Critical Conditions: The Essential Hospital Guide to Get Your Loved One Out Alive

May 10, 2009 - PRLog -- Jacqueline Foreman will interview Matine Ehrenclou about her book Critical Conditions: The Essential Hospital Guide to Get Your Loved One Out Alive on May 18, 2009 live at 8 PM EDT at www.blogtalkradio.com/yourmentalhealth listeners can call in at 347-838-0159.

 

You are not immune to the confusion and anxiety that comes with having a loved one in the hospital. You must become their advocate to help them get the best treatment possible. Critical Conditions offers you a comprehensive field guide for keeping your loved one safe during their hospitalization.

   
 

You will learn how to:

 Prevent deadly medical errors, medication mistakes,
    and the spread of infectious diseases.
 Reach doctors when you need them—every time.
 Prevent fatal falls.
 Create a "Family Advocate Team."
 Manage your loved one's care if you live out of town.
 Gather support for yourself and the patient.
 Research your loved one's illness or injury.
 Deal with cultural issues and language barriers.
 Monitor medications, diet, procedures, labs, and treatment.
 Navigate and manage the hospital system with confidence.
 Be proactive as you oversee your loved one's hospital care.
 Communicate with nurses and doctors to maximize medical attention for the patient.

…and much more.

When our loved ones are hospitalized with a medical crisis,
most of us don't know what to do.

We are overwhelmed and distraught over their medical crisis and stymied by the hospital system. We ask the wrong hospital staff for information. We can't understand why nurses don't respond to the call button and why doctors can't be reached. We don't comprehend medical language, and don't know which questions to ask and who to ask them of. We are alarmed by medication and procedural errors that place our loved ones in peril. On top of everything else, our loved one may catch a major infection in the hospital, threatening their recovery.

Author Martine Ehrenclou, MA, received a thorough education in hospital-patient care with the extended hospitalizations of both her mother and godmother. She spent the equivalent of a full year in three separate hospitals in different states. Having witnessed startling numbers of medical errors, medication mistakes, hospital-acquired infectious diseases, and a number of other horrifying events, Martine was determined to find out if her family members' hospitalizations were isolated incidents.

After interviewing fifty family members, she found out that in fact her experiences were the norm. Families all reported feeling completely lost, overwhelmed and stymied by the hospital system. They couldn't reach doctors when they needed them, nurses didn't respond to the call button, medication mistakes put their loved ones in peril, and infectious diseases delayed patients' recoveries, if in fact the patients made it out of the hospital alive. Many were convinced that medical errors had killed their family members.

Martine then interviewed over 150 registered nurses, physicians, hospital social workers, psychologists and family members to find out how to empower families to become proactive advocates for their hospitalized loved ones. The results of her efforts and hundreds of hours of research are compiled into her book, Critical Conditions: The Essential Hospital Guide To Get Your Loved One Out Alive.

Martine is a writer and patient advocate. She has had several of her articles on hospital patient safety published in national magazines and newspapers and has been interviewed on numerous nationally syndicated radio shows. She currently lectures on the topic of "How to Survive a Hospital Stay" at universities, organizations and bookstores. Martine has also had stories published in bestselling books, has written for newspapers and magazines, and with past businesses has appeared on national TV talk and news shows (ABC World News Tonight, Phil Donahue, Jenny Jones and more) in national magazines (Time, Inc., The Economist, and more) and in national newspapers (Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and more.)

She received her masters degree with honors in psychology from Pepperdine University, Los Angeles. She currently runs writing groups for at-risk teenagers and adults and publishes literary magazines of her students' work.

Martine lives in Los Angeles, CA, with her husband and their daughter.