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> nurses in intensive-care units and others do the same. The last time I was in hospital, I came out the next day and my ears were ringing for a couple of days

> nurses in intensive-care units and others do the same. The last time I was in hospital, I came out the next day and my ears were ringing for a couple of days from the _constant_ ringing of alarms.

amatecha 2y ago
Every time I've been in a hospital (visiting people), I have a frequent sensation of wanting to get out of there. I hope/imagine I will never need to be in a hospital, because I know it will be hell for me. I have extremely good hearing, and am very affected by sound. Visiting people in hospital requires serious effort from me to maintain focus on the person and those I'm there with, and ignoring such a shocking degree of noise I can barely believe it's the accepted norm. I can't believe how many devices and processes purposely make noise as a part of _normal operation_, where there's not even anything amiss!
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
Yes I really hate that at hospitals. I am certain it is bad for health and recovery of patients and unnecessarily increases stress for everyone.
- nucleardog 2y ago
  I have no doubt about this. My wife was in the hospital because she’d essentially stressed herself to the point of a heart arrhythmia. The irregular rhythm meant the equipment was basically useless at accurately determining her heart rate and the readings fluctuated wildly. So what did she do for several hours? Laid in a bed anxious about the medical concerns, anxious about life, and listened to the monitoring equipment go off multiple times a minute as she crossed various alert thresholds, went back under them, crossed them again, repeat the entire time she was there. I asked the staff to turn the alarms off or at least adjust the thresholds. They just short of flat out said they wouldn’t because if they disabled or adjusted them and anything happened it would be on their head. So my wife spent half a day being told to try and relax while the machine monitoring her heart and respiration and blood pressure constantly screamed at her that everything was wrong.

> nurses in intensive-care units and others do the same. The last time I was in hospital, I came out the next day and my ears were ringing for a couple of days from the _constant_ ringing of alarms.

amatecha 2y ago

Every time I've been in a hospital (visiting people), I have a frequent sensation of wanting to get out of there. I hope/imagine I will never need to be in a hospital, because I know it will be hell for me. I have extremely good hearing, and am very affected by sound. Visiting people in hospital requires serious effort from me to maintain focus on the person and those I'm there with, and ignoring such a shocking degree of noise I can barely believe it's the accepted norm. I can't believe how many devices and processes purposely make noise as a part of _normal operation_, where there's not even anything amiss!

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

Yes I really hate that at hospitals. I am certain it is bad for health and recovery of patients and unnecessarily increases stress for everyone.

nucleardog 2y ago
I have no doubt about this. My wife was in the hospital because she’d essentially stressed herself to the point of a heart arrhythmia. The irregular rhythm meant the equipment was basically useless at accurately determining her heart rate and the readings fluctuated wildly. So what did she do for several hours? Laid in a bed anxious about the medical concerns, anxious about life, and listened to the monitoring equipment go off multiple times a minute as she crossed various alert thresholds, went back under them, crossed them again, repeat the entire time she was there. I asked the staff to turn the alarms off or at least adjust the thresholds. They just short of flat out said they wouldn’t because if they disabled or adjusted them and anything happened it would be on their head. So my wife spent half a day being told to try and relax while the machine monitoring her heart and respiration and blood pressure constantly screamed at her that everything was wrong.