What does quality mean to me?
After my grandmother passed away at the age of 89, I was left with many questions.
On June 10th, my grandmother suffered a brain aneurism. During her hospitalization, surgeons inserted a tube into her skull to assist with the release of pressure and drainage of blood. We were told her chances of survival was less than 5%, especially due to her age.
Then we were told that little by little her body would begin develop infections and fevers, which is the normal course of her situation. As predicted, my grandmother began to have slight fevers, and after a day of no real change -just a few signs we thought were positive, but the doctor reassured us, it was nothing - we decided to take her off the machines and not prolong her painful situation.
Well, after doing my MRSA project I began to question the reason for the infections. I began to question the environment that my grandmother was in; I began to question the statistics.
I began to question why she was in an area that was open to other patients, if she was so delicate. I wondered, why they allowed just anyone to come and see her, as long they came in groups of 2; but after 3 days they said nothing when groups of 4 or more were around her to see and pray for her.
Then I began wondering, why they did not regulated the environment she was in by requiring gloves and robes to minimize infections and contamination, especially if she had a tube coming out of her brain?
I began to ask why no one did or said anything about this, or enforced any visiting code, to better protect her and increase her chances of survival?
These questions remain unanswered…. And to me quality means having no question unanswered? Knowing how we got from point A to point B, and know that every possible resource and prevention method was implemented and supervised to maximize health outcomes is the meaning of quality.
Emelie Bahamonde
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