New Beginnings of Lakewood Regional Medical Center

Okay guys. It’s taken since the 6^th of this month since I started on my quest to find out why I was sick. 5 visits to the ER at
Lakewood Regional Medical Center
3700 EAST SOUTH STREET
LAKEWOOD, CA 90 712
I actually got to know some of the nurses on a first name basis. LOL The best nurse there was a guy named Chuck. What a great guy! Very people oriented and empathetic. Most of the doctors were okay but after a few days in a row I do believe they thought I was after a quick high. MY, my, weren’t they surprised when finally, on the 5^th visit, they did a stomach ultra sound to find out I had one lone gall stone causing malicious damage and a gall bladder in very sad shape. Finally I was admitted. My many thanks go out to Drs. Bell, Cox and Vanex. All very wonderful and empathetic indeed. The doctors did both surgeries one right after the other so I did not have to stay the weekend, which would free me to get back to my hamster, who himself is also getting better.
During my stay at the hospital I met some wonderful nurses as well. Chris by far stands out as the best. I must make honorable mention to Anthony, Elmer, Michael, and I believe one other person who right now I am not remembering.
2 bad things did happen though, which Is why I chose to put this on facebook. After I was finally allowed to have a full liquid diet due to possible medical complications I very happily ate my meal. As I was finished and the plate cleared some person from the medical staff brought me another tray of food, this one a full diet! Now had I eaten it I would have become very ill, if not dead. Upon investigation we discovered he had given it to the wrong room. I actually took a picture of it, along with the menu with room number, and will upload it later. To make matters even worse, on the day my was admitted to the hospital I was informed Dr. Tate was the surgeon! Now he had been my doctor for 6 months 2 years ago. No bedside manner, a staff that is prejudiced against white people (IMHO), and very lackadaisical in his work ethic. I was informed that he had refused to do the surgery, which was fine with me as I had already reported him once to the AMA, and certainly did not want him anywhere near me anyway. So, I was honored to have the aforementioned surgeons do the work wonderfully! Anyway, on the last day of my stay I think a couple of the medical staff knew me, or of me from Dr. Tate. I think this because of the horrible things I heard one of them say within my hearing.
After I told Chris about what happened with the food tray incident we were checking on my current meal to make sure it was a soft diet. It was chicken. She thought it may have been hard so we waited until she checked with the kitchen supervisor. We were informed the meal was indeed soft so I went ahead and ate it. Tasted great btw. Chris felt very bad about giving me possible wrong advice and apologized. As I was telling her it was okay and was not necessary One of the medical staff walked by and spoke into my room, Chris, you
don’t have to apologize to her! Chris and I were both very surprised. As the woman continued walking toward the desk she spoke, loud enough enough for me to hear, would you believe she’s actually apologizing to that woman? Wow! U was very shocked! As a matter of fact I started crying! I did not understand why that lady was being so hateful and vindictive toward me. Finally, all I could figure was it was probably because of my previous history with Dr. Tate because I had gotten along with everyone else as far as I knew. Even the doctors complimented me on how nice I was. I did report the behavior but it seems as if not much if anything is being done about it.
So, if you do have to go to this hospital for any reason I pray you get the wonderful people I did have and not the mean ones, k? Y’all take care now.