POST FALLS - A 67-year-old Post Falls woman said she spent a few more days at Kootenai Medical Center than she thought necessary after comments she made following her recent foot surgery.

"If I die, I die, (then) I go to heaven," Donna Maria Thompson recalled telling medical staff at the hospital, after all the toes on her right foot were removed.

"They put a 'hold' on me," Thompson said as she wheeled around her Post Falls apartment in a wheelchair, with a wound vac working away on her foot. "I was a prisoner."

Kim Anderson, a spokeswoman at KMC, speaking of hospital policy only, said, "If a physician deems a patient to be a potential threat to themselves or others, the physician can issue an administrative hold of the patient for up to 72 hours."

She added, "This helps protect the individual as well as the community."

She said there are a variety of things that can trigger a hold.

"I don't know if she was on an administrative hold," she said.

Thompson said her comments following surgery were not intended to sound "suicidal." She said it was more of a statement of religious faith.

She said medical staff didn't want her to leave the hospital after surgery because it wasn't safe. She doesn't believe that, however.

Thompson, a diabetic, recalled one doctor telling her she could go home, while other providers there said she couldn't.

She told them she wanted to go home because she didn't care whether she died or not.

"I'm not nuts, I just love Jesus," the mother of three grown children said. She has had serious heart problems in the past, she said, and also suffers from fibromyalgia.

She can't remember exactly, but she believes she was held three or four extra days because of the comments.

"I decided not to fight," she said. "I'm only one person, and I'm sure they've got a lot of security guards."

She said she was told that "guards" would stop her if she tried to leave.

"I believe in God to heal me, and I think they held that against me, too," she said. "Just because you believe in God doesn't mean you're crazy."

She contacted The Press about her experience because she wanted the public to know what can happen.

She has two sons and a daughter, who live in Seattle, Newman Lake, Wash., and Pennsylvania.

The daughter came to visit her when she was at the hospital. She said her daughter also was angered by the hold.

Thompson said she was interviewed by two mental health employees before being released.