Emergency Rooms!

[PaigeS]

Well, my dad’s bone pain became so bad that the dr. admitted him into the hospital. She recommeded that we go in through the ER since the tests would be administered first to ER patients before they brought in floor patients.

We got there at 12:30 and he finally had an MRI at 5:30 and got into his room upstairs at 9:30!!! Do all hospitals take forever or just ours??

[eve]

my experience with emergency rooms has been that you can be there forever – at our hospital 9 hours in ER is not unusual

eve

[patti]

Paige,

ER’s are awful! Avoid them as much as possible. When I was 13wks pregnant I developed pancreatitis. The ER waiting room was absolutely packed! My husband kept telling the nurse that I was in too much pain to be sitting there and she just told him to take a seat there were others ahead of us. All of a sudden I started losing my dinner and OTHER patients were asking my husband if they could do anything to help him! After that I passed out and they RAN to get me so they wouldn’t have a passed out patient in the waiting room! Moral of the story – best way to get quick ER care is to pass out or have a heart attack. Heart attacks ALWAYS get to go first. My dad has had several and they never have to wait in ER. They say “heart” and the staff is grabbing him.

Sorry for your experience. Sadly, I think it’s pretty common. Next time your doctor says go through ER, I’d tell him no way, just admit your dad. Do they know why he’s having so much bone pain yet?

best wishes,

patti

patti

[CarolineG]

Paige,

Your wait sounds about standard. It is true that Emergency patients get tested first.

We have had some really horrible hospital stays over the past half year.

The last time my Dad was in hospital which was in January, he was taken by ambulance at 10 pm one night. He was on one of those skinny cots in an Emergency Room for TWENTY HOURS until he was moved into Intensive Care. Mom and I were told by a specialist to stay in Emergency with Dad and not even to go home to sleep because he was dying and they would probably just have to phone us overnight anyhow. BUT they would only allow one of us in his cubicle at a time so we took turns every half hour. We assumed that there were no beds available in Intensive Care for him and that was why he was kept in Emergency. Not so!!! I asked an Intensive Care nurse the next day. There were about 5 free beds. Why was he kept in Emerg?? Who knows?? At one point during his Emergency stay, he became delerious and pulled out his intravenous. He bled all over the place…the floor…the walls…his bedding..HIMSELF. When he saw the blood on himself, I don’t know what happened to him but he became hysterical screaming and trying to get out of the end of his bed. Blood was spurting all over. I could not find a nurse or doctor anywhere. They were all attending to a heroin addict who had overdosed down the hall. Every doctor and nurse and SIX police officers were in his room. I got fed up with waiting on them and trying to hold Dad back from getting out of bed so I cleaned Dad and his entire room by myself. Did anyone say Thank You or Sorry??? Nope. They bawled me out for taking on the task myself….in case I hurt Dad or he hurt me. I couldn’t help but wonder just how long it would have taken any of them to even find my Dad if he had fallen out of bed while he was trying to get out with being so delerious. It was just incredible.

So, that was ONE of our Emergency visits. There are several more.

I haven’t heard too many positive Emergency experiences in the recent past. I suppose they are just too busy to do the job that they used to be able to do.

Best Wishes,
Caroline

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