1 /5 Maria Cirillo: My 77 yr old, mom has been receiving chemo treatment for a late stage of ovarian cancer at the Chelsea center for the past few months. Yesterday was my mom’s 4th visit for chemo and the most stressful experience thus far. For a hospital treating people with cancer you would think that they would be more accommodating and sensitive to the needs of the family. They say when one person has cancer, the whole family has cancer with them.
To avoid long car rides that can trigger my mom’s stress levels, we usually take a 3rd person with us to access the HOV lane. My daughter came as she happened to be off from school. It was her second time coming to treatment.
Upon entry to the infusion center the nursing assistant quickly denied access to my daughter explaining that only 1 person was permitted at a time to enter with the patient. Surprised, I asked her if the rules had recently changed because this was the first time we were ever told there was a limit in the amount of people entering and that my daughter had been permitted to stay with me in the past. Furthermore, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving her in the waiting room alone as she was a minor. She then explained that she would not be permitted because she was underage. I pleaded with the facility staff to please permit my child to enter for just today as I was completely unaware of this rule that had not been enforced in the past. I didn’t want to make a choice between supporting my sick mom or maintaining the safety of my 13 year old in a public facility.
I spoke with the front desk supervisor, the patient representative coordinator and the nursing administrator, each person adamantly denied her entry, insistent on policy that could not be swayed in any way to accommodate the individual needs of our family on that particular day. In addition they tried to excuse the act by maintaining that it was a matter of safety for my own child since chemo is a highly hazardous treatment it could potentially put her health at risk. Im not sure how something being administered intravenously could be hazardous to my teenage daughter. I told the administrative staff that this was not my first rodeo- unfortunately cancer runs in my family and I have had to experience chemo treatments centers before in other hospitals. We were never given restrictions on age or number of people present.
My mother was forced to be left alone for aprox 5 hours. I went in periodically throughout the day for a few minutes to check in on her. She was emotionally stressed being alone for such a long period of time while receiving chemo. I requested that the nurse practitioner who works with my mom’s oncologist to please speak with me when she arrived. I also posted a message in the portal for help from doctor and/or nurse practitioner. No one responded to my message or came out into the main lobby area where I was with my daughter to speak to me while they tended to my mom that day. To say that I was disappointed is an understatement. It was an incredibly disheartening experience that has shaped my opinion and view of this treatment facility.
