Dad has Covid now, not doing well. Please help me pray for him. Praying is not something I do often or well but my dad is my favorite human being and I need him to be okay. We’re at the hospital now and they have treated us with disgust and hate since we got here but he needs oxygen so I had to tolerate it. Please pray, thank you all. I know this place is a safe place for those of us who are tired of weathering the world.
Update: Still here, he has tested negative!! Still being treated for pneumonia and sepsis which is discouraging but I’m able to be here with him to help him and advocate for him. Thank you all for the continued prayers and kind words!! I’m alone here but your words are helping me through.
When you sign a contract it usually tells you how the hospital manages this. Since the doctors have laws they work under that are state and federal laws about letting a patient who is vitally sick put his health at risk, they make sure you know about that in the contract they sign.
So if you are doing fine, sure you can leave. But if you are not stable with vital signs or oxygen levels they will not discharge you with the blessing, because they can be sued.
Patients come back and say “why did you let me do that? I wasn’t in my right thinking. Here are laws stating you broke the law by letting me leave in that state”
Then they pay a lot of money and are censured by the medical board.
This is the system how it is now.
So once you get them involved, and they could be punished, they can try to keep you. For instance they won’t write orders for you to leave so another place, unless that place is respectable and shows they can care for the patient, can take over care. The patient can leave AMA as long as they can get up and leave the hospital.
So no, they don’t force you, they just don’t help you once you are incapacitated because the contract signed over custodial care of you.
Imagine a patient who was on the edge of dying, in that state trying to leave. You’d be mad and sue if that was your loved one. So they do everything that’s outlined by the laws in that state and country to make sure a vulnerable person isn’t harming themselves. If the family wasn’t educated enough to know it was a danger etc.
You’re best not to go and sign a contract with them, if you are planning on leaving.