Everything I knew about how to behave in a hospital I learned
from watching "ER." At the fictional County General Hospital,
the most helpful thing a family member could do was stay out of
the way. So when my husband was in the ER, I even moved my chair
closer to the corner of the treatment room to be out of the way
of staff taking care of my husband. This would prove to be an
ineffective strategy.  My husband had an uncommon cause of
massive gastrointestinal bleeding. In his five days in the
hospital, he got seven units of blood. Twice, staff missed
orders for blood. The first time, the order may have been lost
during the hand-off from the emergency department to the regular
floor. Three hours after the transfer from the ER, my husband
crashed, and he was moved to the intensive care unit.  The next
day, staff missed another order for blood. You might be
thinking, "This woman is stupid. After the first missed order
for blood, why didn't she keep better track?" I know! But we
were now in intensive care. Doesn't