I know that I'm not a girly-girl. Never have been. I do have some experience with being in the hospital and I also know that when you're all alone for 20+ hours a day a nice floral arrangement does make you feel better. (It doesn't do anything for me when I'm at home but hey that's me.)
The thing is there will come a time (and it's here in some places) when flowers won't be allowed in rooms at all. There are already bans in France and the UK and probably more of Europe. The reasoning that's been used has little to do with the real hazards though. So what reasons did they use to create / enforce the ban? Bacteria in the water of flowers, oxygen use (by the flowers and therefore less available oxygen for a compromised patient) and a potential hazard to equipment should they tip. Well these are somewhat valid reasons I suppose. When a patient has very serious and urgent oxygen needs every little bit makes a difference but this won't apply to the vast majority of patients.
Bacteria in the flower water sounds like a possible health risk but it's again unlikely to cause problems. You'd have to drink the bacteria or inhale them. No one's drinking flower water. As for inhaling the bacteria, this sounds easier than it is. The water would have to beaerosolized for that to occur. So it'd have to be put into a spray bottle (and when are those going to be banned in restaurants, etc. Spray bottles cause aerosolization of whatever surface greeblies that are supposed to be cleaned off.) It's unlikely that flower water would end up in a spray bottle. Again, for the very few who would be affected by such a minor number of bacteria of that variety, it would be a health risk but not for every patient.
Equipment risks - that's the third listed issue for no flowers. This is a real possibility given that there is very little space in hospital rooms and always too much stuff. So tipping them over and perhaps having water get on machinery - that could certainly happen. And here, the hospital wouldn't charge us for such an accident so the hospital would have to absorb the replacement costs.
Why didn't they use the real reasons: spores, pollen, water molds, multiple chemical sensitivities, nurses have enough to do and look after? Now there's a question. As the sound bites about severe peanut allergies should have enlightened all and sundry, fungal spores are very dangerous. Fatally dangerous to some. This was enough to handcuff parents to never include any peanut-containing items in kids lunches for school. (What lesseconomically advantaged parents do when peanut butter is one of the best combinations of cost, nutrition and kid-appeal; I don't know?) There are fungal spores associated with soil and therefore flowers. And again, we know from the peanut allergypeople who you don't have to have an appreciable number for 1 to get through and cause trouble.
Pollen. There are tons of people allergic to pollen. Let's face it, if someone's living in a hospital (even short-term) there's something seriously wrong with them. They don't need additional problems. They've got problems already. I encountered this one when I was in hospital. I was there so long that I ended up with more roommates that I could have ever imagined - I think it was 9 in the 17 days I was there. And one of them was allergic to pollen. So I was given a choice, I could ditch the flowers or I could move. I chose to move. It worked out even better for me because I finally ended up with a window. I digress.
Water molds. I know this is a bit of an odd one and it takes time for them to form but the spores from water molds are very dangerous for those who are allergic / sensitive. My sister has this one (and the next one - multiple chemical sensitivity). You'll know if you have this one if you live where there's snow. Snow has more time to develop molds and so with snow melt - the mold spores are released and physiological reactions ensue.
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is a very real problem for an increasing number of people. This one isn't an allergy but it is a neurological response to chemicals sometimes including those of flowers. Usually it's triggered by chemicals from personal hygiene items (soap, perfume, hairspray, shampoo, hand cream, laundry detergent, etc.) It's a very difficult issue to manage when in public - and there's pretty much nothing more public than living in a place that gets 10's of 'visitors' every day; from the teams of doctors, nurses, cleaning staff, your personal visitors, everyone else's visitors, deliverypersonnel, and the list goes on.
Nurses have enough to do. This one is self-explanatory. They do an impossible job and somehow manage to be nice (most of the time) while doing it. They really don't need to watch out for everything that comes into the room that isn't 'hospital equipment'.
I'll just add one more thing. When I was putting together the inventory for my business (YouGetWellSoon), we needed bags. So we went to our local people for some compostable bags and got into a discussion with the girl at the counter. Turned out she was the daughter of the owners and had been in hospital for a kidney problem. She had received flowers but since she was in the ICU was not able to have them with her. If she craned her head, she could see them sitting on the nursing station table. Not quite what her benefactor had in mind.
Bottom line - this once stable of the hospital gift may soon be no more. So before your gift gets turned back, perhaps check with the facility or give a gift that is more in keeping with what a patient may want / need. It may be less fun but it'll get through the door.
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