Stupid, Stupid, Stupid People! (long)

Magic Mood Jeep© wrote:

Same thing happened to my mother, but on a human scale. My father was being
treated as an out-patient at a VA (Veteran's Administration) Hospital for
heart ailments - to put it bluntly, he had a couple of bad valves, and his
heart was not pumping blood properly. In 1988 they were going to do valve
replacement surgery, but while staying in the hospital for bloodtests & such
before the surgery, his kidneys started failing. They could not do kidney
transplant because of the weakened condition of his heart, and couldn't do
the heart surgery because of the major risk of infection (rejecting the
transplants) with his kidneys shutting down. They had him on dialysis to
try & give his kidneys a rest, and maybe they would start back up. This
continued for a couple of weeks. The VA Hospital is about 1.5-2 hour drive
from our home, so us kids didn't go see him that often, and when Mom went,
she usually spent a night or two in a 'courtesy' bed they would set up for
her. One morning, after about a few weeks of this going on, Mom got a call
at home - dad had passed away during the night, in his sleep - all efforts
at resuscitation failed.

Not even six months later, Mom gets a phone call from the EXACT same VA
Hospital, the VERY same department/wing where he was when he passed on, to
remind my father to set up his bi-annual heart checkup.

Mom let them have a piece of her mind (it wasn't the pretty piece
either)

TWO YEARS after my Mom died, my sister-in-law (who had handled her
finanacial affairs, since she lived in the same city and I didn't)
started receiving increasingly rude "past due" notices addressed to Mom
from an HMO (who had only gotten into the act because the senior
facility where Mom lived hadn't bothered to send her to her own doctor).

Being a conscientious person, Charleene kept phoning and writing them,
with no result except more notices. She finally took my advice, and the
next time one arrived simply marked the envelope "Deceased" (it was
addressed to my mother, after all, not to her) and "return to sender".
After that she never heard another word. (But imagine waiting until
two years after the patient's death to start dunning them!)

Magic Mood Jeep© wrote:

Same thing happened to my mother, but on a human scale. My father was being
treated as an out-patient at a VA (Veteran's Administration) Hospital for
heart ailments - to put it bluntly, he had a couple of bad valves, and his
heart was not pumping blood properly. In 1988 they were going to do valve
replacement surgery, but while staying in the hospital for bloodtests & such
before the surgery, his kidneys started failing. They could not do kidney
transplant because of the weakened condition of his heart, and couldn't do
the heart surgery because of the major risk of infection (rejecting the
transplants) with his kidneys shutting down. They had him on dialysis to
try & give his kidneys a rest, and maybe they would start back up. This
continued for a couple of weeks. The VA Hospital is about 1.5-2 hour drive
from our home, so us kids didn't go see him that often, and when Mom went,
she usually spent a night or two in a 'courtesy' bed they would set up for
her. One morning, after about a few weeks of this going on, Mom got a call
at home - dad had passed away during the night, in his sleep - all efforts
at resuscitation failed.

Not even six months later, Mom gets a phone call from the EXACT same VA
Hospital, the VERY same department/wing where he was when he passed on, to
remind my father to set up his bi-annual heart checkup.

Mom let them have a piece of her mind (it wasn't the pretty piece
either)

TWO YEARS after my Mom died, my sister-in-law (who had handled her
finanacial affairs, since she lived in the same city and I didn't)
started receiving increasingly rude "past due" notices addressed to Mom
from an HMO (who had only gotten into the act because the senior
facility where Mom lived hadn't bothered to send her to her own doctor).

Being a conscientious person, Charleene kept phoning and writing them,
with no result except more notices. She finally took my advice, and the
next time one arrived simply marked the envelope "Deceased" (it was
addressed to my mother, after all, not to her) and "return to sender".
After that she never heard another word. (But imagine waiting until
two years after the patient's death to start dunning them!)

Magic Mood Jeep© wrote:

Same thing happened to my mother, but on a human scale. My father was being
treated as an out-patient at a VA (Veteran's Administration) Hospital for
heart ailments - to put it bluntly, he had a couple of bad valves, and his
heart was not pumping blood properly. In 1988 they were going to do valve
replacement surgery, but while staying in the hospital for bloodtests & such
before the surgery, his kidneys started failing. They could not do kidney
transplant because of the weakened condition of his heart, and couldn't do
the heart surgery because of the major risk of infection (rejecting the
transplants) with his kidneys shutting down. They had him on dialysis to
try & give his kidneys a rest, and maybe they would start back up. This
continued for a couple of weeks. The VA Hospital is about 1.5-2 hour drive
from our home, so us kids didn't go see him that often, and when Mom went,
she usually spent a night or two in a 'courtesy' bed they would set up for
her. One morning, after about a few weeks of this going on, Mom got a call
at home - dad had passed away during the night, in his sleep - all efforts
at resuscitation failed.

Not even six months later, Mom gets a phone call from the EXACT same VA
Hospital, the VERY same department/wing where he was when he passed on, to
remind my father to set up his bi-annual heart checkup.

Mom let them have a piece of her mind (it wasn't the pretty piece
either)

TWO YEARS after my Mom died, my sister-in-law (who had handled her
finanacial affairs, since she lived in the same city and I didn't)
started receiving increasingly rude "past due" notices addressed to Mom
from an HMO (who had only gotten into the act because the senior
facility where Mom lived hadn't bothered to send her to her own doctor).

Being a conscientious person, Charleene kept phoning and writing them,
with no result except more notices. She finally took my advice, and the
next time one arrived simply marked the envelope "Deceased" (it was
addressed to my mother, after all, not to her) and "return to sender".
After that she never heard another word. (But imagine waiting until
two years after the patient's death to start dunning them!)

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...

It's a RANT. Pardon me if I've told this before, but I got [snip]
unless I get another stupid correspondence from them, I won't act on

And there is some good reason to keep on trusting your beloved pets to this
place which has demonstrated both stupidity and ignorance?
--
The One-and-only Holy Mosesâ„¢

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...

It's a RANT. Pardon me if I've told this before, but I got [snip]
unless I get another stupid correspondence from them, I won't act on

And there is some good reason to keep on trusting your beloved pets to this
place which has demonstrated both stupidity and ignorance?
--
The One-and-only Holy Mosesâ„¢

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...

It's a RANT. Pardon me if I've told this before, but I got [snip]
unless I get another stupid correspondence from them, I won't act on

And there is some good reason to keep on trusting your beloved pets to this
place which has demonstrated both stupidity and ignorance?
--
The One-and-only Holy Mosesâ„¢

"Magic Mood Jeep©" wrote in message
news:EV1zc.27313$eu.15280@attbi_s02...

Not even six months later, Mom gets a phone call from the EXACT same VA
Hospital, the VERY same department/wing where he was when he passed on, to
remind my father to set up his bi-annual heart checkup.

Most of the "reminder calls" I get from the VAMCs are computer-originated
and use computer-generated synthetic voices. Perhaps that's what happened.
--
The One-and-only Holy Mosesâ„¢

"Magic Mood Jeep©" wrote in message
news:EV1zc.27313$eu.15280@attbi_s02...

Not even six months later, Mom gets a phone call from the EXACT same VA
Hospital, the VERY same department/wing where he was when he passed on, to
remind my father to set up his bi-annual heart checkup.

Most of the "reminder calls" I get from the VAMCs are computer-originated
and use computer-generated synthetic voices. Perhaps that's what happened.
--
The One-and-only Holy Mosesâ„¢

"Magic Mood Jeep©" wrote in message
news:EV1zc.27313$eu.15280@attbi_s02...

Not even six months later, Mom gets a phone call from the EXACT same VA
Hospital, the VERY same department/wing where he was when he passed on, to
remind my father to set up his bi-annual heart checkup.

Most of the "reminder calls" I get from the VAMCs are computer-originated
and use computer-generated synthetic voices. Perhaps that's what happened.
--
The One-and-only Holy Mosesâ„¢

Duke of URL wrote:
"jmcquown" wrote in message
...

It's a RANT. Pardon me if I've told this before, but I got [snip]
unless I get another stupid correspondence from them, I won't act on

And there is some good reason to keep on trusting your beloved pets
to this place which has demonstrated both stupidity and ignorance?

Oh, I don't take my pets there. I haven't been there since that day in
November, 1999. That's why I don't understand why, after all this time, I
suddenly got this letter from them.

Jill