323 Comments Posted by reddll

Reminds me of a bomb shelter.

We had the same tile on the walls of the bathrooms at the elementary school I went to. Didn't like it them, don't like it know. For some reason they can make a totally open and spacious room seem like a tiny closet. It wasn't a very "healing" color.

Motts, I have to agree with the other ladies here on the sign content. Many restaurant ladies rooms have similar signs even today, I think you can even order them pre-made. This is certainly not lewd in a woman's book. It is actually such a common sight for women that it is particulary humorous to us that you would find this lewd or unusual at all! I do like that they felt at least some patients were responsible enough to handle things themselves.

My Aunt worked for most of her career at a nursing home facility in Knoxville, TN. She would often be left with the whole floor and two aides. Not alot of workers to wash and dress sometimes up to 50 patients by breakfast. Consequently many showed up for breakfast in their jammies. She had to make a conscious decision as to who got dressed for the day. She usually dressed the people who were still mentally capable and she felt that they could stand a little normality in their lives. She even once turned the whole kitchen upside down to find a woman's uppers that she had left on her tray at lunch. She made sure that any messes were cleaned as soon as humanly possible and she made sure everyone was as clean as possible. She didn't like to keep anyone in bed for too long (except for those that were bedridden, she liked to bring in her used magazines and books to offer them). She had the aides get them up and into wheel chairs and other devices so that they were ambulatory at least. When I visited there a few times (my great grandmother was there till she passed away at 98 years old) I noticed that even though the staff was so slim and things didn't always happen instantly, it was much better then the other facilities I had been in over the years. For one it didn't have an overpowering smell of urine. The ingrediant that made it all possible? Employees who actually cared for the patients. My aunt befriended many a patient and would cry every time someone on her floor died or was transferred off of her floor. She attended every funeral. She would get extremely upset when another employee was slacking. She would even come in on her own time sometimes to talk to her patient friends, read someone a book, read mail to patients. To outsiders and other employees she seemed like a very gruff and blunt person, to her patients she was an angel! After all, aren't they the ones who count here? Not all hospital staff are heartless, abusers, or goof-offs. Many would do more if they had the time and help. In her case they were Mothers and Fathers. Maybe calling them sisters and brothers was an attempt at humanizing things in such a overun facility?

Maybe sometimes the better patients were left temporarily to their own devices while the aides had other work to do, maybe readying the next patients for bath, and they used the window to make sure no one was drowning, getting hurt, or hurting someone else.

You could liken the tapeworm to the hospital, sucking the life out of it's poor helpless victims.

What was the rather large protruding box on the wall? It sticksout far enough!

What's more disturbing then what it says is how it is painted.

As a Teddy Bear collector I find this picture fairly unsettling. The poor thing, abandoned except for the passing photographer or miscreant. He just cries out to you! "Where is everybody?" "Someone tie my shoe and hood!" "Where is my girl/boy at?"

On another note, I like the craft projects. I wonder if they were going to paint these pieces and hang them outside their doors or off of the end of their beds (wards). It was a very creative idea that I intend to share with my sister who is an elementary art teacher.

OOOO....I'm gonna be sick!

I can't imagine what this place looked like when it was all in one piece! I am sure it probably looks better now!

What an ego Bannerman must of had!

I know it has been a long time, but do you remember what the plaque on the wall said?

Nancy, I can definitly relate. My Grandmother suffers from schizophrania. It didn't "get ahold" of her until after she had four children. She heard voices, saw things, and felt things that weren't there. Her "friends" told her to do bad things. She spent a lot of time yelling at them and telling them that she wouldn't do what they want. She never hurt her children and only once did she almost act on what they insisted she do. My Grandfather woke one evening and she was leaning over him with rather large knife. Luckily he was a strong guy and wrestled the knife from her. My mother says that she was in and out of institutions (not happy or fun places at all) and has been given many, many different drugs over the years. Some of the drugs did more worse then good. She has had many harsh therapies over the years including electroshock therapy (didn't help, actually made things worse, this was a good thing as she only had to go through it once!). Her medication seems to be pretty steady now (thanks to medical advancement on the subject). I remember as a child not knowing that Grandma was supposed to talk (she never did). At the time her treatment was basically to "drug the hell out of her". Now she is permenantly mentally damaged from drug effects but she talks, has conversations, and she is connected to the rest of the world. It is hard to believe that she was once a beautiful woman that men used to fight over to go on dates with, had an excellant eye for fashion, was a shrewed card player, an above average pianist, a most excellent seamstress, and was an all around fun-loving person. I wish that I knew this Grandmother better.

This picture is precisely what I think my Grandmother's mind would have looked like 20 years ago. Today? Maybe sweep up, unblock the window and let some sun in, put up some pics of the family, and add a telephone.

I bet there were some rodents sleeping inside the mattress even as you took the photo! Looks like great nesting material.

I bet after they closed down the building to patients and such that some lab work may have been still taking place temporarily which would account for the bed being left behind. The lab workers wouldn't have worried about hauling a bed out of there, they have more important things to worry about! (obviously since they left those cultures behind as well!)

I am glad that some got well enough to "toss away" their iron lung. It certainly gives a new meaning to the word FREEDOM.

Need lots of soap, lots and lots of soap!