Emergency rooms

[Guest guest]

Oh gawd. We have at least a dozen docs who are good friends,

cherished caregivers, etc., etc., etc. One who came running just

yesterday.

But there are times when I, anyhow, can't reach any of them. At

home. At office. At answering service, wherever.

I do think that big city emergency rooms (yep. think London) are

worse than little city ones. (think Loxley, Alabama).

And yes. It's been my experience that the patient wants to leave

before the docs get there -- and wants me to sign the release

assuming responsibility. Which, generally I have done, in cases of

extreme stuff.

The system is definitely broken. The worst thing I ever saw happened

when I was with my mom in a hospital in another town. a lot of

things were going on, on a friday night, including a guy who walked

in having a heart attack. But they, in the presence of the police,

released a woman who had been brutally and physically attacked by a

male companion, without offering her any counseling or support.

Yuck! Scary!

Cammie

> Emergency rooms are the worst. I was once brought in at 1am to the

> emergency room at St. 's hospital in London. I was suffering

from

> severe stomach cramps. Despite the fact that I fainted several

times

> in front of the nurses in the waiting room and that my boyfriend

was

> getting increasinly more hysterical, they did not think to give me

a

> pain reliever until 4am and I was not admitted until 6am. Worse

yet,

> when they finally admitted me they kept me in for another 10 hours

to

> do a bunch of tests to only diagnose me with the WRONG THING! They

> said one of my ovaries had hemoraged internally and that it could

be,

> I quote, " potentially quite fatal " . I could not believe my ears! I

> asked, " which part is potential and which part is fatal doctor? "

> Thank god I figured out that they didn't know what they were

talking

> about and took the first plane home to my doctor in Italy. Turns

out

> I had colic and a severely infected intestine. Since then, I try

to

> steer clear from Emergency rooms. Always make sure you have a good

> doctor in your neighborhood that you can call in the middle of the

> night if needs be. And I feel for all patients who are forced to

wait

> for more than 30 minutes. What I usually tell myself to calm

myself

> down is that there might be someone else with my doctor who is

having

> the exact same troubles as me and if it were me in their place I'd

> want the doctor to spend extra time with me too.

>

> Sara

>