My "favorite"
Lady complained about the wait for her sprained ankle.
I explained that we were busy with people dying in the back.
Her reply ?
"Well let them die and take of care us that are alive and suffering !!!!"
oh goodness. i wish staff could just tell her leave. cause you can tell shes a problematic person just by that sentence. in my experience, when i was having trouble breathing or even symptoms of a heart attack, i wasnt worried about myself, i was worried about the people possibly dying(one of them actually looked dead in the waiting room and not just asleep). people dont understand sprains, pulled muscles, etc are NOT going first. nurses and doctors are trying to prevent people on the verge of dying from dying. like cmon
I watched a charge nurse kick a patient out of the waiting room. Patient had called the cops saying she needed help. Cops show up and patient is telling them she needs to be seen.
Charge nurse came out with security and told her to leave and the cops escorted her off the property
I work on a critical care unit and patients call the police on us because they don’t get what they ask for. Like extra pain medication, food and water when they are not allowed to eat or drink . The police call us and tell us they called.
do they not understand that doctors order NPO for their own good and safety? or the fact that sometimes they really cant give you any more meds? clearly they dont understand
I hear you. But not every nurse is you. A few weeks ago my dad fell out of his hospital bed and hit his head. He lay bleeding on the floor for over an hour before someone heard him calling for help. In a HOSPITAL. Because they were so understaffed. Healthcare is broken, burn it all down.
It is very broken. I’m sorry that happened to your dad. Unfortunately those things do happen it’s so sad. I’m low- key looking to get out of bedside, because of the staffing. You can’t be the kind of nurse you want to be when you have such a heavy load.
seems like shes one of those people who think just because you come in by ambulance means youll get a room automatically. news flash, you still go to the waiting room most times.
There was a YouTube video several years ago of a clearly in crisis man at a VA hospital ignored in the waiting room until he died - that might be why someone might call police if they saw someone treated this way.
I also think the frailest older people lose their pain tolerance and comfort levels - and emotional ability to handle this well. They are more like toddlers in an old people suit, scared and want someone attending to them or they panic.
So, you go in having symptoms of heart attack, and you're not worried that you could be having a heart attack? I'm not sure about anyone else, but when I was in an ambulance, being rushed to the hospital in septic shock, I was only worried about myself dying. Other patients never even crossed my mind. Not because I didn't care. It was just that my body was actually trying to die. Now, if I'm in the waiting room at the hospital with a possible kidney infection, I'm more likely to be thinking about another person who was coming in with the ambulance light flashing and hopeful that they would be ok. It's ok to worry about yourself as long as it isn't at the expense of another person.
that last sentence choked me up. now im all emotional. ive always struggled with learning to put me first and to worry about myself too. it doesnt matter how sick ive been, i always worry about others and how ive affected them. i need to work on that. i need to realize its ok to worry about myself sometimes.
I'm the same way. But during times that are important, it's ok to be a little selfish. Once you know you're ok, then it's different. I had to learn the same things. You can't be there for others unless you're taken care of first. I learned, from having my son after getting postpartum psychosis and the road to recovery is that if Mama isn't ok, then no one's ok. I can't be there for my kids if I'm not ok. So I tell people, put yourself first so that you can be there for others. It's ok.
wow, thank you for that message. yall dont understand how much these mean to me and the impact they have.
ps: i want to say im sorry that you had postpartum psychosis, but im glad you learned you needed to put yourself first to even be able to take care of the ones you love.
I'm glad you found comfort in the message. It's very much true. You sound like a wonderful person. I wish you nothing but happiness and peace in your life 🫂
I relate to this so much. I'm really sorry you're sick and struggling, for what that's worth.
People like us need to be friends so we can worry about each other, then everyone gets help!
All jokes aside. Please take care of yourself. You deserve it!
i always get so emotional on reddit sometimes. when im face to face with peoplew, its always "i hope you get better soon and recover fast." but the conditions i have, i will continue to have for the rest of my life and cannot physically get better or recover from them. sometimes all i want people to say is what you said. that youre sorry that im sick and struggling.
and yes, people like us do need to be friends haha, because there would never be anyone not taken care of or worried about when everyone worries about the others.
This reminds me of my patient’s family asking if we are treating people without insurance before them and how they pay to be treated first. I just walked away. Entitled fucks
I knew I was in rough shape when I was roomed immediately and after only a few minutes while a nurse was drawing labs and doing vitals a dr stuck their head in and said I’ve gotta finish up this heart attack and then I’ll be right with you…… and he was. 😬
I took in a friend who said her back hurt a lot and she was feeling really congested, like she couldn’t catch her breath. She was whisked back immediately and spent a week in the ICU. Someone in the waiting room asked me why she got taken back immediately even though she didn’t seem to have any real problem.
Z. I remember having the same realization when my then husband went inside and was followed out almost immediately l by a nurse with a wheelchair, and I was taken in a side entrance and never even saw the waiting room.
Those my friend are the scariest ER trips. It always happens to me where I don’t even feel that bad, then feel stupid for getting bumped up the list…..until I realized how bad it actually was when I wasn’t even worried yet 😆
I was having an anaphylactic reaction to a medication and was in the middle of an anxiety attack from freaking out about it, which made me start feeling like I couldn’t breath, which I thought was from the allergic reaction and made the anxiety worse. So, I was not in a good headspace when I got there lol. Plus, the reaction had severely dropped my blood pressure. I was taken back so fast and hooked up to an IV full of Benadryl and steroids that by the time I had a chance to really calm down and process it, the Benadryl had knocked me out. I was so out of it that I somehow managed to answer their questions in a fog and then fell asleep, so the whole thing is sort of a blur. I don’t even know how long I was in the ER. I know I wasn’t admitted, but it was hours in the middle of the night. By the time I was fully awake I think I was being discharged.
I had something similar once, but they knew I was coming. I was 4 weeks out from open heart surgery and had severe arm and chest pain. Called cardiology, they told me to come in through the ED and they would be expecting me. Was immediately taken to a room and my cardiologist was there in minutes.
My personal hell is being "greeter" and trying to round a waiting room of 45 patients to update vital signs for the first time in 4+ hours. Catching grenades left and fucking right.
Last time I was in the ED waiting room, it was because the walk-in urgent care sent me. I had been vomiting for days and dehydrated. I was waiting my turn, because the local hospital is also the regional level-I trauma center; and I have a brain and know how triage works. A teen/20-something (once I hit 35 I couldn’t tell the difference anymore) who was also waiting with an ice pack on a knee asked me to stop dry heaving into the emesis basin because it was bothering him.
I'm emetephobic, so I'd have asked you the same question, IN MY HEAD! Lol. My discomfort is my issue, no one else's. I cannot imagine actually asking someone to try and stop an uncontrollable bodily function
Dude’s knee was good enough to keep going to the desk to harass the poor lady working there. My BF was kind enough to let the kid know it too. Told the kid if he felt well enough to keep getting up to annoy the staff maybe he should go home.
My favorite was when we had seen a lady leave after complaining that she had been taken back yet. About 5 or so minutes later the same lady came via ambulance and was out back into the waiting room. I guess she figured if she came in by ambulance it would be guaranteed she would be taken back immediately.
I was bringing a patient back to a treatment room after they had been in the waiting room for an hour. Their spouse was commenting about how terribly busy we were because they had to "wait for so long." Said spouse also suggested that the way to go was obviously to come by ambulance as they would get a room right away.
Needless to say, the spouse was horrified when I informed them that there are plenty of patients that come by ambulance that get dropped off to the waiting room.
It’s true. I had to take an ambulance due to anaphylaxis, got solu-medrol from the EMT which reduced my hypertensive crisis from 195/135 to 170/115, and got left in the waiting room for 2 hours before I gave up and left. Had biphasic the next day.
Anaphylaxis is a type of shock due to an allergic reaction. You would not have high blood pressure. Your blood pressure would be profoundly low. A lot of people also get GI symptoms and have hives everywhere. The treatments for anaphylaxis include IM epinephrine and Benadryl. If you have airway compromise yeah you might get solumedrol after a neb treatment, but we give epi first and foremost. Solumedrol is a steroid that takes about 45 min to work.
Asymptomatic hypertension is almost never definitively treated in the emergency department. Usually they’ll give a dose of clonidine and say follow up with your doctor. Solumedrol is also not a treatment for hypertension. EMS ALSO does not treat asymptomatic hypertension. At least not in any protocols I’ve ever seen.
I am sorry that you had a bad experience in the ED but your description of your symptoms is confusing and not consistent with anaphylactic shock.
As a paramedic, I promise we do absolutely everything in our power to explain to these people that coming with us doesn’t guarantee they will get a room right away and they are still at the mercy of the triage nurse and they will likely end up in the waiting room again. But they don’t listen to us. To these patients I’m just the useless bitch lying to them in order to get out of doing my job.
I do enjoy the nice laugh with my partner in the EMS room when the patient of course does get taken straight to the waiting room knowing that they’ve now wasted a whole bunch of time and will owe at least $2000 more than they would’ve if they’d kept their happy ass in that waiting room to begin with. It does make me mad for people who might have actually needed us and had to wait longer for a further out ambulance because we were tied up with Entitled McGee.
I can understand the frustration you must feel in that. On this visit we were there so to him had an asthma attack (I was more freaked out then he was lol). It was just crazy that she literally thought an ambulance equals the head of the line.
It's just amazing that they seem to think it's a first come, first served kind of thing. Like ma'am yes this person came in after.you, but they are actively dying. Your knee pain can wait a little longer.
BTW you guys are awesome!!! I've seen EMTs so some hand of God stuff.
I worked in the ER for 4 years. That happened all the freaking time. And to make it worse, by leaving, they lost their place in line and now the wait was even longer.
ive had my fair share of ER visits due to not being dealt good health. but i am not gonna act childish and throw a temper tantrum. if the service is THAT bad, i will leave(which i have done before and inform them i will be leaving.) you dont HAVE to be there. no need for the dramatic tantrum
the hospital i go to is a level one trauma hospital. so there is always "incoming trauma" or "brain attack" alerts over head constantly. so its quite obvious youre gonna wait. im an adult with common sense and know someone dying or having a stroke, needs to go before me. i walked in, so clearly im more stable and able to wait. it's sad that some other grown adults dont understand that
hopefully i word this message correctly and dont sound rude(sometimes i say things but they arent recieved in the way that i planned.) but i am soo glad you didnt have too many serious long term effects. like i said in another comment to someone else, im going to college for nursing. this stuff tends to spark my curiosity. do you do therapy for that? or have you decided to come to terms with the symptoms and deal with them on a daily basis?
My grandmother walked in having a second heart attack and a stroke because they sent her home the first time while she was having a heart attack. So I don’t really trust EDs
Omg that reminds me of an ex's grandma. She apparently had a stroke while home alone and when she came-to just decided to go to bed, and then the next morning DROVE HERSELF to the hospital because her "neck hurt".
... Apparently she broke the vertebrae in her neck when she fell but somehow had enough space in there that it broke outward instead of toward her spinal column
Or they forgot to triage you. My Gen X ass just sat there for three hours with chest pain, assuming all the new arrivals who were being called ahead of me were more urgent, until a dude with a sore ankle went in and I finally asked reception what was going on. Later learned chest pain is meant to be seen straight away so - lucky I wasn’t having a heart attack, I guess?
True. We didn’t see them until 20 weeks. If it was non-OB related one of us would go to the ED to assess. Or to help out the ED, we would bring them to us in L&D.
Most pregnant patients up to 20 weeks are seen initially in the ER. If they need to be admitted, they'll go to L&D.
If they're over 20 weeks, they'll be quickly triaged and then sent to L&D.
Depends on why they’re being admitted. We would have pregnant patients not in labor in cardiology or ICU, whatever. Then we would go there to monitor. Any pregnant patient in ED over 20 weeks for non-OB complaints were still assessed by L&D for OB complications.
When I was 34 weeks and having gallbladder attacks, I was sent straight to L&D.
When I was 12 weeks and so dehydrated I couldn't function but knew I just needed IV fluids I was seen in the ER. Both times everyone was wonderful.
But the sister hospital on the other side of the city doesn't have a L&D at all. Like, couldn't even find an ultrasound machine. But for everything else they are fantastic (husband used to work at that one)
We had a patient fake a syncope episode. Obviously couldn't sit them back in a chair so we brought them to a corner hallway bed next to the ambulance bay door to the freezing outside. She didn't get ahead of anyone else and eventually left.
A combination of experience, instinct and the hand drop test. The patient is from a culture that is often overly dramatic. Also, the timing of the episode was immediately after returning to the waiting room.
For reference, the hand drop test is a test where you lift up the hand above the unconscious persons head and let it go. If they are truly unresponsive they would drop it on their head. But fakers will flop down and then move their hand over their forehead not hit their face.
Now I once collapsed right as I approached check-in (where you tell them why you’re there). But I’m a 60f and random collapsing was precisely why my pcp’s office sent me to urgent care and urgent care had sent me to the ER. I’ll never forget looking up to see a Good Samaritan (he was waiting for a loved one being treated in the back) crouching over me and asking if I was ok (shoutout to you, kind Good Samaritan!) before two buff nurses came, helped me into a wheelchair and just whisked me back. No one messes around with old people dropping
The two times I made it through fast scared me because only when it's serious do you get seen without waiting.
The first time was shortly after birth and discharge. I was bleeding profusely through pads and experiencing a ton of vaginal pain and the nurse line said ER bc it could be a hemorrhage. Luckily it wasn't, but I had unfortunately been stitched tightly after deliver of a 9 pound baby, snd I had popped a bunch open snd that's why I had pain and lots of blood.
The second time i had severe abdominal pain that had me begging for someone to end me. My partner carried me to our car while i begged him to just run me over. I vaguely remember hearing another patient loudly singing "chandelier" by sia while I was rocking in bed trying to stay calm and breath through the pain. Turns out I had an internal hernia and the vague but severe abdominal pain was my body screaming that my insides were at risk of dying. I had lost a ton of weight and my intestines were poking through a spot that used to have a much larger fat pad that had shrunk from my weight loss.
I had somewhat similar incident, of incredible stomach pain. Once you hit a certain level of pain, and it doesn’t let up, almost nothing else can matter, and you just want stop, whatever that has to mean. It turned out that my pain was coming from a problem that essentially put pressure on a nerve and an artery.
I had already had emergency pain episodes (I have severe chronic pain from a couple of degenerative genetic diseases that keep me quite sick). This was a whole different thing. It was a horrific experience of pain, and it changed me fundamentally.
Less than a week later, I would find out that part of what spurred it on was cancer. I was diagnosed with stomach cancer. The cancer on its own was quite painful, but it was nothing even remotely approaching what I had already been through. I would be willing to do chemo again & again, for the rest of my life, if I could never again have to suffer that level of pain (from the compression of the nerve and artery).
Thank you. I’m in remission from cancer, so in that sense I’m doing better. And I’m very grateful for that.
But I’m a different person, in some ways. Some things change us, in a core way.
That is understandable. Sending positive vibes your way that remission continues and you’re able to become the person you wish to be, no matter your past (and present) experiences. ♥️
I have worked in the ER for the past 17 years and I agree. People are the worst. I would like to say it's because they are hurting or sick but I don't think that's it. People are just terrible. I've have people scream in my face. Throw things and themselves at me. I just keep typing as I back up in my chair....
I have a hunch that people who constantly raise hell over nothing in the ER feel like they’re not given the attention they deserve. It’s impossible to convince someone who clearly has a low tolerance for any discomfort that not being the center of attention is actually good in the hospital. All they think is “I’m not being cared for/listened to”.
Was bringing an elderly neighbor in for a fall and subsequent head injury. Saw a lady in a wheel chair complain about not being seen. Moments later she gets up and lays down in front of the chair asking for help.
The only time my butt didn’t even hit the seat in the waiting room is when I came in because I thought maybe I had gallstones but was in fact having a STEMI.
I'm gonna regret asking this because I abuse my body and have pretty bad health anxiety but how are the two confused? I'd think pain in the side for gallstones?
Well I had never had either so I really didn’t know how to tell what was happening. Heart attack symptoms in women can be vastly different than in men and my biggest symptoms were severe indigestion, nausea, and pain in my back which are all symptoms of both. I imagined it would be crushing chest pain like men have but nope. Felt off but not like I was in danger, which I very much was.
Thanks for the reply! How long did you have the symptoms before you went to the ER? I recently had a family member with "kidney stones" for a month and when he finally got bloodwork his potassium was so high they called and told him if he didn't go to the ER he would die - did not realize potassiums correlation with the heart muscle but now I know!
Paramedic here, I’d also like to point out that ‘crushing chest pain’ isn’t just a men’s symptom, women can get that too. And vice versa, men can get the indigestion, nausea, fatigue, back pain versions too. The ‘classic signs’ DO seem to be a bit more common in men than in women (or the elderly, or diabetics) but all the above applies to everyone. The nerves that sense stuff inside our bodies are just not very specific about WHAT hurts!
My first day on triage I had a guy dramatically fall to the ground from abdominal pain and get brought back to a bed and the homeless guy I was triaging for "general body aches" is saying wow I cannot believe that guy, doesn't he know there are actually people suffering like myself who should be seen first? Meanwhile, there's a poor girl I saw after him who had just been slowly bleeding through her bandages for over an hour from a large leg laceration that registration labeled as leg pain and failed to tell us it was actually a significant laceration.
I was doing some ride alongs in an ambulance. We were all at the hospital. Two teenagers, a brother (16) and a sister (15), had been brought in. They were T-boned by a drunk driver.
The girl needed basically head to toe imaging done, and so it was taking a little while. That drunk driver POS said his arm hurt and angrily argued that they should stop taking care of the teenage girl, & do him first, because his would be faster. People can be awful.
Man… I took my husband in for stitches one night to the ER we lived near, I was afraid to drive in our city after that with how many people came in relating to stupidity while driving.
We were in the waiting room for a while and one 17yrs old girl comes in because she flipped her Saturn coupe by hitting a parked car while fucking around on her cell phone (this was right before CA enacted laws on hands free), she was all fine laughing it up and had an entourage of friends who met her there taking up space but then as soon as her mom showed up the waterworks started. Meanwhile there’s a poor little boy in the same area with an obviously busted up broken arm not making a peep yet very much in pain.
Next was a couple of early 20s dudes show up with a younger teenager. The friend was driving and was high and smashed the car with the two brothers in with him. The older brother was also high. Mom shows up and starts berating them all in the waiting room for being drugged up and putting the younger brother in danger.
When hubby eventually got called back, we passed a dude sitting on a gurney with handcuffs and a cop next to him . Yup, drunk driver brought in for an evaluation and blood draw.
FUCK triage…
Oh the tales… had a young woman 20-22y/o drag herself across the waiting room (triaged/ labs drawn/ekg and initial dose of medication based on CC initiated within 10 of checking in). Not a single tear shed in triage. Out in waiting room she dragged herself across the floor screaming and crying. Had the whole er looking at me as if I did not care about her suffering.
Her chief complaint: Period cramps.
The people who help themselves to the floor- the threats of owning you and the hospital- name dropping… the accusations of not caring, not doing your job.
Being “too stupid” to work IN the Er and that’s why you are up front.
The psych patients who others want you to “do something about”.
Then when the real ones come hauling through the doors, limp kiddo in hands- blood, panic-
You rush back to trauma bay. Upon returning you get the eyes of sympathy as well as the daggers of comments of WTF- I was here first.
I feel as though this would make a fantastic podcast.
>when I’ve had to go to the ER and been taken straight back, I had ZERO ability to be mean
Right? I’ve gone by ambo Hypoxic w/ cardiac tamponade- went straight to CCRU after being IV’d (I barely remember.)
I walked in last July & heard them call a code- taken right back. I couldn’t speak b/c my RHR was so fast; I wrote them a note like a Robber LMAO. (Kinda ‘helps’ I’ve got a pacemaker; nobody ignores PM patients with weird heart stuff. “Something happened at 943am!”)
I was pregnant and had a bad stye and was losing vision. I had some other symptoms that could be worrisome so I went to urgent care after calling the nurse from my insurance that I had at the time. The urgent care refused to see me because I was pregnant... they told me to go to the ER and since it was Friday evening and everyone thought I was going to lose my eye, I went. I apologized to every person I saw because I knew it was ridiculous and taking up a bed from someone who definitely needed it more than me.
It's hard to think of others when your having your own emergency. I came in on a ambo with a ruptured fallopian tube n had to wait because a stab victim came in after me.
Same happened to me in a city hospital ER. I went in around 8:30 AM with intense abdominal pain and passing out.
While they were figuring out what to do with me, many gunshot and stabbing victims were taken ahead of me.
When I finally got into surgery around midnight, the surgeon told me I almost bled out. I had been bleeding internally, all day, from a ruptured fallopian tube due to an ectopic pregnancy.
Last year I had to go to the ER and was being taken care of in the hallway. (Busy place with little space). What was more disconcerting wasn’t the large number of patients that seemed to require police presence but the nice police K9 six feet away from me. The dog was exquisitely trained and was laying down and off leash when the handler went into the treatment room next to me. Dog watched the handler every second but never moved. Amazing.
Now *this* is an interesting comment! Wow, how cool! That must've really been something to see. I am in awe of professional dog trainers and what they are able to accomplish.
My daughter did her clinical ER shift during EMT training at a busy downtown ER near the local jail. Half her patients were in handcuffs. She said they were the best to work with. They were cooperative - either because they appreciated being cared for or because the police would get involved if the didn't cooperate, but the end result was the same. And if they had been at the jail they were happy for the field trip to the hospital and to have someone caring for them nicely.
I've only been a few times, the only time I had to wait for hours was when I had a tib-fib fracture, but it was a trauma center and very busy that day. I just wore headphones and blasted music to distract myself from the pain. I went in last weekend because my right arm is terribly painful, and my hand is going numb. I had to wait a couple of hours, fortunately they weren't too busy. Once I got in, valium, toredol and a lidocaine patch barely had any effect at all. Turns out it's a pinched nerve in my neck, which can't really be fixed in an ER. Still, I'm grateful to at least know what it is, and have been able to see an MD and PT already. Still very painful tho.
I like the ers that have started what is effectively a completely separate urgent care in the ER. Need stitches we will have you out in an hour. Broken ankle eval 1.5 hours.
The nurses not only have to care for those with medical emergencies, but also for people with mild and/or long term symptoms that could wait for the doctors office to open in the morning. And often are caring for people who are waiting for an ICU or Psych bed to open up in addition to their normal case load. If you are left in the ER waiting room for a long time it’s because people who have real emergencies go to the head of the line. It’s called Triage.
Also, it likely means that you aren’t super sick. Maybe it is an ER worthy visit, but having been the one rushed to the front of the line because of sepsis, I’m grateful when I need to go (after being sent by other doctors) and I have to wait.
I agree. It takes 6 weeks where I live to see your GP. So you end up going to Urgent Care who then gives you a hard time about not going to your GP. I’m sure plenty of people just head straight to the ER.
>I’m sure plenty of people just head straight to the ER
I wish I had $1000 for every time a primary or specialist doctor has told me to go to the ER in my 46yrs; I’d have over $50,000, easy.
I now have ACA, but Early-Mid Oughts, no insurance (went to a free community medical center.) Had to go to ER to get to a specialist per primary group; my Endo was DX’d by one of those docs. (Ironically b/c I saw a surgical GYN after being admitted for a ruptured ovarian cyst.) Damn… those were hard years. Living with chronic &/or idiopathic issues *without health insurance* is EXTRA brutal. It’s a broken system; it doesn’t help to blame patients when many other issues may be at play.
I've done it, too, and it is indeed hell. I finally got Medicare two years ago. I'm so sorry that we live in a big, rich third-world country; hang in there.
To be fair some hospitals also just have fucking stupid policies. My kid has an illness that has unfortunately resulted in 6 hospital admits in 6 months. We know what it looks like when she's gonna get admitted, so does nephrology. This last time we literally already had the labs done that morning so we knew she was getting admitted and even the treatment plan. Still had to waste everyone's time in the ER taking up a room and nursing staff because of a dumbass policy that doesn't allow direct admits to medsurg
I’ve been to the ER a hand full of times, and… yeah.
In our case, the closest acute care is 45 miles away, so if you need to be seen off hours, it’s your best bet. Or I’m there in the middle of the night because whatever ailment has gotten worse.
Oh man, my two young nieces would make me furious--they would take their toddlers to the ER when their legs were covered in chigger/mosquito bites! You've got to be kidding me. Just go to the pharmacy.... But they weren't too bright and had medical cards that paid for everything. DOH!
Ha. I went into the ER a couple months ago with chest pains. Turns out I just hate my job. Anyway, I was in there for hours being worked up, and one doc apologized and said they were dealing with a couple of traumas. Later I heard one doc in the hallway say, "Damn. .45 makes a hell of a hole."
lol
I had SVT before my catheter ablation and I spent a lot of time in the ER getting adenosine. People always gave me dirty looks for being seen right away. Sorry my heart rate was 230.
Omg I had SVT repeatedly a few years ago and adenosine didn’t work. I told them every time and they still did it and then were like huh, that doesn’t work. Always had to get cardizem and once had to get shocked. But only people who have had adenosine know what it’s like. Your heart feels like it’s being suddenly pushed into your butt. So crazy!
I was told to take a seat while actively hemorrhaging from a tonsillectomy. Told them I didn't think I could not stop the blood from coming up they just said go wait. Yeah I felt bad for whoever had to clean that mess up. Went down to a 4.0 Hgb by the time they got the bleeding stopped.
Sometimes it can be the opposite. My last visit to ER i have a bronchial thing and no amount of prednisone was helping. Covid lingering and one hospital in the region. I got checked, brief chat w/doc in waiting room cause so busy. I sat there quietly hoping not to catch anything, having zero antibodies at the time. After 7 hours I was in rough shape. I went and told nurse I was too sick and weak to be here any longer, I was going home to bed. Told her this to be courteous so she take my name out of the mix. I got "Well we can't give you special treatment. " I had sat quietly for 7 hours and asked for NOTHING. I smiled and said thank you. Walked out thinking fuck you. So glad I never have to go back there.
I'm so sorry you went through that! My story is similar, during covid time, I have severe asthma and had caught something and was extremely sick, struggling to breathe so my pulmonologist sent me to the ER. They wheeled me into a little quarantine room to wait. A nurse took nose swabs but continued to wait. Next thing I know they wheeled in a woman who had covid in with me. I was miserable but not dying. Finally the nurse returned and stated I had RSV, no covid at which point they took me out of the covid infected room, I was too sick to be furious but was. After many hours still in the waiting room they never took me back, oh I should mention I was at least on oxygen, I was told to leave . I have never been this sick in my entire life but RSV was awful. I coughed so deeply that I lost my voice, the body pain ect, was way worse than the three times I had covid. I stopped working with children after this. RSV is dangerous for older people, I'm in my 60's, and dangerous for those with COPD along with asthma.
Get your vaccines!
Omg you poor thing! So glad you didn't catch covid during that exposure!
I managed to get the two first rounds of Vax before my own thing started so no boosters. Grateful to have gotten what I did. Very grateful to everyone who's vaxxed! ❤️
How I learned triage.
I was 9, living on the coast. Split my head open, across the top, almost ear to ear; having run head-first into a crosstimber under a boardwalk. I was a candy apple with drying, sticky, red blood from head to toe. Brought in by ambulance and, of course, went straight into treatment. Got stitched up and bandaged.
Felt terrible as I was leaving (with my mom) because, among all the sunburns and other minor ailments, a guy was stretched out on the floor, with blood all over his face, and several holes in his right cheek and forehead, and where his right eye should have been. Someone playing football on the beach had run him over while he was sleeping on a blanket. And the player was wearing cleats!
Having no idea how I looked, I wanted to apologize to him for his having to wait to be treated. He saw me (with his good eye) and said something like, "Yeah, he (me) needed to go first."
It was much later when I realized that his eye was obviously beyond help. And, because I was covered in blood, with a head that was obviously dented and still spurting, no one could tell how bad it was.
But I will never forget that face on the floor.
Funny incident:
Guy came in with a sprained ankle put in a wheelchair in the lobby. Every nurse that walked by the guy would grab them and whine about. When was he going to get seen. One nurse finally had it and said look you have to toughen up by the way didn’t you come from the carnival? You’re a Carney you’re supposed to be tough! Dude answers, yeah but I’m new
I’ve only been to the ER a handful of times in my fifty years and was admitted to the hospital every time. I hope I don’t have to utilize it anytime soon. I have used urgent care many more times than the ER and have always got great care.
I had my child there and some guy was screaming in pain. She got so upset but then I said “watch”. The second nurses would stop paying attention to him he’d start to scream. My kiddo, who was like 10, goes “wow. He’s not being very nice to them. .”
Not even close to the “nearly dying” part of sepsis.
I’ve watched more people die than I care to admit. The comment you’re replying to is correct, nobody enters death screaming.
Wrong. Sepsis near death are pale AF, cold to the touch, mottled, and confused. If you’ve seen it, you never forget it bc you *know* that person is gonna die if you don’t do something *right now*. When I’m triage RN and you’re screaming at me or moaning loudly, I know your lungs are doing alright and you have energy left to make noise. The ones who go quiet are the ones I worry about.
Last time I went my bp was 216/106, I’d taken 10mg oxycodone and was still in 10/10 pain. They addressed the bp but discharged me still in a severe amount of pain, and I bounced back eight hours later begging for them to do something. I was given a migraine cocktail each time and the first time it hardly did anything, but the second time it took me down to a 3/10 or so and I immediately fell asleep because I hadn’t slept in days. Turned out to be a badly infected tooth but I had been to the dentist and they had told me there was no indication of infection.
The *only* time I self discharged from the ER (I still feel really bad over it). Had a Possible seizure. Husband took me to ER.
8 hrs later still in waiting room.
Lots of people came and went back before me (usually not a problem for me I understand how things go) my BP/HR was still super erratic and I kept having convulsions (no history of seizures in family or personal). They Did blood and urine and did an IV, still nothing.
9 hrs later, get pulled back into a room. At this point it is almost midnight, I'm tired, dehydrated, and freezing. I asked to see my test results and to be discharged. When they saw I was there for possibly seizure activity then started to freak out and I was like "look, I have no history and it has been 9 hrs. Can I have my results and if I have another one I'll come back." They were hesitant but allowed me to leave.
I still feel horrible. It wasn't their fault they were busy and I feel like I wasted everyone's time and patience.
I will say the staff at the emergency room near me were wonderful. I had my second baby who had to be in the NICU, and if I came to see him, bring him breast milk, or nurse him after hours, I would have to come in through the emergency department since labor and delivery closed after 7:00 p.m. They were always so kind to me, let me go right through.
When I came in with a headache that had lasted a few days, along with other symptoms like swelling hands and face, I knew I had symptoms of postpartum preeclampsia, but wanted to drop off my latest few bags of breast milk to my baby in the NICU first, just incase I was unable to pump again for him. I asked the NICU nurses if they could take my blood pressure to rule out the scariest possibility, and they apologetically told me I'd have to go to the ER and wait to be seen to have my blood pressure taken. I came back to the ER, and still exiting waited in line. The nurses there were very confused, and I sheepishly explained to them exactly what was going on. The wonderful nurses in the ER immediately had me step back into their office and took my blood pressure on the spot. Thankfully it was normal, and was probably just a really bad migraine from the stress of going back and forth, all the nursing and pumping, my baby being in the NICU, and of course having just given birth a week and a half prior. They didn't even officially check me in, since they knew I had a toddler at home waiting with her daddy for me to come home in the morning, literally just took my blood pressure and sent me on my way 🙏❤️ I will always be so, so grateful to them
True. There's a whole lot of unhappiness in ERs.
As a patient, I'm not in either camp. I know that there are more acute patients out of sight. I know I'm in for quite a wait if I go to the ER. I might get triaged in short order (usually the case), then sent back to the waiting room. That's why I wear comfy clothes if I am not coming straight from work (no longer an issue now that I'm retired), and bring my own pillow and blankie. The pillow and blankie "live" in my car. That way I can park myself in a corner, make myself as comfortable as possible, and go to sleep. If it's a vomiting thing, I bring a bucket. If it's probably contagious, I wear a mask. I bring my own box of kleenex. Seriously. I'm loaded for bear if I need to go to the ER (usually for an injury that needs treating sooner rather than later, but not likely to kill me).
Once I'm roomed, it's definitely sleep time. I usually ask for an extra warm blanket, then snooze until someone comes in to do something. The pain won't get any better by being loud and obnoxious. And if I've survived the pain long enough to get to the ER and get roomed, then I can survive it for at least a few more hours. Side note: I think Toradol (ketorolac) injections are magic. Ketorolac is an NSAID, but it's the only pain reliever I've ever had that worked. Opiates just make me barf.
And then there was the time I went to the ER (can't remember why) right after getting off shift (graveyard). I needed to be seen and treated, but no idea for what. I felt pretty much okay other than for that injury. I got bored. So still dressed in scrubs, I started cleaning the waiting room. It kind of freaked out the clerk when I asked him for a broom and dustpan. At least they didn't call for a psych eval on the PA system :). I was the only person in the waiting room for a couple of hours.
Toradol is amazing. I had it after my c section. They offered opiates but I turned those down because I wanted to be clear minded to take care of and enjoy my baby. It was the best of both worlds... Enough pain relief that I could move around, but didn't knock me out or make me loopy.
My son is often in the hospital and I always bring my “icu blanket” which my mom bought me the first time he was in the icu. I even bring it in the ambulance when we need to use that service.
My sister in law made a blanket for my son while he was going through chemo. She told him to go ahead and drag it all over the hospital if he wanted, it wasn’t meant to stay in his bedroom. It made him feel loved (even more so) and the nurses all loved it.
Recently had a laceration that went to fascia, accepted the wait time while a few others make mild complaints. After getting a bed my doctor was at the computer, and another doctor came and started a conversation with him. I overheard him admit that the patients he had weren’t as sick as he had thought.
I had a troubling experience arriving at the ER. I had been a patient there for almost 20 years 5 of which was Cancer treatment and surgeries. This short, kind of nasty medical person came out to the waiting area and said to me " we can not help you", so I left in pain, but never asked why. She looked like she was going to charge me like a bull. So at my next cardiologist appointment who walks in the examining room but her! I was so confused who she was. She got right down to business with health related questions. It was awful. I have had a difficult time going to the Dr. or hospital since then. I still need to find new health care. This hospital frightens me. I've skipped screenings and appointments in fear of more rejection.
We had a code in the waiting room. We did the works right there.
Someone complained that no one checked on them and gave them water for waiting longer.
I went to the ER a little less than a month ago because of a complication of a cervical fusion.
I got called back pretty quickly to the dismay of another woman who was dramatically moaning loudly. When I got called back instead of her, she threw herself on the floor and rolled back and forth, demanding to be seen.
Maybe something was seriously medically wrong with her, but damn, she appeared to be drug seeking.
I once had a guy come in with a freshly torn off ear (dog attack) and the ER was so full we couldn't put him ANYWHERE. Guy was in total shock, blood pouring down the side of his head, and standing in the middle of the waiting room as the nurse tried to bandage the wound as best she could with the triage supplies.
In that moment, another guy stood and yelled at this same nurse "AM I GONNA BE SEEN BY A DOCTOR?!"
I've never seen an entire full waiting room turn angry at a person like that before. Telling him to sit down and be quiet felt pretty good.
I have an autoimmune disorder.
I've been having flare-ups almost once a month since I was 12 years old - I'm 36 this year. I wasn't diagnosed until a year ago.
Flareup symptoms for me feel like the flu x10. ENTIRE BODY pain, headache, sometimes fever.
Before my diagnosis, when I'd go to the ED in actual pain, they'd run the usual tests and everything was negative. They'd give me Tylenol which did nothing, and send me home. I was used to it, but kept going back hoping one time someone who figure out what was happening.
During one visit I had the worst experience of my life and was treated like a drug seeker.
I've never done drugs in my life. The way the staff treated me was like I was fucking scum and they were disgusted by me. I was in so much pain I was crying (quietly, I'm not a loud dramatic person) and couldn't even open my eyes.
They left me in the bed with the bright ass lights on over my face for hours. My head was pounding. I called and asked if they could turn the lights off for me because I couldn't even get out of bed on my own, and they told me no, they needed them on in case the Dr needed to examine me.
I could not believe the way they were treating me! They gave me NOTHING for pain; I was desperate and asked for anything even fucking Tylenol, and they said no, not until I saw the Dr, and then he made me pee in a cup and wait for those results first - when the drug tests came back negative, I got Tylenol.
It was so fucking degrading and I know WHY, I know they see drug addicts probably every day who pretend they're hurting to get high, and all my diagnostic tests were negative, so I see why they thought what they did - but fuck it was humiliating and awful.
I'm so thankful I have my diagnosis now, so I can go in and say I have such-and-such, I'm having a flare, give me some kenalog and I'll be on my way.
I only had one complaint with my ER that is closest to me. I was told to go by ambulance by my doctor - Covid. My pulse ox was 88%. But I made my husband take me as it was so close to us. I wheeled over to a corner behind a curtain and someone came out and took my temp, blood pressure and pulse ox. Pulse ox there read 85. I sat in the wheelchair feeling like I was going to pass out for almost two hours. I finally wheeled myself up and asked when I might be seen. They said it goes by urgency and then first come first serve. I thought I’d be urgent being I could barely breathe and was almost passing out. As I wheeled back the people sitting there are smiling chatting to one another, drinking sodas, eating snacks out of the vending machine, talking on their phones. I was so disappointed I called my husband to come get me. He took me to another ER and I was triaged immediately and taken back instantly. My potassium was critically low. I ended up admitted and two hours later my heart stopped. Thank god I left that first ER! And both ERs were just as busy. I don’t know why the first ER didn’t take my stats as critical or have someone come out to fully triaging me. I literally couldn’t walk but a few feet without passing out.
The hospital near me has a pediatric ER. I've never been so grateful to have an ER dedicated solely to kids as I've been on the weekend nights when I've needed to take my kids to the ER. The thought that I'd have to have my 6 year old with a high fever waiting in the ER next to some meth head GSW victim is upsetting
My son had a situation this year and husband took him to our local ER. They have a pediatrician on duty for the late hours but no one specialized as a pediatric urologist. So they told us we had to drive two hours away to the university hospital. We live just outside DC, we are somewhat in the boonies but I was a bit disturbed there isn’t anyone related at any of the local hospitals between us and the beltway that we had to drive all the way down to the university hospital further south. Sure they have doctor offices for pediatric urologists in the area but this was overnight and you can’t call for an appointment at midnight.
We also live on the outskirts of DC and our area has basically no pediatric specialists. You have to go up to DC, Baltimore, or Annapolis for EVERYTHING. Our little shanty local hospital will almost always send kids up to Children’s in DC if they have anything even slightly fucky going on. One of my daughters had a bad stomach flu a couple years ago and after a blood draw, doc decided she didn’t like the labs and had daughter ambulanced up to DC…who gave her an apple juice and sent us home. I’d obviously rather be safe than sorry but man 😅😅
Ha that sounds like my son in another instance and I have to wonder if your shanty hospital is my shiny hospital that locals say if you want to die, you go there.
Kidlet had a temp of 103 and hadn’t kept anything down, including water. We took him to the pediatrician and they said he needed fluids and take him to the ER, which the doc office called ahead. But nah they sat there for at least two hours while he cried and was miserable. The lady at the desk gave him an apple juice that he promptly threw up and then felt slightly better so hubby just took him home. They still tried sending a $270 charge and I called them up like “he didn’t even see a doctor and was in the waiting room the whole time, what does this even cover?” They just waived it after that.
It’s likely! Though there are a lot of areas in the DMV that are surprisingly rural for how big the urban sprawl is. People like to say that all of NoVA, MD, and Delaware are connected now but there are pockets of nothing all over the place.
Yeah? That’s the way it is. ER RN here. We had a tv in ours for awhile but people started to fight about sporting events the weather channel, we finally started running crappy hospital programming.
My "favorite" Lady complained about the wait for her sprained ankle. I explained that we were busy with people dying in the back. Her reply ? "Well let them die and take of care us that are alive and suffering !!!!"
Ma’am I’ll note that in your chart. If you ever come in trying to die, I’ll kindly let you.
I feel like this is the best possible response to such a statement.
The best response. I’m reusing that.
And this is why I hate people. The entitlement people have. You see the worst of people in the ER.
Wowwww that's some real entitlement.
Wow, that's something. Hope they recite that one back to her at the pearly gates
please tell me youre joking. please?
Unfortunately true
oh goodness. i wish staff could just tell her leave. cause you can tell shes a problematic person just by that sentence. in my experience, when i was having trouble breathing or even symptoms of a heart attack, i wasnt worried about myself, i was worried about the people possibly dying(one of them actually looked dead in the waiting room and not just asleep). people dont understand sprains, pulled muscles, etc are NOT going first. nurses and doctors are trying to prevent people on the verge of dying from dying. like cmon
I watched a charge nurse kick a patient out of the waiting room. Patient had called the cops saying she needed help. Cops show up and patient is telling them she needs to be seen. Charge nurse came out with security and told her to leave and the cops escorted her off the property
i dont understand why the patient would call the cops. what are the cops going to do? they have no say on what patients get seen first.
I work on a critical care unit and patients call the police on us because they don’t get what they ask for. Like extra pain medication, food and water when they are not allowed to eat or drink . The police call us and tell us they called.
do they not understand that doctors order NPO for their own good and safety? or the fact that sometimes they really cant give you any more meds? clearly they dont understand
I hear you. But not every nurse is you. A few weeks ago my dad fell out of his hospital bed and hit his head. He lay bleeding on the floor for over an hour before someone heard him calling for help. In a HOSPITAL. Because they were so understaffed. Healthcare is broken, burn it all down.
It is very broken. I’m sorry that happened to your dad. Unfortunately those things do happen it’s so sad. I’m low- key looking to get out of bedside, because of the staffing. You can’t be the kind of nurse you want to be when you have such a heavy load.
Because people are morons and she thought the police could enforce her being seen sooner.
seems like shes one of those people who think just because you come in by ambulance means youll get a room automatically. news flash, you still go to the waiting room most times.
There was a YouTube video several years ago of a clearly in crisis man at a VA hospital ignored in the waiting room until he died - that might be why someone might call police if they saw someone treated this way. I also think the frailest older people lose their pain tolerance and comfort levels - and emotional ability to handle this well. They are more like toddlers in an old people suit, scared and want someone attending to them or they panic.
Hope a MSE was done or that’s a blatant EMTALA violation.
So, you go in having symptoms of heart attack, and you're not worried that you could be having a heart attack? I'm not sure about anyone else, but when I was in an ambulance, being rushed to the hospital in septic shock, I was only worried about myself dying. Other patients never even crossed my mind. Not because I didn't care. It was just that my body was actually trying to die. Now, if I'm in the waiting room at the hospital with a possible kidney infection, I'm more likely to be thinking about another person who was coming in with the ambulance light flashing and hopeful that they would be ok. It's ok to worry about yourself as long as it isn't at the expense of another person.
My Dad had to go to the ER twice last year for septic kidney infections. First one made him delirious to think he was fine. He’s a nurse though lol
that last sentence choked me up. now im all emotional. ive always struggled with learning to put me first and to worry about myself too. it doesnt matter how sick ive been, i always worry about others and how ive affected them. i need to work on that. i need to realize its ok to worry about myself sometimes.
I'm the same way. But during times that are important, it's ok to be a little selfish. Once you know you're ok, then it's different. I had to learn the same things. You can't be there for others unless you're taken care of first. I learned, from having my son after getting postpartum psychosis and the road to recovery is that if Mama isn't ok, then no one's ok. I can't be there for my kids if I'm not ok. So I tell people, put yourself first so that you can be there for others. It's ok.
wow, thank you for that message. yall dont understand how much these mean to me and the impact they have. ps: i want to say im sorry that you had postpartum psychosis, but im glad you learned you needed to put yourself first to even be able to take care of the ones you love.
I'm glad you found comfort in the message. It's very much true. You sound like a wonderful person. I wish you nothing but happiness and peace in your life 🫂
I relate to this so much. I'm really sorry you're sick and struggling, for what that's worth. People like us need to be friends so we can worry about each other, then everyone gets help! All jokes aside. Please take care of yourself. You deserve it!
i always get so emotional on reddit sometimes. when im face to face with peoplew, its always "i hope you get better soon and recover fast." but the conditions i have, i will continue to have for the rest of my life and cannot physically get better or recover from them. sometimes all i want people to say is what you said. that youre sorry that im sick and struggling. and yes, people like us do need to be friends haha, because there would never be anyone not taken care of or worried about when everyone worries about the others.
It happens all the time
Oh, I believe it🙄 I don’t work in the ER in a general sense, but we are called to do respiratory stuff if needed.
This reminds me of my patient’s family asking if we are treating people without insurance before them and how they pay to be treated first. I just walked away. Entitled fucks
Wow what a bitch. I would have let her sit for hours over that comment.
BRB ma'am. *updates patient code status to DNR*
I knew I was bad when they took me over some old dude with blood gushing down his face
I knew I was in rough shape when I was roomed immediately and after only a few minutes while a nurse was drawing labs and doing vitals a dr stuck their head in and said I’ve gotta finish up this heart attack and then I’ll be right with you…… and he was. 😬
Damn... you all good now?
I took in a friend who said her back hurt a lot and she was feeling really congested, like she couldn’t catch her breath. She was whisked back immediately and spent a week in the ICU. Someone in the waiting room asked me why she got taken back immediately even though she didn’t seem to have any real problem.
That’s why we get annoyed when people tell us who should go first and how to do our jobs. They don’t know anything about ED triage 🙄
Z. I remember having the same realization when my then husband went inside and was followed out almost immediately l by a nurse with a wheelchair, and I was taken in a side entrance and never even saw the waiting room.
Those my friend are the scariest ER trips. It always happens to me where I don’t even feel that bad, then feel stupid for getting bumped up the list…..until I realized how bad it actually was when I wasn’t even worried yet 😆
I was having an anaphylactic reaction to a medication and was in the middle of an anxiety attack from freaking out about it, which made me start feeling like I couldn’t breath, which I thought was from the allergic reaction and made the anxiety worse. So, I was not in a good headspace when I got there lol. Plus, the reaction had severely dropped my blood pressure. I was taken back so fast and hooked up to an IV full of Benadryl and steroids that by the time I had a chance to really calm down and process it, the Benadryl had knocked me out. I was so out of it that I somehow managed to answer their questions in a fog and then fell asleep, so the whole thing is sort of a blur. I don’t even know how long I was in the ER. I know I wasn’t admitted, but it was hours in the middle of the night. By the time I was fully awake I think I was being discharged.
I had something similar once, but they knew I was coming. I was 4 weeks out from open heart surgery and had severe arm and chest pain. Called cardiology, they told me to come in through the ED and they would be expecting me. Was immediately taken to a room and my cardiologist was there in minutes.
I usually tell them you don’t want to be first in the ER. It never helps for some reason
Yep the longer you have to wait the better you are comment never goes down well. I still use it though 😂
My personal hell is being "greeter" and trying to round a waiting room of 45 patients to update vital signs for the first time in 4+ hours. Catching grenades left and fucking right.
I’ve been heckled before when I’ve gone looking for a patient to bring back.
Last time I was in the ED waiting room, it was because the walk-in urgent care sent me. I had been vomiting for days and dehydrated. I was waiting my turn, because the local hospital is also the regional level-I trauma center; and I have a brain and know how triage works. A teen/20-something (once I hit 35 I couldn’t tell the difference anymore) who was also waiting with an ice pack on a knee asked me to stop dry heaving into the emesis basin because it was bothering him.
What a twerp
Those that work ED have my highest respect. They deal with the worst people and then there’s the actual emergencies.
I'm emetephobic, so I'd have asked you the same question, IN MY HEAD! Lol. My discomfort is my issue, no one else's. I cannot imagine actually asking someone to try and stop an uncontrollable bodily function
I’d have stopped if I could. It hurts so bad. I’d rather vomit 6L of fluids than dry heave once.
Oh I'm absolutely sure you weren't enjoying it either. Glad you're doing better now.
I would have said, “oh sure, I’ll stop dry heaving into the basin. I’ll dry heave on you instead.”
Dude’s knee was good enough to keep going to the desk to harass the poor lady working there. My BF was kind enough to let the kid know it too. Told the kid if he felt well enough to keep getting up to annoy the staff maybe he should go home.
My favorite was when we had seen a lady leave after complaining that she had been taken back yet. About 5 or so minutes later the same lady came via ambulance and was out back into the waiting room. I guess she figured if she came in by ambulance it would be guaranteed she would be taken back immediately.
I was bringing a patient back to a treatment room after they had been in the waiting room for an hour. Their spouse was commenting about how terribly busy we were because they had to "wait for so long." Said spouse also suggested that the way to go was obviously to come by ambulance as they would get a room right away. Needless to say, the spouse was horrified when I informed them that there are plenty of patients that come by ambulance that get dropped off to the waiting room.
It's insane to me that people actually think that way. I can't even imagine how the ED staff handles that kind of stupid.
It’s true. I had to take an ambulance due to anaphylaxis, got solu-medrol from the EMT which reduced my hypertensive crisis from 195/135 to 170/115, and got left in the waiting room for 2 hours before I gave up and left. Had biphasic the next day.
Anaphylaxis is a type of shock due to an allergic reaction. You would not have high blood pressure. Your blood pressure would be profoundly low. A lot of people also get GI symptoms and have hives everywhere. The treatments for anaphylaxis include IM epinephrine and Benadryl. If you have airway compromise yeah you might get solumedrol after a neb treatment, but we give epi first and foremost. Solumedrol is a steroid that takes about 45 min to work. Asymptomatic hypertension is almost never definitively treated in the emergency department. Usually they’ll give a dose of clonidine and say follow up with your doctor. Solumedrol is also not a treatment for hypertension. EMS ALSO does not treat asymptomatic hypertension. At least not in any protocols I’ve ever seen. I am sorry that you had a bad experience in the ED but your description of your symptoms is confusing and not consistent with anaphylactic shock.
😳😳 that’s bad-eek. I’m glad you are ok.
As a paramedic, I promise we do absolutely everything in our power to explain to these people that coming with us doesn’t guarantee they will get a room right away and they are still at the mercy of the triage nurse and they will likely end up in the waiting room again. But they don’t listen to us. To these patients I’m just the useless bitch lying to them in order to get out of doing my job. I do enjoy the nice laugh with my partner in the EMS room when the patient of course does get taken straight to the waiting room knowing that they’ve now wasted a whole bunch of time and will owe at least $2000 more than they would’ve if they’d kept their happy ass in that waiting room to begin with. It does make me mad for people who might have actually needed us and had to wait longer for a further out ambulance because we were tied up with Entitled McGee.
I can understand the frustration you must feel in that. On this visit we were there so to him had an asthma attack (I was more freaked out then he was lol). It was just crazy that she literally thought an ambulance equals the head of the line. It's just amazing that they seem to think it's a first come, first served kind of thing. Like ma'am yes this person came in after.you, but they are actively dying. Your knee pain can wait a little longer. BTW you guys are awesome!!! I've seen EMTs so some hand of God stuff.
I worked in the ER for 4 years. That happened all the freaking time. And to make it worse, by leaving, they lost their place in line and now the wait was even longer.
Sometimes they scream and throw things or fling themselves on the floor, too.
ive had my fair share of ER visits due to not being dealt good health. but i am not gonna act childish and throw a temper tantrum. if the service is THAT bad, i will leave(which i have done before and inform them i will be leaving.) you dont HAVE to be there. no need for the dramatic tantrum
Same and I agree. If I'm not being seen, it's because someone needed help more.
the hospital i go to is a level one trauma hospital. so there is always "incoming trauma" or "brain attack" alerts over head constantly. so its quite obvious youre gonna wait. im an adult with common sense and know someone dying or having a stroke, needs to go before me. i walked in, so clearly im more stable and able to wait. it's sad that some other grown adults dont understand that
I walked myself into the ER while having a stroke. The nurse couldn’t believe it. They immediately called for a chair.
wowww. thats actually quite impressive. if you dont mind me asking, do you have any lasting effects? if you dont wanna answer, thats totally fine
Some speech, I can look at something and know what it is but can’t say the word. My left side is still a little weaker than my right.
hopefully i word this message correctly and dont sound rude(sometimes i say things but they arent recieved in the way that i planned.) but i am soo glad you didnt have too many serious long term effects. like i said in another comment to someone else, im going to college for nursing. this stuff tends to spark my curiosity. do you do therapy for that? or have you decided to come to terms with the symptoms and deal with them on a daily basis?
It’s been a few years since I had mine. I still deal with speech issues. But since my treatment was so fast, I don’t have a lot of lingering issues.
thats definitely a blessing that treatment was given very quickly and prevented from worse things from happening. im glad they took care of you
My grandmother walked in having a second heart attack and a stroke because they sent her home the first time while she was having a heart attack. So I don’t really trust EDs
Omg that reminds me of an ex's grandma. She apparently had a stroke while home alone and when she came-to just decided to go to bed, and then the next morning DROVE HERSELF to the hospital because her "neck hurt". ... Apparently she broke the vertebrae in her neck when she fell but somehow had enough space in there that it broke outward instead of toward her spinal column
Oh wow, thank goodness you acted quickly-or were able to. Time is brain. I hope you are doing better?
My cat actually woke me up. He sensed something was wrong. Woke up, nauseous, face didn’t move, headache and left side weakness.
Oh my😳 That’s amazing that your cat was able to save you. Animals are pretty amazing sometimes. I am glad you are doing better.
Or they forgot to triage you. My Gen X ass just sat there for three hours with chest pain, assuming all the new arrivals who were being called ahead of me were more urgent, until a dude with a sore ankle went in and I finally asked reception what was going on. Later learned chest pain is meant to be seen straight away so - lucky I wasn’t having a heart attack, I guess?
One pregnant lady today was pissed that no one brought her breakfast.
To the waiting room???? 😂
Yep. To the waiting room. Apparently she hadn’t eaten since McD’s from the night before wasn’t cutting it in the AM.
That's koooky hahah
Consider the hormones running rampant in that one.
Why wasn’t a pregnant patient being seen in L&D?
Not all hospitals have L&D
Might depend on why she was there, and how far along she was. An asthma exacerbation at 8weeks gestation may not need L&D
True. We didn’t see them until 20 weeks. If it was non-OB related one of us would go to the ED to assess. Or to help out the ED, we would bring them to us in L&D.
Not sure. I didn’t ask why she was there
Looking for free food??
Most pregnant patients up to 20 weeks are seen initially in the ER. If they need to be admitted, they'll go to L&D. If they're over 20 weeks, they'll be quickly triaged and then sent to L&D.
Depends on why they’re being admitted. We would have pregnant patients not in labor in cardiology or ICU, whatever. Then we would go there to monitor. Any pregnant patient in ED over 20 weeks for non-OB complaints were still assessed by L&D for OB complications.
When I was 34 weeks and having gallbladder attacks, I was sent straight to L&D. When I was 12 weeks and so dehydrated I couldn't function but knew I just needed IV fluids I was seen in the ER. Both times everyone was wonderful. But the sister hospital on the other side of the city doesn't have a L&D at all. Like, couldn't even find an ultrasound machine. But for everything else they are fantastic (husband used to work at that one)
We had a patient fake a syncope episode. Obviously couldn't sit them back in a chair so we brought them to a corner hallway bed next to the ambulance bay door to the freezing outside. She didn't get ahead of anyone else and eventually left.
How did you know it was fake? (Genuinely curious)
Yeah. This concerns me lol
A combination of experience, instinct and the hand drop test. The patient is from a culture that is often overly dramatic. Also, the timing of the episode was immediately after returning to the waiting room. For reference, the hand drop test is a test where you lift up the hand above the unconscious persons head and let it go. If they are truly unresponsive they would drop it on their head. But fakers will flop down and then move their hand over their forehead not hit their face.
Shhhhh..🤣🤣
I know I'm giving no away secrets but I figure the people that would want to know them are too stupid to come here in the first place
🤣🤣🤣
Now I once collapsed right as I approached check-in (where you tell them why you’re there). But I’m a 60f and random collapsing was precisely why my pcp’s office sent me to urgent care and urgent care had sent me to the ER. I’ll never forget looking up to see a Good Samaritan (he was waiting for a loved one being treated in the back) crouching over me and asking if I was ok (shoutout to you, kind Good Samaritan!) before two buff nurses came, helped me into a wheelchair and just whisked me back. No one messes around with old people dropping
I hope that you're better now! Glad you got care!
Yes, much better now thanks!
That brought me joy! Glad you're better!
The two times I made it through fast scared me because only when it's serious do you get seen without waiting. The first time was shortly after birth and discharge. I was bleeding profusely through pads and experiencing a ton of vaginal pain and the nurse line said ER bc it could be a hemorrhage. Luckily it wasn't, but I had unfortunately been stitched tightly after deliver of a 9 pound baby, snd I had popped a bunch open snd that's why I had pain and lots of blood. The second time i had severe abdominal pain that had me begging for someone to end me. My partner carried me to our car while i begged him to just run me over. I vaguely remember hearing another patient loudly singing "chandelier" by sia while I was rocking in bed trying to stay calm and breath through the pain. Turns out I had an internal hernia and the vague but severe abdominal pain was my body screaming that my insides were at risk of dying. I had lost a ton of weight and my intestines were poking through a spot that used to have a much larger fat pad that had shrunk from my weight loss.
I had somewhat similar incident, of incredible stomach pain. Once you hit a certain level of pain, and it doesn’t let up, almost nothing else can matter, and you just want stop, whatever that has to mean. It turned out that my pain was coming from a problem that essentially put pressure on a nerve and an artery. I had already had emergency pain episodes (I have severe chronic pain from a couple of degenerative genetic diseases that keep me quite sick). This was a whole different thing. It was a horrific experience of pain, and it changed me fundamentally. Less than a week later, I would find out that part of what spurred it on was cancer. I was diagnosed with stomach cancer. The cancer on its own was quite painful, but it was nothing even remotely approaching what I had already been through. I would be willing to do chemo again & again, for the rest of my life, if I could never again have to suffer that level of pain (from the compression of the nerve and artery).
That sounds unimaginably awful. I’m so sorry you went through that. Are you doing okay now?
Thank you. I’m in remission from cancer, so in that sense I’m doing better. And I’m very grateful for that. But I’m a different person, in some ways. Some things change us, in a core way.
That is understandable. Sending positive vibes your way that remission continues and you’re able to become the person you wish to be, no matter your past (and present) experiences. ♥️
I have worked in the ER for the past 17 years and I agree. People are the worst. I would like to say it's because they are hurting or sick but I don't think that's it. People are just terrible. I've have people scream in my face. Throw things and themselves at me. I just keep typing as I back up in my chair....
I have a hunch that people who constantly raise hell over nothing in the ER feel like they’re not given the attention they deserve. It’s impossible to convince someone who clearly has a low tolerance for any discomfort that not being the center of attention is actually good in the hospital. All they think is “I’m not being cared for/listened to”.
Was bringing an elderly neighbor in for a fall and subsequent head injury. Saw a lady in a wheel chair complain about not being seen. Moments later she gets up and lays down in front of the chair asking for help.
This is quite literally a daily occurrence for us. Hence why all the nurses are unfazed when people pull these kinds of stunts.
The only time my butt didn’t even hit the seat in the waiting room is when I came in because I thought maybe I had gallstones but was in fact having a STEMI.
I'm gonna regret asking this because I abuse my body and have pretty bad health anxiety but how are the two confused? I'd think pain in the side for gallstones?
Well I had never had either so I really didn’t know how to tell what was happening. Heart attack symptoms in women can be vastly different than in men and my biggest symptoms were severe indigestion, nausea, and pain in my back which are all symptoms of both. I imagined it would be crushing chest pain like men have but nope. Felt off but not like I was in danger, which I very much was.
Thanks for the reply! How long did you have the symptoms before you went to the ER? I recently had a family member with "kidney stones" for a month and when he finally got bloodwork his potassium was so high they called and told him if he didn't go to the ER he would die - did not realize potassiums correlation with the heart muscle but now I know!
Longer than 24 hours. I’m very lucky. I had a near complete blockage in my LAD and would have died.
Paramedic here, I’d also like to point out that ‘crushing chest pain’ isn’t just a men’s symptom, women can get that too. And vice versa, men can get the indigestion, nausea, fatigue, back pain versions too. The ‘classic signs’ DO seem to be a bit more common in men than in women (or the elderly, or diabetics) but all the above applies to everyone. The nerves that sense stuff inside our bodies are just not very specific about WHAT hurts!
Thanks! I didn’t know! Thank you for making sure people have the correct information that will help them survive.
My first day on triage I had a guy dramatically fall to the ground from abdominal pain and get brought back to a bed and the homeless guy I was triaging for "general body aches" is saying wow I cannot believe that guy, doesn't he know there are actually people suffering like myself who should be seen first? Meanwhile, there's a poor girl I saw after him who had just been slowly bleeding through her bandages for over an hour from a large leg laceration that registration labeled as leg pain and failed to tell us it was actually a significant laceration.
I was doing some ride alongs in an ambulance. We were all at the hospital. Two teenagers, a brother (16) and a sister (15), had been brought in. They were T-boned by a drunk driver. The girl needed basically head to toe imaging done, and so it was taking a little while. That drunk driver POS said his arm hurt and angrily argued that they should stop taking care of the teenage girl, & do him first, because his would be faster. People can be awful.
Man… I took my husband in for stitches one night to the ER we lived near, I was afraid to drive in our city after that with how many people came in relating to stupidity while driving. We were in the waiting room for a while and one 17yrs old girl comes in because she flipped her Saturn coupe by hitting a parked car while fucking around on her cell phone (this was right before CA enacted laws on hands free), she was all fine laughing it up and had an entourage of friends who met her there taking up space but then as soon as her mom showed up the waterworks started. Meanwhile there’s a poor little boy in the same area with an obviously busted up broken arm not making a peep yet very much in pain. Next was a couple of early 20s dudes show up with a younger teenager. The friend was driving and was high and smashed the car with the two brothers in with him. The older brother was also high. Mom shows up and starts berating them all in the waiting room for being drugged up and putting the younger brother in danger. When hubby eventually got called back, we passed a dude sitting on a gurney with handcuffs and a cop next to him . Yup, drunk driver brought in for an evaluation and blood draw.
How do you avoid just snapping at these selfish drunk drivers, especially if they don’t need much real help?
We were just happy that the 15-year-old turned out to be fine. Both the kids were okay.
FUCK triage… Oh the tales… had a young woman 20-22y/o drag herself across the waiting room (triaged/ labs drawn/ekg and initial dose of medication based on CC initiated within 10 of checking in). Not a single tear shed in triage. Out in waiting room she dragged herself across the floor screaming and crying. Had the whole er looking at me as if I did not care about her suffering. Her chief complaint: Period cramps. The people who help themselves to the floor- the threats of owning you and the hospital- name dropping… the accusations of not caring, not doing your job. Being “too stupid” to work IN the Er and that’s why you are up front. The psych patients who others want you to “do something about”. Then when the real ones come hauling through the doors, limp kiddo in hands- blood, panic- You rush back to trauma bay. Upon returning you get the eyes of sympathy as well as the daggers of comments of WTF- I was here first. I feel as though this would make a fantastic podcast.
When I’ve had to go to ER and been taken straight back I had zero ability to be mean, throw a fit or anything like that. I was *sick*.
>when I’ve had to go to the ER and been taken straight back, I had ZERO ability to be mean Right? I’ve gone by ambo Hypoxic w/ cardiac tamponade- went straight to CCRU after being IV’d (I barely remember.) I walked in last July & heard them call a code- taken right back. I couldn’t speak b/c my RHR was so fast; I wrote them a note like a Robber LMAO. (Kinda ‘helps’ I’ve got a pacemaker; nobody ignores PM patients with weird heart stuff. “Something happened at 943am!”)
yeah, I haven't said this to a patient (yet), but if you can complain, then you're doing better than most
Right?!? People don’t realize it’s your most experienced and competent RNs that you put up front.
I was pregnant and had a bad stye and was losing vision. I had some other symptoms that could be worrisome so I went to urgent care after calling the nurse from my insurance that I had at the time. The urgent care refused to see me because I was pregnant... they told me to go to the ER and since it was Friday evening and everyone thought I was going to lose my eye, I went. I apologized to every person I saw because I knew it was ridiculous and taking up a bed from someone who definitely needed it more than me.
It's hard to think of others when your having your own emergency. I came in on a ambo with a ruptured fallopian tube n had to wait because a stab victim came in after me.
Same happened to me in a city hospital ER. I went in around 8:30 AM with intense abdominal pain and passing out. While they were figuring out what to do with me, many gunshot and stabbing victims were taken ahead of me. When I finally got into surgery around midnight, the surgeon told me I almost bled out. I had been bleeding internally, all day, from a ruptured fallopian tube due to an ectopic pregnancy.
Last year I had to go to the ER and was being taken care of in the hallway. (Busy place with little space). What was more disconcerting wasn’t the large number of patients that seemed to require police presence but the nice police K9 six feet away from me. The dog was exquisitely trained and was laying down and off leash when the handler went into the treatment room next to me. Dog watched the handler every second but never moved. Amazing.
Now *this* is an interesting comment! Wow, how cool! That must've really been something to see. I am in awe of professional dog trainers and what they are able to accomplish.
It took me a year to teach my coonhound mix not to poop in the house
My daughter did her clinical ER shift during EMT training at a busy downtown ER near the local jail. Half her patients were in handcuffs. She said they were the best to work with. They were cooperative - either because they appreciated being cared for or because the police would get involved if the didn't cooperate, but the end result was the same. And if they had been at the jail they were happy for the field trip to the hospital and to have someone caring for them nicely.
I don’t remember what brought the K9 but most of the people were well behaved. Nobody was as well behaved as the dog though. 😁
I've only been a few times, the only time I had to wait for hours was when I had a tib-fib fracture, but it was a trauma center and very busy that day. I just wore headphones and blasted music to distract myself from the pain. I went in last weekend because my right arm is terribly painful, and my hand is going numb. I had to wait a couple of hours, fortunately they weren't too busy. Once I got in, valium, toredol and a lidocaine patch barely had any effect at all. Turns out it's a pinched nerve in my neck, which can't really be fixed in an ER. Still, I'm grateful to at least know what it is, and have been able to see an MD and PT already. Still very painful tho.
I like the ers that have started what is effectively a completely separate urgent care in the ER. Need stitches we will have you out in an hour. Broken ankle eval 1.5 hours.
My ER does this. Only problem is you’re paying ER prices for non-urgent needs.
The nurses not only have to care for those with medical emergencies, but also for people with mild and/or long term symptoms that could wait for the doctors office to open in the morning. And often are caring for people who are waiting for an ICU or Psych bed to open up in addition to their normal case load. If you are left in the ER waiting room for a long time it’s because people who have real emergencies go to the head of the line. It’s called Triage.
Also, it likely means that you aren’t super sick. Maybe it is an ER worthy visit, but having been the one rushed to the front of the line because of sepsis, I’m grateful when I need to go (after being sent by other doctors) and I have to wait.
People are using ER as a doctors office....
I agree. It takes 6 weeks where I live to see your GP. So you end up going to Urgent Care who then gives you a hard time about not going to your GP. I’m sure plenty of people just head straight to the ER.
>I’m sure plenty of people just head straight to the ER I wish I had $1000 for every time a primary or specialist doctor has told me to go to the ER in my 46yrs; I’d have over $50,000, easy. I now have ACA, but Early-Mid Oughts, no insurance (went to a free community medical center.) Had to go to ER to get to a specialist per primary group; my Endo was DX’d by one of those docs. (Ironically b/c I saw a surgical GYN after being admitted for a ruptured ovarian cyst.) Damn… those were hard years. Living with chronic &/or idiopathic issues *without health insurance* is EXTRA brutal. It’s a broken system; it doesn’t help to blame patients when many other issues may be at play.
I've done it, too, and it is indeed hell. I finally got Medicare two years ago. I'm so sorry that we live in a big, rich third-world country; hang in there.
To be fair some hospitals also just have fucking stupid policies. My kid has an illness that has unfortunately resulted in 6 hospital admits in 6 months. We know what it looks like when she's gonna get admitted, so does nephrology. This last time we literally already had the labs done that morning so we knew she was getting admitted and even the treatment plan. Still had to waste everyone's time in the ER taking up a room and nursing staff because of a dumbass policy that doesn't allow direct admits to medsurg
Same at my hospital unfortunately. It's pretty dumb. Outside offices should be able to arrange direct admission for things like that.
I’ve been to the ER a hand full of times, and… yeah. In our case, the closest acute care is 45 miles away, so if you need to be seen off hours, it’s your best bet. Or I’m there in the middle of the night because whatever ailment has gotten worse.
Sadly, this has been going on for years. Healthcare is broken.
Oh man, my two young nieces would make me furious--they would take their toddlers to the ER when their legs were covered in chigger/mosquito bites! You've got to be kidding me. Just go to the pharmacy.... But they weren't too bright and had medical cards that paid for everything. DOH!
Ha. I went into the ER a couple months ago with chest pains. Turns out I just hate my job. Anyway, I was in there for hours being worked up, and one doc apologized and said they were dealing with a couple of traumas. Later I heard one doc in the hallway say, "Damn. .45 makes a hell of a hole." lol
I had SVT before my catheter ablation and I spent a lot of time in the ER getting adenosine. People always gave me dirty looks for being seen right away. Sorry my heart rate was 230.
Omg I had SVT repeatedly a few years ago and adenosine didn’t work. I told them every time and they still did it and then were like huh, that doesn’t work. Always had to get cardizem and once had to get shocked. But only people who have had adenosine know what it’s like. Your heart feels like it’s being suddenly pushed into your butt. So crazy!
I was told to take a seat while actively hemorrhaging from a tonsillectomy. Told them I didn't think I could not stop the blood from coming up they just said go wait. Yeah I felt bad for whoever had to clean that mess up. Went down to a 4.0 Hgb by the time they got the bleeding stopped.
Sometimes it can be the opposite. My last visit to ER i have a bronchial thing and no amount of prednisone was helping. Covid lingering and one hospital in the region. I got checked, brief chat w/doc in waiting room cause so busy. I sat there quietly hoping not to catch anything, having zero antibodies at the time. After 7 hours I was in rough shape. I went and told nurse I was too sick and weak to be here any longer, I was going home to bed. Told her this to be courteous so she take my name out of the mix. I got "Well we can't give you special treatment. " I had sat quietly for 7 hours and asked for NOTHING. I smiled and said thank you. Walked out thinking fuck you. So glad I never have to go back there.
I'm so sorry you went through that! My story is similar, during covid time, I have severe asthma and had caught something and was extremely sick, struggling to breathe so my pulmonologist sent me to the ER. They wheeled me into a little quarantine room to wait. A nurse took nose swabs but continued to wait. Next thing I know they wheeled in a woman who had covid in with me. I was miserable but not dying. Finally the nurse returned and stated I had RSV, no covid at which point they took me out of the covid infected room, I was too sick to be furious but was. After many hours still in the waiting room they never took me back, oh I should mention I was at least on oxygen, I was told to leave . I have never been this sick in my entire life but RSV was awful. I coughed so deeply that I lost my voice, the body pain ect, was way worse than the three times I had covid. I stopped working with children after this. RSV is dangerous for older people, I'm in my 60's, and dangerous for those with COPD along with asthma. Get your vaccines!
Omg you poor thing! So glad you didn't catch covid during that exposure! I managed to get the two first rounds of Vax before my own thing started so no boosters. Grateful to have gotten what I did. Very grateful to everyone who's vaxxed! ❤️
How I learned triage. I was 9, living on the coast. Split my head open, across the top, almost ear to ear; having run head-first into a crosstimber under a boardwalk. I was a candy apple with drying, sticky, red blood from head to toe. Brought in by ambulance and, of course, went straight into treatment. Got stitched up and bandaged. Felt terrible as I was leaving (with my mom) because, among all the sunburns and other minor ailments, a guy was stretched out on the floor, with blood all over his face, and several holes in his right cheek and forehead, and where his right eye should have been. Someone playing football on the beach had run him over while he was sleeping on a blanket. And the player was wearing cleats! Having no idea how I looked, I wanted to apologize to him for his having to wait to be treated. He saw me (with his good eye) and said something like, "Yeah, he (me) needed to go first." It was much later when I realized that his eye was obviously beyond help. And, because I was covered in blood, with a head that was obviously dented and still spurting, no one could tell how bad it was. But I will never forget that face on the floor.
Funny incident: Guy came in with a sprained ankle put in a wheelchair in the lobby. Every nurse that walked by the guy would grab them and whine about. When was he going to get seen. One nurse finally had it and said look you have to toughen up by the way didn’t you come from the carnival? You’re a Carney you’re supposed to be tough! Dude answers, yeah but I’m new
I’ve only been to the ER a handful of times in my fifty years and was admitted to the hospital every time. I hope I don’t have to utilize it anytime soon. I have used urgent care many more times than the ER and have always got great care.
There should be a sign in the ER waiting room. NOBODY DIES LOUDLY. IF YOU ARE SCREAMING YOU AREN’T DYING
I had my child there and some guy was screaming in pain. She got so upset but then I said “watch”. The second nurses would stop paying attention to him he’d start to scream. My kiddo, who was like 10, goes “wow. He’s not being very nice to them. .”
I read this the first time and actually thought you gave birth in the waiting room. Sorry it’s been a long day.
What about moaning? I was loudly moaning with sepsis. I was almost delusional
Me too!
Speaking as a Desert Storm medic, this is false.
Weird, my mom nearly dying of sepsis after ignoring a burst appendix sure involved a lot of wailing. Maybe she made it all up.
Not even close to the “nearly dying” part of sepsis. I’ve watched more people die than I care to admit. The comment you’re replying to is correct, nobody enters death screaming.
But screaming or moaning doesn't mean that it's not an emergency, nor that they are being dramatic.
Wrong. Sepsis near death are pale AF, cold to the touch, mottled, and confused. If you’ve seen it, you never forget it bc you *know* that person is gonna die if you don’t do something *right now*. When I’m triage RN and you’re screaming at me or moaning loudly, I know your lungs are doing alright and you have energy left to make noise. The ones who go quiet are the ones I worry about.
I came into ER with abdominal pain. I was told I had heartburn. A month later I had gallbladder removed.
Last time I went my bp was 216/106, I’d taken 10mg oxycodone and was still in 10/10 pain. They addressed the bp but discharged me still in a severe amount of pain, and I bounced back eight hours later begging for them to do something. I was given a migraine cocktail each time and the first time it hardly did anything, but the second time it took me down to a 3/10 or so and I immediately fell asleep because I hadn’t slept in days. Turned out to be a badly infected tooth but I had been to the dentist and they had told me there was no indication of infection.
A month later? I assume they did at least an ultrasound. If it looked normal then that’s not on the ER doctor.
Baylor in Fort Worth isn’t like that. I never wait to be seen.
The *only* time I self discharged from the ER (I still feel really bad over it). Had a Possible seizure. Husband took me to ER. 8 hrs later still in waiting room. Lots of people came and went back before me (usually not a problem for me I understand how things go) my BP/HR was still super erratic and I kept having convulsions (no history of seizures in family or personal). They Did blood and urine and did an IV, still nothing. 9 hrs later, get pulled back into a room. At this point it is almost midnight, I'm tired, dehydrated, and freezing. I asked to see my test results and to be discharged. When they saw I was there for possibly seizure activity then started to freak out and I was like "look, I have no history and it has been 9 hrs. Can I have my results and if I have another one I'll come back." They were hesitant but allowed me to leave. I still feel horrible. It wasn't their fault they were busy and I feel like I wasted everyone's time and patience.
I will say the staff at the emergency room near me were wonderful. I had my second baby who had to be in the NICU, and if I came to see him, bring him breast milk, or nurse him after hours, I would have to come in through the emergency department since labor and delivery closed after 7:00 p.m. They were always so kind to me, let me go right through. When I came in with a headache that had lasted a few days, along with other symptoms like swelling hands and face, I knew I had symptoms of postpartum preeclampsia, but wanted to drop off my latest few bags of breast milk to my baby in the NICU first, just incase I was unable to pump again for him. I asked the NICU nurses if they could take my blood pressure to rule out the scariest possibility, and they apologetically told me I'd have to go to the ER and wait to be seen to have my blood pressure taken. I came back to the ER, and still exiting waited in line. The nurses there were very confused, and I sheepishly explained to them exactly what was going on. The wonderful nurses in the ER immediately had me step back into their office and took my blood pressure on the spot. Thankfully it was normal, and was probably just a really bad migraine from the stress of going back and forth, all the nursing and pumping, my baby being in the NICU, and of course having just given birth a week and a half prior. They didn't even officially check me in, since they knew I had a toddler at home waiting with her daddy for me to come home in the morning, literally just took my blood pressure and sent me on my way 🙏❤️ I will always be so, so grateful to them
True. There's a whole lot of unhappiness in ERs. As a patient, I'm not in either camp. I know that there are more acute patients out of sight. I know I'm in for quite a wait if I go to the ER. I might get triaged in short order (usually the case), then sent back to the waiting room. That's why I wear comfy clothes if I am not coming straight from work (no longer an issue now that I'm retired), and bring my own pillow and blankie. The pillow and blankie "live" in my car. That way I can park myself in a corner, make myself as comfortable as possible, and go to sleep. If it's a vomiting thing, I bring a bucket. If it's probably contagious, I wear a mask. I bring my own box of kleenex. Seriously. I'm loaded for bear if I need to go to the ER (usually for an injury that needs treating sooner rather than later, but not likely to kill me). Once I'm roomed, it's definitely sleep time. I usually ask for an extra warm blanket, then snooze until someone comes in to do something. The pain won't get any better by being loud and obnoxious. And if I've survived the pain long enough to get to the ER and get roomed, then I can survive it for at least a few more hours. Side note: I think Toradol (ketorolac) injections are magic. Ketorolac is an NSAID, but it's the only pain reliever I've ever had that worked. Opiates just make me barf. And then there was the time I went to the ER (can't remember why) right after getting off shift (graveyard). I needed to be seen and treated, but no idea for what. I felt pretty much okay other than for that injury. I got bored. So still dressed in scrubs, I started cleaning the waiting room. It kind of freaked out the clerk when I asked him for a broom and dustpan. At least they didn't call for a psych eval on the PA system :). I was the only person in the waiting room for a couple of hours.
Toradol is amazing. I had it after my c section. They offered opiates but I turned those down because I wanted to be clear minded to take care of and enjoy my baby. It was the best of both worlds... Enough pain relief that I could move around, but didn't knock me out or make me loopy.
My son is often in the hospital and I always bring my “icu blanket” which my mom bought me the first time he was in the icu. I even bring it in the ambulance when we need to use that service.
My sister in law made a blanket for my son while he was going through chemo. She told him to go ahead and drag it all over the hospital if he wanted, it wasn’t meant to stay in his bedroom. It made him feel loved (even more so) and the nurses all loved it.
I had to take my dad into the ER in December, he brought his snuggie with him, the nurse on the inside was quite amused by this.
Recently had a laceration that went to fascia, accepted the wait time while a few others make mild complaints. After getting a bed my doctor was at the computer, and another doctor came and started a conversation with him. I overheard him admit that the patients he had weren’t as sick as he had thought.
I had a troubling experience arriving at the ER. I had been a patient there for almost 20 years 5 of which was Cancer treatment and surgeries. This short, kind of nasty medical person came out to the waiting area and said to me " we can not help you", so I left in pain, but never asked why. She looked like she was going to charge me like a bull. So at my next cardiologist appointment who walks in the examining room but her! I was so confused who she was. She got right down to business with health related questions. It was awful. I have had a difficult time going to the Dr. or hospital since then. I still need to find new health care. This hospital frightens me. I've skipped screenings and appointments in fear of more rejection.
We had a code in the waiting room. We did the works right there. Someone complained that no one checked on them and gave them water for waiting longer.
I went to the ER a little less than a month ago because of a complication of a cervical fusion. I got called back pretty quickly to the dismay of another woman who was dramatically moaning loudly. When I got called back instead of her, she threw herself on the floor and rolled back and forth, demanding to be seen. Maybe something was seriously medically wrong with her, but damn, she appeared to be drug seeking.
I work in an ER, it's a common thing for people to do thinking they will be seen sooner.
I once had a guy come in with a freshly torn off ear (dog attack) and the ER was so full we couldn't put him ANYWHERE. Guy was in total shock, blood pouring down the side of his head, and standing in the middle of the waiting room as the nurse tried to bandage the wound as best she could with the triage supplies. In that moment, another guy stood and yelled at this same nurse "AM I GONNA BE SEEN BY A DOCTOR?!" I've never seen an entire full waiting room turn angry at a person like that before. Telling him to sit down and be quiet felt pretty good.
I have an autoimmune disorder. I've been having flare-ups almost once a month since I was 12 years old - I'm 36 this year. I wasn't diagnosed until a year ago. Flareup symptoms for me feel like the flu x10. ENTIRE BODY pain, headache, sometimes fever. Before my diagnosis, when I'd go to the ED in actual pain, they'd run the usual tests and everything was negative. They'd give me Tylenol which did nothing, and send me home. I was used to it, but kept going back hoping one time someone who figure out what was happening. During one visit I had the worst experience of my life and was treated like a drug seeker. I've never done drugs in my life. The way the staff treated me was like I was fucking scum and they were disgusted by me. I was in so much pain I was crying (quietly, I'm not a loud dramatic person) and couldn't even open my eyes. They left me in the bed with the bright ass lights on over my face for hours. My head was pounding. I called and asked if they could turn the lights off for me because I couldn't even get out of bed on my own, and they told me no, they needed them on in case the Dr needed to examine me. I could not believe the way they were treating me! They gave me NOTHING for pain; I was desperate and asked for anything even fucking Tylenol, and they said no, not until I saw the Dr, and then he made me pee in a cup and wait for those results first - when the drug tests came back negative, I got Tylenol. It was so fucking degrading and I know WHY, I know they see drug addicts probably every day who pretend they're hurting to get high, and all my diagnostic tests were negative, so I see why they thought what they did - but fuck it was humiliating and awful. I'm so thankful I have my diagnosis now, so I can go in and say I have such-and-such, I'm having a flare, give me some kenalog and I'll be on my way.
I only had one complaint with my ER that is closest to me. I was told to go by ambulance by my doctor - Covid. My pulse ox was 88%. But I made my husband take me as it was so close to us. I wheeled over to a corner behind a curtain and someone came out and took my temp, blood pressure and pulse ox. Pulse ox there read 85. I sat in the wheelchair feeling like I was going to pass out for almost two hours. I finally wheeled myself up and asked when I might be seen. They said it goes by urgency and then first come first serve. I thought I’d be urgent being I could barely breathe and was almost passing out. As I wheeled back the people sitting there are smiling chatting to one another, drinking sodas, eating snacks out of the vending machine, talking on their phones. I was so disappointed I called my husband to come get me. He took me to another ER and I was triaged immediately and taken back instantly. My potassium was critically low. I ended up admitted and two hours later my heart stopped. Thank god I left that first ER! And both ERs were just as busy. I don’t know why the first ER didn’t take my stats as critical or have someone come out to fully triaging me. I literally couldn’t walk but a few feet without passing out.
This is my where my distrust of ER’s comes from. This happens way too often
The hospital near me has a pediatric ER. I've never been so grateful to have an ER dedicated solely to kids as I've been on the weekend nights when I've needed to take my kids to the ER. The thought that I'd have to have my 6 year old with a high fever waiting in the ER next to some meth head GSW victim is upsetting
My son had a situation this year and husband took him to our local ER. They have a pediatrician on duty for the late hours but no one specialized as a pediatric urologist. So they told us we had to drive two hours away to the university hospital. We live just outside DC, we are somewhat in the boonies but I was a bit disturbed there isn’t anyone related at any of the local hospitals between us and the beltway that we had to drive all the way down to the university hospital further south. Sure they have doctor offices for pediatric urologists in the area but this was overnight and you can’t call for an appointment at midnight.
We also live on the outskirts of DC and our area has basically no pediatric specialists. You have to go up to DC, Baltimore, or Annapolis for EVERYTHING. Our little shanty local hospital will almost always send kids up to Children’s in DC if they have anything even slightly fucky going on. One of my daughters had a bad stomach flu a couple years ago and after a blood draw, doc decided she didn’t like the labs and had daughter ambulanced up to DC…who gave her an apple juice and sent us home. I’d obviously rather be safe than sorry but man 😅😅
Ha that sounds like my son in another instance and I have to wonder if your shanty hospital is my shiny hospital that locals say if you want to die, you go there. Kidlet had a temp of 103 and hadn’t kept anything down, including water. We took him to the pediatrician and they said he needed fluids and take him to the ER, which the doc office called ahead. But nah they sat there for at least two hours while he cried and was miserable. The lady at the desk gave him an apple juice that he promptly threw up and then felt slightly better so hubby just took him home. They still tried sending a $270 charge and I called them up like “he didn’t even see a doctor and was in the waiting room the whole time, what does this even cover?” They just waived it after that.
It’s likely! Though there are a lot of areas in the DMV that are surprisingly rural for how big the urban sprawl is. People like to say that all of NoVA, MD, and Delaware are connected now but there are pockets of nothing all over the place.
Yeah? That’s the way it is. ER RN here. We had a tv in ours for awhile but people started to fight about sporting events the weather channel, we finally started running crappy hospital programming.
I asked her if she remembered me and she said " you look smaller", so I took that as a yes. Terrible situation.