So, I have a novella in the works where the main character is centered in a hospital. Anyone out there who's had to stay in a hospital for a prolonged period of time, or known anyone who has done so and can share information on what exactly it's like, I'd be happy to hear you out. Furthermore, my character is going to be given a death sentence there at an old age, so if anyone has experienced that (and lived, might I add), or knows someone who has gone through that, please do share that as well. Any and all aspects. Were the staff nice? What was the food like? Did it have a general atmosphere of death? What about the other patients? Were there many sick kids? What was it like sleeping at night? Was there a constant background noise of machines pumping away? If you were hooked up to a heart monitor, what was it like constantly hearing your heart beating? What were the clothes like? What did it look like? Was it all tinted a shade of fluorescent lights? Was there an outside area? Were you permitted access? These are the kinds of questions I'm thinking of. So, essentially, anything. I've interned and volunteered at hospitals before, but I've never been a patient of one, so I'm looking for that kind of perspective. Thanks!
That's a few too many questions. You should have some idea of what a hospital stay is like. Start there and perhaps focus your questions a bit more. I don't understand the "going to be given a death sentence" question. How would we know what that was like? Are you talking about a death row hospital or euthanasia in a dystopian world? Oh, and welcome to the forum.
I worked as a doctor in several hospitals and a hospice, so I've seen a lot of patients in difficult situations, including prolonged stays, close calls and everything in between. I'm always happy to help, but I don't have a lot of free time, so I 'd need more specific questions, that I can answer quickly. All these things vary from hospital to hospital, and even between departments and then, different patients will have different experiences. I'd encourage you to write it the way you're seeing it in your minds eye, and then check whether the details you put in sound ok or not. However, if you have no first hand experience of hospitals, it might be better to not focus on the environment too much. A few details here and there will help you sound authentic, but if you concentrate on the environment you have no feel for, you'll have a difficult task convincing any readers who had the experience themselves.
It also depends on what ward your character is staying in and for what reason. My Grandmother's trip to intensive care would be vastly different than my mother's trip for an appendectomy and it would also be vastly different than my cousin's trip for severe trauma. Tell us first off what the character is in for and then we can help you narrow down to get the info you need.
Is your MC/patient in a single room, a double room, or in a ward? I've found the patient in the other bed in a double room can make or break your hospital stay, even if the curtain between you is closed all the time. Last time I was in (for major surgery), my roomie woke me up out of a pretty good sleep to accuse me of having my TV on, complaining that it had been playing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" all night long!!!! It was only 10:45 PM or so, and I hadn't had the TV on once since they brought me upstairs at 4:00 in the afternoon. But to humor her, I found the remote and switched my TV on and back off again. That shut her up and I was able to get back to sleep-- barring the nursing staff popping in and out to check on us and the alarm on my pain medicine pump going off when I lay the wrong way on the tube. LOL
