Tyler Texas is quickly becoming one of the biggest growing retirement communities in the state. The reason for this is because of the two hospitals, East Texas Medical Center and Trinity Mother Francis. Though I have very little experience at either of the hospitals I have found that they are completely different.

As I walk through the front door of Trinity Mother Francis, huge, in labor, and in more pain then I ever imagined, I get sat in a wheel chair and pushed up to the elevator. Once I got up to the counter to check in, I thought I finished all the paper work before hand, but I had a pile of paper work that I still had to sign and fill out. Finally I thought they were going to bring me into my room but I was sadly mistaking. They brought me into this large room with about six bed and each separated by a curtain, and each bed with another girl screaming at the nurses to get them into their own room. Frustrated with a horrible headache and feeling like there is a terribly large pole shoving in my back I am left there with no nurse. I began to get sick and throwing up and still no nurse. Finally someone comes and asks if my nurse even knows that I am no sick and really in labor. Soon after I get moved into another room and this time the bed is a little more comfortable. After I was still sick and throwing up in a small trash can that they gave me, my mother-in-law asks where she could move the trash can. The nurse turns and rudely yells at my mother-in-law. Just wait it gets much worse. I wait awhile in excruciating pain, until the doctor comes in to give me an epidural.

After about twenty minutes of the epidural not working I tell my nurse that I thought I came out. She tells me that it is all in my head. The worse pain in my life is all in my head? I ask over and over to get the doctor to check and finally she does. He walks in and what do you know? The epidural has fallen out and was not working. So the doctor has to redo it and the nurse has to hold me up. I knew that I was falling off the bed and the doctor told her over and over to help me scoot back onto the bed, but she wouldn’t. I guess you might think that I am not the best patient, but I wouldn’t have complained at all if she did her job that she got paid for while I was in the worse pain of my life. I delivered in this room and had a great doctor. The most beautiful little girl entered into the world. They quickly began to move me once I was able to walk again. I was so tired and just wanted to go back to sleep. Once they moved me into my third room they began to bring more and more paper work. I was lucky enough to have a shower in my room, but other girls had to walk down the hall to take a shower in the shared bathroom.

Though my doctor was a great doctor. I hated getting moved from room to room and I was treated horribly by the nurse. I do not recommended to anyone to have a baby there. I was very disappointed.

Just a couple years later I was once again pregnant and about to have my second little girl. This time I decided to go to East Texas Medical Center. This delivery was a little different from the beginning because I was induced. I arrived at 5:00 in the morning and was led into a really large room. I sat there comfortably without any paper work to do, because I filled it all out before going up there. Two nurses walked in being really helpful and they were extremely nice. They helped me in everyway that I needed them. I started into labor and the nurses kept on checking on me and getting everything I needed without question and with understanding of my discomfort. I contracted, labored and recovered in the same room. I wasn’t asked to get up or move around. I was constantly checked on during my recovery. My second beautiful girl was born here and every memory is so wonderful. The hospital felt cleaner and more comfortable. Even the food was better here.

My recovery was longer and much more painful with my first child at Mother Francis, but at ETMC I healed quickly and with very little pain. The nurse at Mother Francis did things wrong and this caused me more pain later.

I was very frustrated at ETMC that they did not send in the form that I filled out for the social security card, so it ended up being a lot more work in the long run, but I know that that was not a normal thing, and that it was just a mix up.

I know that I do not have much experience to completely compare the two hospitals, but with the experiences that I do have I completely recommend East Texas Medical Center and many other mothers that I have talked to that have babies delivered at both hospitals agree with me.