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I'm lucky enough never to have been in hospital myself, but FWIW: I was recently on the jury in a coroner's inquest. A patient had died suddenly in his sleep i

I'm lucky enough never to have been in hospital myself, but FWIW: I was recently on the jury in a coroner's inquest. A patient had died suddenly in his sleep in hospital. The solicitor whose agenda was to make the hospital look bad aimed to suggest that nurses should have been entering his room every 15 minutes to check his breathing, but all medical staff witnesses argued that sleep is too important to disrupt by entering the room during the night, unless absolutely necessary. They used a torch to shine on the patients chest through the window to check for breathing, and specified that they tried not to shine on them directly (watching a shadow on the wall is preferable).

TheBolivianNavy 8y ago
I know a torch is a flashlight but it amuses me to think of a nurse wielding a flaming torch walking down the hallway, peering into rooms. It's been awhile since I was in a hospital overnight but checking in on a (presumably) stable patient every 15 minutes is madness. You hear all sorts of crazy things during jury duty--I love it.
- brokenmachine 8y ago
  Of course not a normal patient, but I would imagine that it would not be unreasonable to be checking an ICU patient's vitals every 15 minutes. It's called "intensive care" for a reason.