Karmanos Cancer Center

The care of the doctors is wonderful and the care from the Nurses and aids is BEYOND wonderful. They genuinely care about their patients. My loved one had lengthy hospital stay, which included two re-admissions. While the people and professionals are spectacular I can't say as much for the amenities. The food is barely edible. Trying to increase nutrition was a goal for our patient and the food was completely unappetizing. That's tough for someone already struggling to eat. The rooms are dated and poorly laid out. As a fall risk, it was very difficult for staff to assist my loved one in getting to the restroom. Two people, and a walker do not fit. Additionally, you can see directly into the bathroom from the hallway. It took some coordination to ensure some privacy. Most concerning is that the rooms are semi private. This patient group is dealing with serious diagnosis. I know every illness and every medication of her room mates and they know hers. She was constantly being disrupted at all hours with room mates being admitted and discharged. We had to hear them making serious care decisions and they heard her. It is a serious HIPAA violation to have these patients crammed together like this. If you are dealing with a diagnosis as serious and with as many facets to its care as cancer, you deserve a private room to discuss things privately with family and to be able to visit with your loved ones.

Update on my sister who underwent a BMT After My sisters relapse, Karmanos put her on a chemo regimen to reduce the amount of Cancer in her body. As a result of this treatment, My sister developed a different kind of bone marrow failure, fibrosis. This treatment also caused her bone marrow to become suppressed so her body failed to even produce marrow as a result. We learned all of this after her wisdom tooth extraction which then became severely infected which for someone in her condition can be life threatening since she has 0 white blood cells. As she continued to decline, many unanswered phone calls with Karmanos and little to no answers coming from her Doctor’s at Karmanos, we decided to make the trip to Karmanos to be admitted (hopefully). Thankfully after a long stint in the ER, they did admit her to the hospital. After running tests on her, they informed us of the fibrosis, bone marrow suppression and a fungal infection in her lung which happened to be the most concerning thing of all. They started her on strong antibiotics but nothing seemed to help the fevers. On 7/12, my sisters Doctor (who was leaving for work for the day) came into her room at about 8:30 at night on a Friday night with no family, no support, no social workers and delivered the heart wrenching news. my sister only has a couple months to live and there is nothing else they will be able to do for her. I’ll remember this moment for the rest of my life, on FaceTime with my sister while I’m at baseball practice and I’ll always remember thinking, “This seems extremely inappropriate”. We remained at Karmanos for a week after that scrambling to figure out what they will do to help her. Their answer – take amoxicillin and go home to live out the rest of your days. Yep. During this week we repeatedly asked the doctors and the nurse practitioner about getting a second opinion and their response was simple, “There is no hospital in the world that can help you”. To say that we are disappointed in Karmanos, their care, their staff, their awful demeanor is an understatement. I do wish to convey however, we did have some of the best nurses in the world. We have also met some wonderful people who are going through some of the same things and unfortunately received the same news as my sister. Karmanos released my sister from the hospital on 7/20 with a prescription for amoxicillin (eye roll) and two other antibiotics that are equally as pathetic. Against everything Karmanos told us about getting a second opinion, we made the decision to drive her directly to U of M hospital as soon as we left Karmanos. U of M hospital admitted her due to her fevers and condition. They were shocked that Karmanos released her in her condition, and we were happy to hear we weren’t going nuts. Within a few days, They had a complete workup of her. They ran a new bone marrow biopsy, ran tests that we’ve never heard of (and I doubt Karmanos has never heard of them) and provided some of the most amazing care I never thought was even possible. Not even a week into her admission at U of M, we learned that she does have more options and by using my stem cells to essentially boost her immune system to jumpstart her bone marrow re-growth and to help fight off her infection. They also said there is a 20% chance that this will work. To say that we were beyond excited is a complete understatement. It was also infuriating at the same time, knowing we wasted so much precious time at Karmanos. We have learned a lot through all of this. We learned to question doctors, we have learned to listen to our instincts against repeated negative remarks, we have learned to FIGHT no matter what and we learned that U of M > any other hospital

I have been waiting almost 3 hours they siad they called my name 45 minutes ago and we where sitting in front of her desk so we would have heard her then she siad that we changed our appointment from 9:30 to 10:10 to 10:15 but they got us to the docter at 11:40 then she made is wait longer.

Unfailing courtesy and competence. We are confident that Karmanos provides the very best in cancer assessment and care.

I have had nothing but a great experience here. My nurses and surgeons have been excellent!! My only complaint is their valet service. Why is there no complimentary valet? Not that it is expensive,but the price does add up. I am there once a week and those $3 charges add up. Something needs to change about this.