As I write this, I am rather upset, so please bear with me. A good friend just died this morning. He was in the hospital following complications from a fall, having been transferred from a rehab facility. He did not have COVID, having had several negative tests.

Here's the problem. Following his fall, he was placed in a rehab facility. Restrictions because of COVID: patients must be in quarantine upon entry for the first 14 days, during which time, his wife was not permitted entry to his room. She could only see him from behind a glass window and talk to him via a phone. Well, he didn't quite make the full 14 days (13 days to be exact) before he developed pulmonary emboli & had to be transferred to the hospital.

Guess what? Now in the hospital, again he was placed in quarantine despite having negative COVID tests. His wife was not allowed entry to his room & could only talk to him on the phone. After 5 days in the hospital, he died this morning.

So for approximately the last 18 days of my friend's life, his wife of nearly 60 years was not permitted to be by his side because of COVID restrictions. This is a gross injustice to humanity.

Oh, and now that he died, my friend's wife currently is on her way to the hospital where she will now be permitted to go into his room to view his body.

Something is seriously wrong with our society. We have ceded too much control to the bureaucrats.

Note: We had lunch with my friend's wife yesterday, during which time we covered many issues & problems. One thing we talked about was that he might not make it out of the hospital, & did she have everything in ready in case he did die. Well, everything was already arranged, but then another issue: no memorial or funeral service of significance currently was possible, since no more than 10 persons could be in attendance. Since my friend was not a prominent politician, he will now be buried in obscurity with only his wife and a few relatives in attendance.

It's absolutely ridiculous. Unless you're a politician, then rules are ignored and churches are packed for your memorial service.

Sorry for your loss.

awful. my condolences to you and your friends wife.

wish this was a shareable facebook post for all of the Karen's on that site.

ORAggieFan said:

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It's absolutely ridiculous. Unless you're a politician, then rules are ignored and churches are packed for your memorial service.

Sorry for your loss.

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Or a convicted felon...... also sorry for your loss.

Just FYI, the decisions you describe are at the facility level. If you call those bureacratic, so be it, but these are not laws nor directives from any county health departments, at least not in Texas. I know these things, as I am chief of the medical staff at a small hospital in the Houston area. All of these rules can be modified by the attending physician if enough push back is done. Sorry for your loss.

Gizzards said:

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Just FYI, the decisions you describe are at the facility level. If you call those bureacratic, so be it, but these are not laws nor directives from any county health departments, at least not in Texas. I know these things, as I am chief of the medical staff at a small hospital in the Houston area. All of these rules can be modified by the attending physician if enough push back is done. Sorry for your loss.

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He was in Memorial Hermann Woodlands. Below is a directive issued by Memorial Hermann:

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Memorial Hermann Implements Additional Precautions to Protect Patients, Workforce and Community, Effective Friday, March 27 - Updated Thursday, April 2, 2020
HOUSTON (March26, 2020)

Memorial Hermann Health System ("Memorial Hermann") is further modifying its visitor policy as an effort to continue to protect patients, workforce, caregivers and the community. Effective Friday, March 27 and updated Thursday, April 2, Memorial Hermann will no longer allow visitors to enter our facilities until further notice. This policy modification applies to all Memorial Hermann facilities.

This decision will further protect our patients and the community from the spread of COVID-19 and help conserve Memorial Hermann's supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) to ensure our ability to continue providing safe care during this time.

The following limited exceptions to the no visitor policy will be made and these visitors will be required to clear a health screening before entering the facility. Exceptions may vary by location. They include:

• One visitor for laboring women. Changes to the selected visitor will not be allowed.
• All hospitals will allow a loved one to stay with laboring mom through discharge. Re-entry is not allowed.
• No visitors will be allowed to accompany mothers-to-be for outpatient ultra-sound appointments at the Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center
• One visitor (parent or guardian) for pediatric patients
• Family members for patients in hospice or supportive medicine
• One visitor for patients receiving emergency care
• One visitor for patients at the time of discharge following a surgery or procedure.
• Patients with a disability or other medical condition who need assistance communicating with staff will be evaluated for potential visitor exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

Memorial Hermann recognizes the importance of family support in the healing process and is encouraging the use of video chat programs on your personal device to visit with loved ones who cannot visit in person.

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The worst side effect of this. The loss of time.

This is part of the reason why death rate shouldn't be the only metric considered when making policy in regards to COVID.

Aside from potential long term morbidity and complications from being infected, there is a lot that goes into keeping death rates low. And part of that is limiting access to hospitals. Or limiting access to nursing homes and the elderly/more susceptible. There is a cost to their health associated with not getting visitors, just like their is a cost to our health from not being able to see them.

I can't imagine what it would've been like if I hadn't been able to be with my father as he passed away.

And yes, I do fully understand that there is also a cost (one that is arguable more measurable) to closing the economy.

Our hospital allows visitors (one at a time but we make exceptions). The nursing homes don't.

Never seen so many old folks so happy to be admitted to the hospital. Lots of tears of joy to see their family in person.

"""Something is seriously wrong with our society. We have ceded too much control to the bureaucrats."""


These are private businesses assuming this isn't a VA or public hospital. I'm going to guess a hospital lawyer made the call. Sorry for your loss.

The whole thing is bull***** My 75 YO father who has advanced parkinson's had a heart attack and had to go to the hospital for heart cath and stents. What's the WORST thing you can do to an advanced PD patient with mild dementia???? Put them in a hospital room by themselves for two days with no visitors. Of course with no face to face interaction with the nurses, we couldn't remind them to give him his nightime meds that stop him from hallucinating and trying to ****ing escape the hospital. They didn't do that, after not giving him any PD meds for a good 12 hours. Yes he made it to the stairwell at 3AM, trying to get out. If he had fallen and broken a hip I would have sued the ****ing hospital into oblivion.

Only when the first cath was done and it was deemed more serious could my mother go in and see him. He had to have a complicated, risky procedure to place four stents. She got to go see him a second time after the procedure. Such bull***** The whole covid thing is a ****ing scam and I am so tired of it. We could talk to my dad OVER THE DAMN PHONE LIKE A ****ING PRISONER. So stupid.





OH and then my dad who was a lifetime golfer and had to give it up, last week after almost ****ing dying in the hospital alone, has a buddy take him by the golf course just to see it for the first time in a year. They go in the clubhouse and the ******* soyboy working the desk jumps all over him for not having a ****ing mask. Keeps asking him can I help you sir, but you have to put your mask on. My dad says f it and leaves. He just wanted to look around, *******, since he has played that course for 50 years and can't anymore because he has parkinsons.


I wish they would take all the soyboy mask nazis, fauci, the hospital lawyers and admins who come up with this bull****, the dem politicians and teachers unions and sink them to the bottom of the ****ing ocean.




if somebody is a scared little ***** and wants to stay home, stay home. There are alot of us who want to start school, visit our dying parents in the hospital , go to the football game,and go to the movies. Let us sign a waiver and move on with our lives. Why the **** could my mother or me or my sister sign a waiver and wear a mask and get in to see my dad? Who the hell cares about wearing a mask at a ******* GOLF COURSE? The lunacy, lies, and bull**** of this thing just continues to blow my mind.

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They go in the clubhouse and the ******* soyboy working the desk jumps all over him for not having a ****ing mask. Keeps asking him can I help you sir, but you have to put your mask on. My dad says f it and leaves. He just wanted to look around, *******, since he has played that course for 50 years and can't anymore because he has parkinsons.


I wish they would take all the soyboy mask nazis, fauci, the hospital lawyers and admins who come up with this bull****, the dem politicians and teachers unions and sink them to the bottom of the ****ing ocean.

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I was wondering how many dumb 4Chan memes you can squeeze into a rant. This may have set a record.

The "soyboy" you reference is just doing what he is told. He is an employee. Your Dad should have worn a mask if it was that important to him.

It truly is one of the worst things to come out of this whole thing and I don't think is being tracked in a meaningful way.

My dad died in February. At the end of February we had a service in Texas where he lived and then in another state where he was from and buried. I also live in totally separate state.

Looking back I'm thankful it happened when it did because my mom was with him when he died and we were able to do the services which honestly are for the survivors healing not the deceased.

My aunt (dad's sister) is in a nursing home and started going downhill in March. No visitors in person allowed since then and the last couple months she hasn't been able to FaceTime. I was told yesterday that she's got hours left (not because of Covid). They are letting a couple select family members see her but she's not conscious so it's a bit moot. At the end of the day she spent her last 4-5 months alone without being able to see a family member in person.

Theses situations are truly tragic.

It is so strange. I was allowed to see my grandmother in a memory care nursing home back in May (in Phoenix). and this was when I made it very clear to the home I would first be flying and coming from Seattle (back then the epicenter and before we had a better handle of it). We put on masks, did temp checks, avoided all other members of the home and were taken directly to her room. She died two days later. And there were like 5 of us that came to visit.

Are there any hospitals in the Houston area that are allowing visitors, or even a single visitor outside of listed or exceptional circumstances?

I am a Rehab Director at a small rural community hospital and we are allowing visitors for certain things (caregiver education, diabetes training) and in end of life situations.

I sometimes think that the smaller hospitals get so screwed sometimes but then when I realize that our small C-suite is truly determining these kind of processes, I am thankful that the people of our community have the opportunity to see loved ones while they are in the hospital. The ability to care for someones mental health is nearly just as important as their physical health

Big Shoulders said:

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Are there any hospitals in the Houston area that are allowing visitors, or even a single visitor outside of listed or exceptional circumstances?

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So while it's not official policy, my wife's doula told us she was able to attend a birth as an extra visitor in spite of hospital policy. This happened because the laboring woman was being such a pain to the nursing staff that they let the doula in against hospital because it meant someone else would be dealing with the patient instead of them. I believe this was at Methodist but I'm not positive.