This is part two of a three-part letter from Craig resident Kathy Bassett about physician retention at TMH.

To the editor:

Unlike the personal care I received from Dr. Troy Phillips, at the hospital I was seen by two different physicians and therefore was getting two different stories and feeling like a guinea pig.

What I heard was, “You don’t have this diagnosis, you have a different diagnosis!” “This medicine didn’t work, let’s try this one.” “That one didn’t work, we’ll see if a different one will work.”

Not to mention that I suddenly came down with an ear infection on top of everything else and it was four days before the doctor would look at my ear despite the nurses asking him to do so time and again.

After he finally meandered into my room and examined me, he declared that there was some ear inflammation. It was another 4 hours before he got medicine delivered.

TMH lost an extremely important blood test that was done on me. I have no way of knowing if I was charged for that blood test — nobody can read their billing statements.

So I had to have it done over

And of course I have saved the best for last!

People do worry about me, so when they would ask about my condition and I related to them how I felt like a guinea pig because of the ever-changing diagnosis, they called a nurse who called Ms. Riley.

I have no way of knowing what the nurse said to her but just as they delivered my meal one afternoon, here came Ms. Riley storming into my room ranting and raving like a banshee. The nurse left her a voicemail and she wanted to know what was going on.

I told her that I had no idea what she was talking about and I had nothing to do with any voicemails but she was on a roll. I told her people come to the hospital to get well rather than lay there feeling depressed and discouraged.

That set her off again and her voice rose up another decibel. Then she started yelling about what she could do for me.

I told her she could do nothing. She grabbed my table and tried to lift it up so I could “reach my food better” but couldn’t do it so went storming out in the hall and told a nurse to get in there and get my table raised up.

Then she grabbed my Kindle Fire and tried to plug it in to recharge it for me and couldn’t get the cord plugged in, so put it all down and as she flew out the door, muttered about how all she needed to do was break my Kindle Fire!

I sure do hope I don’t have to come back to the hospital, but if I do, I don’t ever want to see her face in my room again. I might have to crawl out of bed and hobble down the hall to chase her back to her cubbyhole.

Kathy Bassett

To read the letter in its entirety, visit http://www.craigdailypress.com. Part three will appear in an upcoming edition of the Craig Daily Press.