L.A Times, Health: As noise rises, so do the dangers.

Noise levels inside the hospital, you know, such as all of those alarms on the IV machines going off simultaneously in several adjoining rooms, drives you nuts because the nurses can't seem to get around to fixing the problems. If you ask someone other than the nurse, they can only reset it, which lasts only a few minutes. This article in the L.A. Times discusses some studies that show the effects on blood pressure and heart disease. It's a problem that many of us are familiar with, due to the irritating effects of noise in any of our daily environments. My mom certainly doesn't ever want to go to a hospital ever again. My father (4 years ago) passed away after a few hours in a quiet corner of the emergency room. Seemingly the only beeping sound was from my father's own cardio monitor. The nurses even offered to turn it off at a certain point. My father was by then unconscious, so I told them to leave it on. I wanted to know, television-style, I guess, just when he died.