to our son will have an impact for the rest of his life. They shared some of the conversations that they had with my husband about how proud he was of our son. This has had a healing effect on our son that I cannot even describe. It is the only card our son received through all of this that he actually kept with him.