Johnston man voices his health care frustrations

SMITHFIELD — Rudy Baker had visited his wife at Smithfield Manor, where she’s trying to recover from a mysterious illness.

“Been there 44 days,” Baker told County Commissioners last week. “Still can’t walk.”

That night, back at home, Baker fell but managed to get in bed. The next morning, he returned to Smithfield Manor to visit his wife. “As I walked in her room, I collapsed again,” Baker said.

“COVID,” he explained. “Never been hit like that before in my life. But they got me in the hospital, six days. They did a great job.”

But then Baker told the other side of hist story. “I’m disgusted with our health care as it is now,” he said.

First, patients like his wife have to jump through too many hoops, Baker said. “If you want to go to the hospital, you got to go through the ER,” he said. “ER turns around, says you don’t meet the criteria.”

Baker said he and his wife wore out the emergency departments at the UNC Health hospitals in Smithfield and Clayton, though she never got the help she needed.

“The last time we took her into the ER in Smithfield, she was shaking so bad and was so weak they wouldn’t let her get in a wheelchair to get in my car to go home,” Baker said. “A medical transport took her home, per her in her recliner and left.”

“After two days of watching here shaking or hurting, I said something’s gotta give,” he said. “So I called 911, got an ambulance and I told the EMS guy … I want to go to Duke. I’d already been to everybody else — Wake and UNC.”

Baker said the ambulance driver told him Duke was a no-go. “He said we can’t take you to Duke unless it’s cancer or it’s heart related,” Baker recalled. “He said we can take you to Duke Raleigh.”

So they settled on Duke Raleigh, where his wife underwent a battery of tests over several days, Baker said.

“At the end of the fifth day, one doctor wanted to keep her and do something else,” he said. “He got overruled, sent us to rehab at Smithfield Manor, and they’re doing a great job. But she still can’t walk.”

The problem now has been getting his wife an appointment with a neurologist, Baker told commissioners. “The earliest one I could get was the third of January,” he said, though his wife eventually caught a break. “They finally got us one for the 28th of this month.”

Baker faulted UNC Health. “If UNC wants to take over all our small hospitals, then they damn well should staff them,” he said. “We got two neurologists in Johnston County. One of them went to India for the summer.”

Baker said he knew commissioners couldn’t solve the problem, and he knows the situation is just as bad in Wake County. “But somebody needs to get a hold of this thing,” he said.

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