Wondering around the York VA Medical Center Monday in search of my Uncle Charles’ hospital room, I pondered how difficult it could be to find your way around hospitals.
Admittedly, my instructions to see my uncle were sketchy at best.
The VA campus is sprawling, a huge collection of buildings and facilities that once included a golf course and even a baseball park.
Many years ago when I first started in the newspaper business, I covered high school baseball games at the VA field. I thought it was a strange place for such events but figured it was probably a good form of entertainment for patients there.
Serving a huge sector of Tennessee and Alabama, the VA hospital is a big facility, serving as one of our major employers and one that pays well too.
I started off in trouble because I wasn’t sure which building to enter. My first try failed, so I went in the entrance where the ER is located.
A helpful gentleman at the reception desk needed to know was part of the hospital my uncle was in.
Quickly seeing I was clueless, he called found my uncle’s room and gave me directions.
Surprisingly, I was able to follow his simple instructions pretty well with just one backtrack.
Sharing an elevator with two men who worked there, I noted it could be confusing getting around the facility. One replied they had been working there for years and still got lost sometimes.
After finding my uncle doing quite well and ready to go home the next day, and spending some time visiting with him, I retraced my steps to the outside.
The confusion reminded me of the time I must have walked two miles inside Baptist Hospital, finally finding where I was going when I had literally gone from one end of the hospital to the other.
And, Middle Tennessee Medical Center can be a challenge. From the outside I’m OK, but once inside the corridors perspective is gone and hallways seeming to lead in the right direction end up taking you somewhere else.
So, I’m really looking forward to the new facility under construction on Medical Center Parkway.
Hospital officials are promising a user-friendly method of interior navigation for what will be a huge facility.
For folks like me that sounds great. I’m always fearful of wondering into the mental ward and not being allowed to leave.
•••
Do kids still suck their thumbs?
•••
Many folks around here when heading south for vacation end up somewhere between Panama City and Destin, Florida. Those are the closet beaches, a major plus.
Weird news from Destin last week then might be worth sharing.
A woman walking back from the beach at a resort in Destin was attacked by three deer and seriously injured.
Here’s an edited version of a Florida newspaper report:
According to South Walton Fire District Deputy Chief Sean Hughes, the woman was near a wooded area near the tennis courts shortly before 8 a.m. when three deer ran out of the woods and trampled her.
Emergency crews arrived minutes later and called for AirHeart helicopter to take the woman to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola because of possible head injuries.
A resort employee, who saw the incident, said the woman, her husband and daughter had gone for a walk. The mother got too warm and turned to return to her rental unit. She was some distance away from her family when the deer came out of the brush.
"
She was at the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.
The woman has broken ribs, back injuries and a light concussion and was in intensive care at Sacred Heart.
A hunter friend of mine when told of the incident noted: “I’ve been saying all along: It’s them or us.”
•••
Are you kidding me?
A U.S. senator believes the answer to our woes with $4/gallon gasoline is to drop interstate highway speeds back to 55 mph again.
Those of you old enough surely remember the grim days of the late 1970s and early 1980s when in response to the Arab oil embargo and resulting origin of ever-rising gasoline prices, Congress knocked 20 mph off the interstate speed limit.
If you’ve never tried to drive on an open interstate at 55 mph, trust me, you don’t want to do it.
The interstates were designed for 80 mph speeds, and that was based on the vehicles back in the 1950s and ‘60s which handle nothing like what we enjoy today.
I’m all for conserving energy in any reasonable way we can, for weaning ourselves off gasoline, for saving the seals, owls and big, giant trees.
I’m not willing to save two gallons of gas traveling to Memphis if it means I give up two hours of time.
I’d rather ride a bike and get some exercise.
|
Email
Print
Facebook
StumbleUpon
Google
Yahoo!