RIH staff efficient, caring — and funny

Kamloops mom and daughter Alison Tova Raaby Brynn Walton-Raaby had to attend Royal Inland Hospital’s emergency room twice in one night — and the pair raves about the treatment.

KTW FILE PHOTO

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Editor:

After reading in letters to the editor frequent bad comments about Royal Inland Hospital, I felt compelled to write.

Happily our family’s visits to the hospital’s emergency room have been few and far between — and have always left us feeling very grateful to have access to quality health care.

Friday, Sept. 7,  proved no exception.

By 7 p.m., it was apparent I would need to go to the ER.

I was sorry to have to ask my 17-year-old daughter, Brynn, to drive me on her birthday!

I was in and out of the ER in an hour, prescription in hand.

While we were at the pharmacy, my daughter had an episode of tacycardia (a very accelerated heart rate), so we promptly rushed back to the ER.

The triage nurse reacted immediately by hooking my daughter up to heart monitors and, within a few minutes, she was in an ER bed with a mob of nurses and a doctor surrounding her.

It was a potentially very frightening situation, with IVs, multiple leads, monitors and oxygen.

Everyone treated her like a mature adult, carefully explaining the tests, procedures and the drug they would use to reset her heart.

The nurses in particular were very honest about how scary and awful the drug part would feel.

All the while, they were full of zany one-liners that kept the mood light and my daughter laughing throughout.

We left the ER shortly after midnight and missed Brynn’s birthday. We laughed a lot all evening about our alternative celebration.

We were also left, once again, with a deep appreciation for everyone in the RIH ER — from the triage nurse (also witty and sensitive) to the nurses and doctors.

In what is undoubtedly a challenging area of medicine, everyone we met was humane, efficient, informative, caring and very funny.

Thank you to all of the staff of a super ER.

Alison Tova Raaby

Brynn Walton-Raaby

Kamloops