A Summary of My Experiences and Concerns in Clementinenhaus

(by William Lucas Stevenson)

Introduction: After seeing my house doctor because of upper chest pains, I went to Clementinenhaus on
February 16, 2009, around 7:00 PM. My wife and I had walked in the wrong door and I had
become dizzy. There was a wheel chair nearby that I sat in and fortunately we were right near the
emergency treatment room. A nurse led us there and the two nurses (one a student) did very well.
The doctor did not appear for quite a while. In any situation I am in or when meeting people, I
look for things to be thankful for, and I felt very comfortable with the three. They all said that I
was a very good patient. Later I was taken to the surgery room for the heart catheter test. The
doctor who did the just mentioned did a wonderful job doing the test and the balloon and stent
procedures, and was very happy that everything went well. That made me feel good too. I was
told by the admitting doctor that I would have to remain on my back with my right leg mostly stiff
for at least 48 hours for the hole to heal.

Concerns:
1. My frau was sent home after I was moved from the emergency room and cried all of the way home
and more. She should have been allowed to stay until after the procedure and I was taken to room
105. Then she wouldn’t have grieved going home because she would have heard my testimony about the
second doctor being so happy that he was able to do everything excellently with no complications with the
balloon or the stent.
2. I was not told about all of the dangers of inserting tube, the balloon, or the stent or any other information.
The second doctor required the paper that states that I was told and understood such to be signed, but the
admitting doctor had told my wife earlier that he didn’t think the paper was necessary to be signed because
it was an emergency situation and it was “a race of time”. The second doctor had him get me to sign the
paper. I said to the first doctor that I trusted them and that was good enough for him and so he and the
other doctor did not say anything about the dangers. No warning was even given. That paper should be
offered in English. There are many, like in the Universities, who know only English or little of
German. Don’t they have one in Turkish, because of the many Turks?
3. The sleeping medicine did not work. I was frustrated that I could not pee into the container I held between
my legs. Later during night, the lady patient in the first bed twice left her bed and came around to my area
and stood there for a few minutes staring at me. The second time, a nurse came and forced her back to her
bed. When my pastor, his wife, and another church member came to visit the next day, they were shocked
that the lady was writhing in pain and exposed some of her body when lifting the blanket that was on her. I
was in the middle bed and Bob insisted that the other two come to my bed too.
4. In the beginning of the morning routines, I was not asked if I slept ok or if I had any pain. I was not
told what the pills I was given were for. I was thankful that the thrombosis shot was given in one of the
abbo-caths in my left hand instead of my stomach. During the rest of the morning, the main very young
nurse in our room seemed to be doing very well. I complimented her and finally asked her how long had
she been a nurse. She embarrassingly said two days. I asker her where else she had served thinking that
she meant just at that ward or hospital. She embarrassingly said no where and that she had only been to
classes. And there was another young lady who was just observing her. The first nurse I spoke about later
became frustrated after being told to give me a thrombosis shot in the early afternoon and I told her that I
had had one in the early morning and she could not find the head nurse to check with laboratory to see if I
was telling the truth. I think that I only saw the head day nurse 3 times while I was there and he never did
anything for me. Throughout my brief stay, I saw no older nurses who looked like Registered Nurses
(RNs).
5. Between 6 PM and 7 PM, a new patient was moved in and I thought that either he or a relative or friend
were being questioned, but very soon an emergency situation suddenly happened. At least 10 hospital staff
members tried to save the patient. I saw the syringe preparer at the medicine cart next to the bottom of my
bed do an excellent job and gave three other nurses the needed syringes. After the patient died and the
body was taken out of the room, I heard a discussion meeting that I thought was led by the doctor and some
of the others for determining what might have been done wrong and what might be done better the next
time. There were two or three periods of about 5 minutes of silence which (since I was told wrongly that
the hospital was started by two Christians) I thought could have been for silent meditation or/and prayer.
The next morning, the ward doctor told me that there would be no prayer allowed, so it must have been
silent times for reflection before more sharing about what had happened. That meeting lasted until about

1
 9:30 PM. I then asked a young nurse to lower by bed from the dinner position, but she said later. Then I
heard things being moved around, some talking of over 5 people, some more moving around of things, and
at about 10:30 PM the nurse finally came and adjusted my bed properly the night. Then there was more
talking including 3 ladies saying what sounded like 3 minute mantras in very very fast German. Later, a
man did 4 of such (even longer) and the ladies talked about other things or did more moving of things. A
new patient was moved in and I heard him coughing and responding to handy phone calls in Spanish. I
thought that he was one of the hospital staff. When I was shown that he was a patient, he was still in his
street clothes. The room light was not turned off until about 12:15 PM. I found out later the patient on
my right was hard of hearing and could turn around in his bed. I finally accidentally pressed the red button
after the talking had stopped about 1:15 PM after someone argued with the talkers and said good night.
The young nurse who came, smirked, and I told her what had happened. She said that I was making it up.
Later there was a noise of a heater engine or something and I pressed the red button. The same nurse said
that she could not hear the sound and I think another person then turned it off. A few hours later I heard a
few strange recordings, one like trains and others like talk I had heard earlier but with only one person.
Also one of the night nurses was around my bed very low and I asked her what she was looking for and she
immediately ran away laughing. It was the one who delayed lowering my bed for an hour and who might
have taken my wife’s watch then and returned it when I told her that I could not find it. She had distracted
my attention by bringing a pj shirt and pants from the locker and then looked at the floor by the right side
of my bed and the watch was there. (It was not there before.) I know what I witnessed because I had not
been given any sleeping pills or pain medicine. I had rejected two pain pills offered by the just mentioned
nurse at about 2:00 AM because I told her that I couldn’t trust them. I had decided that I could not stay at
the hospital.
6. The next morning, I told the nurse who was beginning her 3rd day that I was leaving after getting the
wrapping taken off and talking to the doctor and the hospital administrator. Then the head nurse came to
find out why. I told him. He did not reject it, but he was angry about the complaint. He told me that at
8:00 AM he would remove the wrapping when the ward doctor came. He did not and the ward doctor came
with another male nurse after 9:30 or 10:00 AM. I had not been served breakfast and had not been told
how to take the big tablet that was with a few other pills. I waited to check with the ward doctor, but he
didn’t tell me. (I broke it up and chewed it some, but drank a lot of water to help me swallow the bitter
pieces.) After the ward doctor undid the wrapping and saw that the hole had healed wonderfully, he asked
me to tell him what had happened the night before. He said that he did not believe me, but would talk to
the night nurses. I told him that more than the 2 night nurses were involved in the talking and that the light
should not have been left on past 9 PM or 10 PM. In my 14 days of previous German hospital experience,
such did not happen. Then he did explain what the different pills I would be taking at home were for and
why I didn’t need the potassium one. And his only warning to me was not to lift my right knee higher than
my waist for 10 days. He did not say anything about sleep positions to avoid or anything else to avoid. He
did not tell me of any dangers of not resting enough or the risks of leaving the hospital early. (The previous
day during his10 minute visit, my pastor had told me the monitor above my head showed all normal
numbers for blood pressure, EKG, and pulse rate. He was very surprised and that I was very joyful.) The
ward doctor did not help me sit up or make sure that I could stand and walk ok before he left. I did
have a sort of a difficult time going to get my pjs from the locker. Hoping to convince my wife to
persuade me to stay, the doctor told her that they needed to do some more tests and if I insisted on a transfer
to another hospital the health insurance would probably not pay for it and it could cost a few hundred Euro.
The day before he had told me that it could be 7 more days for tests. But the tests he listed I knew were
common and done by even house doctors. I had to wait for my wife to bring some regular clothes. The
ward doctor was shocked that I had not been given breakfast either morning.

Conclusions: I wrote this report because I do not want other patients at Clementinenhaus to be treated
similar. Such happenings could have caused or could cause other heart attack victim patients
to get angry very quickly and have another heart attack. I hope that my report will influence
changes to be made. There should at least be RNs doing the important patient care. I was not
even offered an extra pillow to help my lower back or any pain medicine. And the room light
should be turned off at least by 10:00 PM (if not by 9:00 PM) and no loud talking or loud noise
or music be permitted from then until 6:00 AM. Also improvements in relating to the spouse
should be made. (After a special blood test and an ultra sound exam, the cardiologist I saw the next
day was very very surprised that I had no heart damage at all and only told me to take the 6 pills
every day and schedule the 24 hour EKG the next week.)