What's the longest time you've spent in a hospital for an operation?

nigel_wilson

Going for an MRI in a few months and the doctor says he might do an operation if "things are as bad as we believe they might be".

Mostly a poll question along with whether you find the experience good or not. People say the healthcare here is pretty crap in Ireland so does that extend to the hospital treatment in general and treatment by staff or are their variations (private vs public hospitals)?

Tony H

I has surgery about this time last year and I was out in about two weeks , I would have been out sooner but I got a bug after the surgery , I was a public patient and the treatment was mostly first class , there was not a surgeon available in Cork to perform the surgery but I was transferred to St James in Dublin under Mr Paul McCormack and he was outstanding , the hospital itself needs improvements in a few areas , more staff and esp more cleaning staff , in the ward I was in 5 of 6 patients got c diff bug , the staff themselves were great despite the shortage of staff ,

I think in general the medical side is great in the public hospitals but if you want better food and cleaner wards go private , but in saying this I found the Mercy hospital in Cork great for food and was a good bit cleaner ,
Hope the mri goes well and you don't need the surgery

copeyhagen

2 months, motorcycle accident last year.

Speedwell

I had a kidney removed that was so badly infected I was in intensive care after the surgery. Still only in hospital four days. This was in the US though.

nigel_wilson

Speedwell wrote: »

I had a kidney removed that was so badly infected I was in intensive care after the surgery. Still only in hospital four days. This was in the US though.

How much did you pay?

Speedwell

nigel_wilson wrote: »

How much did you pay?

They never did get the bill straight. But let's see:

- Co-pay (for you EU folks, that's the 20 percent that the insurance doesn't cover, plus anything the insurance flunkies decide unilaterally they don't want to cover) for each doctor (=GP) visit was about 80 dollars. Specialist visits, depending on whether they were one of the 5 allowed visits per year, from 0 to 120 dollars each visit.
- Emergency room visits for urgent matters or post-op complications, co-pay 10 to 50 percent in-network and possibly not covered at all out-of network (so be sure to have your emergency near an in-network facility). Around 150 to 1500 dollars per visit after insurance paid, 2500 if they didn't choose to pay.
- I paid 10 dollars co-pay for each covered prescription even if it would have cost less if I didn't have insurance. Full price for any non-covered or non-generic prescriptions.
- Each time I had to have a test or MRI done, it cost the same as a specialist visit PLUS the cost of the test or MRI. The MRI place asked for the co-pay before they would do the test, which amounted to 100 to 300 dollars per scan. Yes, this was legal. If I didn't have the money, they didn't do the test.
- When it came time to schedule my surgery (remember, this was for an infected kidney threatening my life), the hospital sat me down, calculated the estimated costs, and told me to pay all my co-pays up front before they would approve the surgery. This amounted to three thousand dollars AFTER insurance (they called my insurance company to get the figures). That took every last penny I had in savings, and I had to sell some stuff for garage-sale prices.
- After surgery was scheduled, they told me to get another MRI scan. I didn't pay my electric that month.
- On the day of surgery, they asked for 600 dollars more, and when I told them I had given them everything I had, they gave me four hours to come up with the money or they were cancelling the surgery appointment. I borrowed it from my boyfriend's little sister who worked at Wal-Mart, only because I could pay her back out of my next paychecks before her rent was due. The hospital was quite willing to send me home despite the fact that I was a septic shock risk.
- On the day I was discharged, the hospital sent a goon up to my room from Finance who asked me to sign a form saying I'd be responsible for paying whatever the insurance chose not to cover. I may have been on super strong narcotics but I wasn't so stoned that I couldn't run the bastard out of the room and file a complaint about pressuring someone on narcotics to sign legal forms.
- After the surgery, I required the services of a home nurse for two weeks to help with bandages and supplies. She came for one half hour each day. That was an additional cost (20 dollars a day I think) PLUS supplies, which I had to buy separately as a package for about 200 dollars, and two thirds of which were never used (and taken home by the nurse on her last day).
- Later, the hospital sent me a new bill for over fourteen thousand dollars that wasn't broken down into what it was for. I asked for a line-item bill that I could go over with my insurance company and my (nonexistent) lawyer. They refused, so I told them I wouldn't pay a thin dime until they told me what I was paying for. Eighteen months later, I was still getting daily phone calls: "We show that you owe St. Joseph's--" "Oh, really? Do you have the line-item bill?" "No, we--" "Have them send it to me (click)". Remember the forms I refused to sign in the hospital? Yeah, they tried their arm anyway.
- The anesthesiologist sent a separate bill for 1800 dollars (again, after insurance).

At least I worked from home so I missed only five days of work in total. Otherwise I would have had to start spending my holiday days, of which I had only ten. Oh, and I worked for a major multinational and had "good" insurance.

whoopsadoodles

Tony H wrote: »

I would have been out sooner but I got a bug after the surgery......

.......in the ward I was in 5 of 6 patients got c diff bug ,

And that is why health insurance will be one of the last things I ever give up if I go broke.

corner of hells

Eighteen months for surgery on my ankle , in saying that I was an electrician in the hospital .
I finished my shift and went in for surgery the following morning.

I knew the staff who operated on.me and looked after me.

mark_jmc

12 hours. to remove a testicle because of cancer,
It set up my best ever joke perfectly- " hey I lost one stone in less than a day"

bnt

4 days for my appendix, but that was in South Africa years ago. I had some kind of post-op infection & fever, so bad they kept sponging me down and had multiple fans pointed at me, but I remember feeling fine and not understanding the problem. That's the only actual surgery I've ever had.

arctictree

Speedwell wrote: »

They never did get the bill straight. But let's see:

- Co-pay (for you EU folks, that's the 20 percent that the insurance doesn't cover, plus anything the insurance flunkies decide unilaterally they don't want to cover) for each doctor (=GP) visit was about 80 dollars. Specialist visits, depending on whether they were one of the 5 allowed visits per year, from 0 to 120 dollars each visit.
- Emergency room visits for urgent matters or post-op complications, co-pay 10 to 50 percent in-network and possibly not covered at all out-of network (so be sure to have your emergency near an in-network facility). Around 150 to 1500 dollars per visit after insurance paid, 2500 if they didn't choose to pay.
- I paid 10 dollars co-pay for each covered prescription even if it would have cost less if I didn't have insurance. Full price for any non-covered or non-generic prescriptions.
- Each time I had to have a test or MRI done, it cost the same as a specialist visit PLUS the cost of the test or MRI. The MRI place asked for the co-pay before they would do the test, which amounted to 100 to 300 dollars per scan. Yes, this was legal. If I didn't have the money, they didn't do the test.
- When it came time to schedule my surgery (remember, this was for an infected kidney threatening my life), the hospital sat me down, calculated the estimated costs, and told me to pay all my co-pays up front before they would approve the surgery. This amounted to three thousand dollars AFTER insurance (they called my insurance company to get the figures). That took every last penny I had in savings, and I had to sell some stuff for garage-sale prices.
- After surgery was scheduled, they told me to get another MRI scan. I didn't pay my electric that month.
- On the day of surgery, they asked for 600 dollars more, and when I told them I had given them everything I had, they gave me four hours to come up with the money or they were cancelling the surgery appointment. I borrowed it from my boyfriend's little sister who worked at Wal-Mart, only because I could pay her back out of my next paychecks before her rent was due. The hospital was quite willing to send me home despite the fact that I was a septic shock risk.
- On the day I was discharged, the hospital sent a goon up to my room from Finance who asked me to sign a form saying I'd be responsible for paying whatever the insurance chose not to cover. I may have been on super strong narcotics but I wasn't so stoned that I couldn't run the bastard out of the room and file a complaint about pressuring someone on narcotics to sign legal forms.
- After the surgery, I required the services of a home nurse for two weeks to help with bandages and supplies. She came for one half hour each day. That was an additional cost (20 dollars a day I think) PLUS supplies, which I had to buy separately as a package for about 200 dollars, and two thirds of which were never used (and taken home by the nurse on her last day).
- Later, the hospital sent me a new bill for over fourteen thousand dollars that wasn't broken down into what it was for. I asked for a line-item bill that I could go over with my insurance company and my (nonexistent) lawyer. They refused, so I told them I wouldn't pay a thin dime until they told me what I was paying for. Eighteen months later, I was still getting daily phone calls: "We show that you owe St. Joseph's--" "Oh, really? Do you have the line-item bill?" "No, we--" "Have them send it to me (click)". Remember the forms I refused to sign in the hospital? Yeah, they tried their arm anyway.
- The anesthesiologist sent a separate bill for 1800 dollars (again, after insurance).

At least I worked from home so I missed only five days of work in total. Otherwise I would have had to start spending my holiday days, of which I had only ten. Oh, and I worked for a major multinational and had "good" insurance.

Sounds mad. A relative of mine who was living in the US started to get chest pains. (He has a history of heart problems). Went straight to the airport and hopped on the next plane to Dublin and from there straight to St James. Says it saved him about 100k. Very risky strategy - could have died on the plane.

Sue Pa Key Pa

3 months
3 weeks
2 months
4 days
3 days
1 month, home 2 days, back in for 1 month

omb0wyn5ehpij9

1 night (on a couple of occasions) is the longest I've had to spend in hospital thankfully

WHIP IT!

Broke my toe playing footy when I was 17. Was quite a bad break, the bone came out through my big toe which apparently makes it quite complicated surgerywise.

Happened on a Saturday. Went straight to hospital, cast set etc, and was send home with instructions to come back first thing Sunday, which I did.

Couldn't have surgery til Monday, obviously, which was then cancelled til Tuesday. I was eventually allowed home on Thursday.

Thing is, in the six-person ward I was in, there was... a lovely old man from Naas who had shattered his knee in a fall. He'd a cast from his ankle to his groin... a young chap from Ballinteer who had badly dislocated his shoulder for the fifth time and was in to finally get it wired or fused together... an unfortunate chap from around town who was a drug addict who had had his head split open by "vigilantes", leaving his head pretty much stapled closed... an older man (who happened to live near me), heavy drinker, who had fallen at home and shattered his ankle badly - he was only discovered after two days when neighbours checked on him... and, in the worst shape of all, a chap who had fallen from a scaffold in work and broke almost every bone in his body - could only move his right arm....... and then there was little ol' me, there nearly five days - with a f*cking bandage on me toe!

Rory28

2 months for a burs appendix. Happened in primary school. I was telling the teachers i felt sick all morning but they never believed me. On the plus side of it whenever I said i felt sick in that school again I got sent home immediately. Usually if there was a geography test I'd suddenly feel feint.

Beasty

First back operation - 6 days
Second back operation - 5 days
Third back operation - 4 days
Fourth back operation - 3 days

Had another back operation a couple of weeks ago, when they kept me in for 5 hours

That's progress I guess:)

Chrongen

mark_jmc wrote: »

12 hours. to remove a testicle because of cancer,
It set up my best ever joke perfectly- " hey I lost one stone in less than a day"

Glad to hear the surgeon didn't drop the ball.

hairyslug

2 days after an op, think it was a total of 4 days.
Had to get fluid drained from my left testicle, was the size of a grapefruit.

xzanti

A week after a C section on my first child.

Odhinn

8 days after an operation on the skull. They did the op the first morning I was there but you have to wait a week to see if any infection develops. I was given the joyous news that if that happened they'd have to take out the covering on the hole in my skull, and I'd have to go round with it just covered by skin for about a year before they could operate again.

uck51js9zml2yt

8 days after heart surgery in the mater private. ...the food was exceptional:)

Zaph

They always seem to kick me out when I hit the week mark, but I have quite a few single weeks racked up plus a load of stays less than that.

RobertKK

Thankfully I never had to visit the hospital for any medical, accident or other personal health problem.
Hopefully stays that way.

picturehangup

Never have been in hospital, other than to have my babies!

Plan on keeping it that way! Never had an anaesthetic, dread the thoughts if I ever need to. Will be a nervous wreck.

P

Beasty

picturehangup wrote: »

Never had an anaesthetic,

18 and counting...

That's about one every 3 years, but 3 in the past year alone...

rainbow kirby

Have only ever had to stay in hospital for one night and that was when my son was born. I've never needed surgery.

Noveight

About 7 hours. Had a surgery after tearing cartilage in my left knee. Turned up at 8am in the morning and was on the road home at 3pm that evening, if I remember right. Did the very same damage to the other knee 6 months later and let it heal itself. So far, so good :pac:

Toto Wolfcastle

Two weeks, but I was too young to remember it.

My husband spent a week this year and just over a week last year. Huge private room in a private hospital. Fabulous staff. Close to a decent takeaway for me. :pac: I think I enjoyed it more than he did though. He's well used to hospitals at this stage.

Beasty

Toto Wolfcastle wrote: »

He's well used to hospitals at this stage.

Sounds like a bit of an old crock to me. Maybe you should trade him in for a more reliable model?


:pac:

Beasty

Stephen15 wrote: »

About 5 or 6 hours when I was about 8 I broke my arm falling off my bike thankfully I didn't need surgery.

I did that a few years ago - broke my wrist but got plastered in casualty

The year before that I needed a skin graft around the eye after another fall off the bike

Then 4 years ago I had a fall off the bike when I broke both arms, my jaw, with 2 fractures in the sinuses, 2 in the temple area and another 2 in the eye socket. Also was knocked out for 30 mins and swallowed my tongue. They kept me in overnight for that one

When I was 5 I spend 3 days in hospital due to a compound fracture of my leg....

....after being run over by a bicycle

Like bikes, I do - really like 'em

picturehangup

Delighted to be able to say at 52 that I have never had surgery.

Would dread an anaesthetic, fear of the unknown, etc.

Grayson

I've never had an operation.

I did go into hospital for a collapsed lung. I was there for two weeks. And as a kid I had meningitis, whooping cough and pneumonia. I was in hospital for 3 months with that.