I was sent to the ER from Urgent Care with an EKG showing I had had or was about to have a heart attack. I sat in the waiting room for over 4 hours. I had 2 submassive pulmonary embolisms that caused a heart attack & heart damage & a DVT. The doctors in the ER asked me how I got in there. I said I walked. They said according to your EKG, CT scan & blood work that's almost impossible. And to think not only did I walk in there but I sat in your waiting room for over 4 hours while you had evidence in your hand which is negligence!!!
Glad you're OK 👍 I live in UK 🇬🇧 and my doctor (physician) misdiagnosed my ruptured appendix as constipation. I ended up with peritonitis and septichemia and coma.
#GoodNightNurse! May I ask what part of the world you live in?😨 I live in Southeast Texas and anyone in the waiting room complaining of chest pain gets immediate medical attention FIRST!!
@gloriamaryhaywood2217 I live in Eastern North Carolina. I was trained in the medical profession the same as you said. If they came in a doctor's office & complained of chest pain to immediately call 911. If they show up in the ER with chest pain they immediately go to triage. I walked in with an EKG strip & letter from urgent care only 30 minutes old. The triage nurse repeated the EKG & got the same results. She also did blood work which showed my cardiac enzymes were through the roof! Yet, while they held onto this information, I sat in the waiting room for 4+ hours at the ripe old age of 47. Ridiculous! I could have coded right there in the waiting room & that's EXACTLY what my doctors told me! They said "Any one of those steps you took could have immediately killed you."
@@hollyw3434 Just mind boggling!...truly. Our Health care system is beyond broken. It's verrry Scary to know that we have to trust our Lives to such uncaring and unconscionable health care professionals!😨
@@hollyw3434 that’s crazy God bless and thank God you’re here to type that. Yeah, I’ve been to the hospital for cardiac issues aside from the one time. I went by ambulance if you go in here at least where I live in Southern California complaining of chest pain yeah they’ll get you back immediately to draw blood. Check your Troponin level and do an EKG if the EKG shows you’re in a normal sinus rhythm and they don’t think you’re going to drop dead immediately then it’s back to the waiting room for however many hours. Crazy!
They misdiagnosed my wife. They said she was pregnant. She wasn't. Went to another Dr. And he said she had cysts,8 center meters large. She ended up with Ovarian Cancer stage 4. Thank God we had the right Dr. She is still here today.
Ovarian cancer. I had that, caught early because I was in excruciating pain. This is after I left the closest ER because they didn’t see sudden severe abdominal pain as an emergency. Then the gyn on call said it was basically nothing. I read the radiology report. It had a blood supply. If I hadn’t been a nurse and well aware this doctor was an idiot, I’d be dead. It’s very dangerous to be a woman with pain in the ER.
My family doctor misdiagnosed me. I presented many times. Eventually my husband had to take me to the Notfall Klinik ( I live in Switzerland). Within one hour I had been given a CT scan and a diagnosis. It was crushing. Stage 4 ovarian cancer. Treatment was so swift it left me more stunned. Today I had a CT scan and my routine blood tests. I have an appointment on Tuesday for results. He didn't make me wait. He emailed me as soon as he got the results. Still no recurrence. One year after chemotherapy finished, 15 months after major surgery
2 years ago I had a colon bleed and went to ER on doctors orders. Told them I was sent because of bleeding...10 hours later I called my husband to come get me I was laying on the floor in ER and ignored, I could not advocate for myself too weak...he took me home (one hour drive from host.) called the ambulance, they freaked out when they heard the nightmare I had been though...took me in and ended up in ICU for 4 days hosp for 10 days took 5 units of blood and 4 different procedures to get bleeding stopped!...I'm 74 and have lasting effects due to anemia and losing muscle from bed ridden etc...broken health care system is killing us!!
@@jennyray4698 so similar to what happened to me. I am sorry that you did not get better care. We all need better care. I blame it all on corporate medicine
The healthcare system definitely is chronically understaffed, but two years ago was Covid and everybody was running on fumes even more, but that is really no excuse. You could’ve had Covid for all they knew! How awful I’m so sorry!
Meniers will send you to the hospital and do nothing.My eyes we’re going left and right.Awful floor becomes ceiling spinning like a top.It happened in a dental office and Dr. said that I was just hysterical
I’ve never waited less than 3 hours. Some visits over 10. California was the longest wasted time in ER’s. Many non insured people go to Er for issues that a general GP could have handled, if they had insurance. Arizona, Montana, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon. All so full when I have had to go.
Conversations I've had in the ER: You're too young to be having stroke. You don't look sick. Why do you think you have epilepsy?' Cussing at my invisible veins that are collapsing. Insisting that I get up on my own, when I have POTS. And my favorite question: What do you want us to do about it? ETA: If you are coherent and educated enough to advocate for yourself, the staff will figure it's not really an emergency, because you "seem fine".
As a fellow member of society with several shitty chronic illnesses, crap hospital care is why I'm glad that I have about half of the er treatments that I require here at home with multiple doses of each treatment and notes sitting with each treatment that states that I'm to present to er if I have to use those treatments except for if I'm feeling just _slighty_ dehydrated and haven't already ran a bag of saline in the past 7 years. The one that does get me in a interesting situation is my adrenal insufficiency but that is exactly why I have doses of iv hydrocortisone available here at home because in a crisis, my main symptoms are tanking blood sugars (fun times abound when you're under 60 blood sugar wise), low blood pressure and severe abdominal pain about four finger widths below the sternum in the middle- aka, right over the stomach. But I am at least able to get my emergency treatment requirements on board at home (liter of saline with 10mls of D50W mixed in along with iv hydrocortisone) before making the trip to the er. I'm just lucky in part because of having a port that I can independently access and use for meds but also because my regular providers understand that the vast majority of hospitals around me to choose from are shit and don't listen to the patient when the patient knows what meds they need on board. Frick, my hallway closet looks like a small hospital supply/med room in a hospital and my regular doctors wouldn't have it any other way because they are aware that I can provide better care for myself vs going to the er/hospital as well as keeping them in the loop in case I don't feel er/hospital care is right for me but they do as they can call the hospital to make them aware that I'm going to be coming to them and to call me once they have a place to stick me in, particularly as the hospital knows that they just need a reclining chair in the hallway next to a outlet and I'll be golden with zero complaints about where they stick me.
@08:08, the cheat code there would have been to take him slightly off the hospital property, call 911, they would have to respond and red flags all over should have been going off for a heart attack. I would like to know the whole case, was it 8 hours without a simple EKG, if so that is gross negligence. Crazy thinking, I am not in a major metropolitan area but close enough to one, simply saying chest pain, that gets you a ticket to the front of the line, maybe not to the back, but triage and a EKG, and blood work while being sent back out to wait. If they could articulate that the patient was having chest pain how could it be ignored for 8 hours?
Omg I have had similar experiences! I just posted about my experiences-when calm they think you’re fine and if you cry, you’re overly emotional. Ugh!!!
@yocheved.....I was in the hospital and a dr said no pain meds because I was acting fine. And my complaint of nausea was bs because I was acting fine. While I'm hurling. I told him I got sick again and he rushes to look for puke bag I garbage like I'm lieing. The nurse took it. Crazy. Bood pressure was 250 over 110.
I got a call from lab telling me to go to ER as my hemoglobin was 5.4 and I was critical. I went, was not believed, ignored. After about 3 hours, and the intake was examining her belly button, I called 911 and told the police that I was in danger and the ER would not treat me. She overheard me, panicked and checked my blood, saying oh my god your hemoglobin is 5.4. Several hours later I finally got a transfusion.
As someone with anemia, trying to stay awake and concentrate with hemoglobin that low is nearly impossible. I can't imagine adding that stress on top, so sorry you went through that.
@Gail_Pr468 Holy crap. I *sincerely* hope you were able to sue those morons since they nearly cost you your life. And thank you for the tip: I've been left abandoned in an ER like that before (it's happened twice while there with my injured sister) and it never occurred to me to try dialing 911 from *inside* the ER waiting room. Good move; that saved your life.
I had a similar situation. I was bleeding through my gums due to low counts due to chemo. I had leukemia. I called my heme/onc and was told to go to the nearest hospital and get checked out as my treating hospital was an hour away. I was made to wait 4hrs only to be lifeflighted to the bigger hospital. The doc chewed out the triage nurse for not taking me seriously. I desperately needed both blood and platelets. Something the small town hospital didn't even have.
The emergency room doctor I had gave me morphine for my severe intestinal pain. Never checked for infection or anything. The pain was unbearable. The morphine wasn’t working. The emergency doctor told me to stop complaining, so “everyone could get on with their lives.” My sister demanded this hospital take me to a different hospital. She knew something terrible was wrong because I never complain about anything. When I got to the second hospital they realized I needed emergency surgery to remove my colon. I almost died in the first hospital. Thank God my sister was with me! Thank you for your VERY important video! I hope a lot of people see your video because it will save lives! 🥰
8 hs in a ER waiting room after having been there earlier in the day due to severe neck shoulder and chest pain. After blood tests and xrays they send me home with a bottle of pain meds. The pain only got worse and I was back later that night - ended up waiting 8 hours to be seen again. They didn't see me until after the shift changed on the ER desk, my best guess is they thought I wanted more pain pills, I did not, nor did I have a history of pill seeking. When they finally did see me again, and did another chest scan and more blood tests, they had to pack me up immediately and ship me to a neighboring hospital for emergency surgery. Apparently I had a blood infection that developed at the site of a past surgery and infected several bones at the site of the scar. I ended up having 2 surgeries and spending 8 days in the hospital followed by 30 days of IV antibiotics. It was horrible. I warn people now that the only way to arrive at a hospital ER is via an ambulance. Walk ins do not seem to be taken seriously until it is too late.
That is horrible sorry you experienced that had the same exact thing happen had to do 6 weeks of antibiotics Iv had to have hardware removed from my foot Dr wanted to amputate my foot but I declined he said their would be a less than 10% chance of saving my foot but I insisted to go on iv antibiotics plus a combination of natural supplements and homeopathic medicine as of now finished my 6 weeks and was lucky enough to clear the infection believe the homeopathic supplements made all the difference.
I took my sister to supposedly a great hospital in Ormond Beach fl. She had severe abdominal pain. She was bent over gripping her stomach and barely conciouz. I asked for a wheel chair and the man told me to hold her up! What? I raised my voice when I realized the kind of people I was dealing with. I demanded a wheelchair and an ice pack to keep her from fainting. When they took her in they gave her an ultrasound and said she was constipated. Shocking to her because that was never her problem. They sent us to the drug store for items to fix that problem but my sister said, no. She knew it was something else. Turns out it was a cyst on her ovary that was about to burst and a twisted fallopian tube. She was scheduled for surgery the next day by her own Dr.
Oh gosh, I had the exact same issue and it is incredibly painful. I would use my iPhone and record these medical “un-professionals” without them knowing. Be sure to make sure it’s a state that allows recording w/o consent from who is being recorded. Could help in a law suit.
Titusville here. Was your hospital north of you? Or south of you. Because our dinky hospital (you know the one) almost killed my husband, and left me in the ER with a seriously busted tibia for 30 hours, no pain meds, (can’t take ‘em,) while they waited for a part to come in. What is it about our east coast hospitals??
The fact the family called 911 from the ER and still he was not prioritized; tells me how bad the service was. Hope they sue and get a huge pay off from Kaiser
I recently had a dental problem caused by 2 different dentists not sending me for proper care in a timely fashion. I have no insurance. I called and told my story to about a dozen legal firms in my area. All refused to take my case. It was going to cost me atleast $10,000 and that's if there were no complications. I was told that my state--Nevada, has passed bills basically making it so difficult for the victims legally that no more attorneys find it's worth their time & money to pursue. I guess a dentist could kill you and get away with it where I live. 😫❗️
Right?? Doctor is trying to gaslight us patient to "speak up" because he doesn't wanna admit it's THEIR mistake for not listening and for neglecting their patients.
It really is. I wish more than anything that I could bring along a husband or brother (I’m single and don’t have a brother!) to my doc appointments/ER visits because I can tell I am ignored because I am fat, female, middle aged, but not old enough to look like I should really be having heart attacks/cancer/etc. yet. Funny enough, I DID get diagnosed with cancer two years ago. In my early 40s. I was in the ER for 22 hours (never given a room!) before they finally brought me in (looking shocked) to show me a mass on my ovary. Yep…
@@StephanieDefinitelyMany women have related only getting proper attention with a man along. Man doesn’t even have to say anything, just be there, and suddenly they aren’t being dismissed as having “anxiety” and are getting a proper work-up… 🤦♀️
When I worked in a local doctors office I told people point blank if they had a half hour to spare they should go anywhere else and avoid the local ER.
@@JackieDailey because working in hospitals in general and emergency rooms in particular is awful these days. Like seriously every single hospital nurse I’ve talked to has thought about wrecking their car so they don’t have to go to work that day. 12 hour shifts burn you out, there’s never enough people, every day is a nightmare of wondering if this will be the day your staffing situation gets someone killed…
Being skilled at triage is undervalued. It takes someone with guts/balls as often your own team will give you pushback and question your best-effort decisions. I triaged a pt with CC “leg pain” and the physician walked out to my area to dress me down about “what the hell was I doing making leg pain level 2” patient has no pedal pulses, found massive abdominal/pelvic blood clot, immediately to vascular OR. He never came back and apologized. If she had waited hours, she could have had a tragic outcome.
I'm happy I live in Central IL. Last Tuesday 7/9. I was diaphoretic, checked my blood sugar it was 130, so not that. Took warm shower did not tary. Put on shirt underwear and shorts. Thought cereal would be good, took 1 bite knew I shouldn't do, googled women heart attack, called 911, told them I was having heart attack or panic attack. When I was in ambulance they ran EKG, said you are in a middle of heart attack. Then my left arm was squeezing and back started to hurt. Lights and sirens to hospital, Dr was waiting for me, Cath lab and triage people had me up in cath lab in 10 minutes. 100% blockage LAD, 2 stents placed. I was office medical receptionist for 47 years and we had in-service training as women and men's symptoms are different for heart attacks. Thank you for putting out videos to educate the public.
I was driving home from work and started feeling pressure in my chest. Did not feel like the asthma I have had for years. Then I started to have pain in my left arm. I thought “heart attack” just after I passed the turnoff for a hospital. Continued on, said, “if I have one more symptom, I am heading for the hospital near my home.” Just before my exit, my palms got sweaty. I headed toward the hospital, taking the less busy street with ditches to stop my car if I collapsed. Pulled up, told the security guard and then the triage nurse that I was having a heart attack and my symptoms. She got me back for an ECG in minutes. The readout strip was folded quickly and put in a pocket, the tech told me to stay where I was and she RAN down the hall! Soon, I was pushed in a gurney at a very fast pace down the halls into a room where a series of people each did one thing to disrobe me, get me in a gown, ask a question or two, put in an IV, give me oxygen, and so on. It was like a play, each saying their lines or doing their thing and exiting my bedside. A doctor behind a monitor, at a podium received each report from them and directed the whole thing. You could tell they were a team following a protocol and had practiced it until it was perfect. It turns out I had a 90% blockage in one tiny artery around the back of my heart. The surgeon woke me in the cath lab to show me the screen. “See how big your vessels are in your heart? That means there is no plaque build up in your coronary arteries, they are as clean as a whistle, all except this little one here! And it is blocked.” My heart attack had classic male heart attack symptoms. I knew that because I was the cardiac social worker at my first job out of grad school. I am female!
Yes! Thank you for sharing your experience and I'm glad you made it out okay! Please don't stop telling your experience! It could save a life! ❤ I'm a nurse of 28 years and worked 10 of those years in Emergency/Trauma. Women definitely have different heart-attack symptoms sometimes. At times they can be very vague. About 15 years ago I had a lady of 50-something who presented with left wrist pain, mild shortness of breath but her biggest complaint was that she "just feel off/out of sorts." Thankfully she came in as she was in the midst of a full blown heart attack! She only rated her wrist pain as a "5." She ended up having bypass surgery and recovered nicely.
I have been an LN for a very long time. I thought I was having a heart attack & drove myself to the ER. (Yeah I know) when I walked in, I knew exactly what to say. Before I could sit down, they called me back. They did a stat EKG, & with a shocked look on their faces, they told me I had to stay. I did not have a heart attack. It was stress from the recent death of my mom.
I went to the ER a week after having a baby. It was a postpartum hemorrhage. The ER staff put me into a private room in the ER and left my husband and me there alone for approximately 20 minutes-I told my husband to go get someone because I was going to go unconscious. He went out and pitched a fit, a nurse came in and my BP was 60/40. They scrambled to get an IV in as all the veins were collapsing. If I had been by myself, without him there to advocate for me, I would have quietly passed away by myself in that room!
The hospital that is 1 mile from my house used to be the best hospital in the state. It was taken over by Penn Highlands and it's no longer about quality care. Extremely sad. My daughter had COVID and was puking for weeks. We went to the emergency room one day and we were sitting there (knowing she had COVID) in a normal waiting room for over 9 hours. We went home and went back the next day and another 8 hours and we left. Day 3 we were there over 8 hours and they finally got her back. Her blood work showed starvation levels from all the puking. She has a rare genetic disease and was life flighted. This is how bad she was and we couldn't even triaged the first 2 days. When they admitted her, she was dying. The hospitalist wouldn't call her geneticist ( I don't know why ...ego??) and finally I called and that doctor made it happen to have her life flighted to Pittsburgh and she was better in 24 hours. The damage done I'm so bitter about though. I come from a family full of doctors and nurses so we are excellent patients. This hospital has went down hill
When I woke up in a hallway after a major car wreck the best care I got was from the state trooper who responded. He held on to my purse and phone and came in as soon as I was awake. Kind and supportive he asked why I was in a hallway? After I answered his few questions he handed me the bag and told me my phone looked OK. As soo as he left I called my brother and while talking to him said loudly I guess I have to call my lawyer. not because of the accident, the hospital. I was in a hall almost two days. I had a broken hip and five back breaks. They tried to get me up on a walker so they could send me home in a Uber. They hadn't even taken X rays. I pitched a fit and got immediate transfer to another hospital 100 miles away. close to my home If the place burned down it would probably save people.
My local hospital was taken over by Penn Highlands too and the quality of care has really gone down hill ever since. I'm sorry that happened to your daughter. I hope she is alright now.
I'm at the point where I'd literally rather DIE than go to the emergency room because I am on pain management and I am treated like a drug seeker, regardless of why I go in, EVERY time I've gone. The ER dismisses me and once it almost cost me my life. I was so sick and my gut was hurting and they said "you have the stomach flu, go home and come back if you have a fever." I kept telling them no, something is really wrong. They wouldn't conduct any tests. So I went home and my daughter found me at the top of the stairs in the early morning hours on deaths door. My bowel perforated soon after getting home in the late night from the ER and my entire body was septic. I was in an induced coma for 8 days while they cleaned me out, then I had to wait 2 weeks to get stronger and go into surgery to cut away all the torn colon and give me rows of staples. Turns out I had diverticulitis and one was infected and it perforated. They said I was the youngest person they had ever seen with it. That was the start of the downhill medical spiral and it traumatize my daughters seeing me lifeless at the top of the stairs.
I hope you are feeling better now. That's a horrible experience. I was treated like a drug addict and heard them saying there wanted to release me before they even saw me. 8 had 2nd and 3rd degree burns and they were infected. Not only did they treat me badly but they send a nurse in to wrap it with gauze. Gauze is like sandpaper on a burn. I was in horrible pain, worse than anything I've ever felt before and they made it way worse. The next day my doctor took care of the burn but I'll never forget they way they treated me. I put a bad review and tell everyone because it's not just me but my son as well. I just refuse to go in now.
Me too. I’ve found as a nurse who worked in critical care and ER for 40 years. I’m now disabled and chronic pain patient. You must speak up for yourself.
I was in the ER waiting to be seen for hours and while there, a woman was rolling on the floor crying in excruciating abdominal pain and vomiting and she begged for help. She was triaged and sent back to the waiting room. She waited 2 more hours and her husband finally took her to another ER.
I was in extreme pain and so weak I couldn't sit. I actually was so weak I slid off the chair unto the floor and couldn't get up. The nurse came in and told me to get up off their floor.
I went into the emergency room for a really bad migraine, usually I can mentally dissociate enough to stay calm because getting emotional makes the pain worse. But at this point, I had tried everything and I literally felt like somebody was driving a drill into my skull and I was screaming and crying and snot running down my face because Valsalva maneuver actually stopped the pain temporarily until I had to stop and breathe. But I was getting exhausted from doing it and the pain wasn’t going away. I sat there, screaming and crying and nose and eyes running all over trying to maintain the Valsalva maneuver - I couldn’t do it. I think it took about a half an hour of this before they find the moved me into a quiet dim room and magically the migraine started to go away. They gave me a little Dilaudid, which did almost nothing at that point except make me a little nauseated . I think I have been to urgent care and the ER maybe three times for migraine and after the first time they started treating me like a drug seeker so I stopped even bothering after three times. They came up with this ridiculous protocol of trying to get fluids into you first to see if that helped. And then an hour later maybe they would give you Toradol and if that didn’t they would give you morphine. (the first time, in urgent care, they gave me Demerol and that was wonderful, but they eventually stopped doing that because people were actually seeking it. But I was maybe doing this once a year because the last thing I wanna do when I have a migraine is getting into a car and drive or be driven anywhere and then have to go deal with other people. So then, when they tried to do the IV they couldn’t get a vein because I was having a migraine and I’m a hard stick on a good day, and they knew this. The guy had to fish around for a vein and then he went to an infant needle and catheter to try and get that thing going. He finally got it in a vein, but could not keep the IV going even with it set to pump the fluid in. I think I got about 200 mL in in four hours of waiting. Eventually, the migraine, kind of started to go away it up and I was climbing the walls. I was so angry. So they gave me Toradol. I wasn’t gonna wait for the morphine because it wasn’t any point anymore. (morphine makes me terribly sick anyway). I’ve never been back. Literally for anything yet, and that had to be 20 years ago. But my migraines are chronic now so…. plenty of other reasons to be gaslit. Overtime, though I think I have finally established with the medical community that I am not anxious to take pain meds. But that I do have an actual chronic condition that makes me non-functional because of the pain or partly functional if I have to take the pain meds. During that initial couple of years when they were treating me that way at the ER, I eventually quit my job because I just couldn’t function there when I was constantly having headaches and having to take pain meds. (also had undiagnosed endometriosis at the time which was making things worse). Once I had surgery for endometriosis, I got off all my pain meds for several years because I just didn’t need them , never saw the doctors except maybe once a year except for physicals. It just really bites that you have to spend so many years to establish yourself as not trying to game the system, in order to get the help you need.
@@paulacoyle5685 I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that. Migraines are just the worst... my daughter has severe migraines and she said that magnesium helps somewhat. She's tried just about everything under the sun...
I was very lucky when I showed up with severe sepsis at the emergency room 2 days after gall bladder surgery that my gastroenterologist was working at the hospital at the time. He knew that I had had gall bladder surgery a few days before. He suspected I had a bile leak and was septic. He immediately had me put on fluids and antibiotics. The last thing I remember was going to the operating room get the bile leak fixed and woke up on a ventilator a week later. I was in the ICU for about 3 weeks. Luckily I didn't lose any extremities, only some hair later. The actual surgeon who did the gall bladder surgery was very arrogant and said that I needed to get out of bed and start walking. Never mind that I had lost quite a bit of muscle mass and physically could not walk yet. My gastro was standing behind the surgeon and rolled his eyes. Later he told me that he felt the surgeon was out of his depth when things go wrong and it was going to take some time to get my strength back. I found out later that the mortality rate for this type of sepsis is 72%. Having antibiotics and fluids administered in the first few hours after I arrived saved my life.
Ohhh, that's scary just to read about! I developed Sepsis while undergoing aggressive chemotherapy treatments. It was a rough ride, a very frightening experience, and yes, I truly felt that I could easily die from it as I was Sooo very sick!! Yes, getting medical treatment in as short amount of time as possible is Everything!!! It's most assuredly THE thing that Saved Your Life!!🙏
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 I really didn't realize how close to death I was until about 2 weeks after I was off the ventilator. I've asked my husband what happened while I was unconscious, but he can't really talk about it yet. Hope you have success from the chemo, best wishes for the future.
Its so unfortunate every time I hear a nurse or a doctor say something along the lines of “You’re too young to be having (insert whatever symptom you’re telling them you are experiencing) “. My boyfriend went to his doctor with chest pain down the left side and what felt like bad heartburn and other symptoms. He was a diabetic and his glucose had been in the 600s. They took his bloodpressure and told him he was too young to have a heart attack and sent him home. He passed away a few hours later of a massive heart attack at 39.
Yup, i had called 911 when my hubby suffered seizures in the doctor's waiting room. A lot of the patients help to hold him down. The EMS came & was shocked & asked where are the nurses, i said behind the glass window just watching us like a side show. Sad but true.
I'm glad you called 911 for help. In most doctor's offices, the 'nurses' behind the glass are not nurses. They're receptionists, CNA's, medical techs. However, anyone of them should have been able to come out and assist you and your husband!
Please do not hold down someone who is having a seizure. Make sure they are on the floor or away from objects that could hurt them, holding them down is very dangerous not only to the one having the seizure.
EMS should know better that there are no nurses at the doctor's office and you shouldn't assume that just because pl wear scrubs or work at a doctor's office, they are qualified to help you in urgent situations
Even as an employee in a Trauma Level I hospital and college of medicine, I had an abdominal issue, requiring 17 hospitalizations and 16 central lines. Finally, the Chair of Radiology, who was a dear friend, did the studies himself and discovered a deep incisional hernia. I was inpatient nine days because I needed IV iron infusions abd four units of blood transfusions. My blood type is AB negative with hard to match antigens. Blood had to be flown from another hospital five hours away. Almost two weeks later, I was admitted for abscesses in my right lung, liver and diaphragm. The lung abscess caused anorexia and I lost 35 lbs in two weeks. The ID team could not find one antibiotic, so they had three, to which I was allergic and needed lots of Benadryl. My dearest friend was the Director of Critical Care Medicine/Pulmonology and was urged to do a bronchoscopy. He found a very thin airwave in my right lung, so there was hope, despite the risks involved. During my third week of hospitalization, the Chief Surgical Resident came to see me and confided in me that he may have not "adequately irrigated the surgical field during the abdominal case." I told him that God alone knows, that we are a teaching hospital and just be thorough next time...and I have every confidence he will. I hold the Attending accountable (also a friend and I was the organist/music director in his church!) Needless to say, I have a permanent power port. I had cancer after that illness...chemo attacked my right kidney...it was more painful than 26 hours of labor and the pain was not adequately controlled for a 10-day inpatient stay. I was on the chemo floor if another hospital. A medically qualified friend recently stated, "Our health system us in a world of hurt." Your timely commentary proves her point. I have FIVE surgical procedures planned over the next 12 months for repair of my entire right leg/ankle/foot injured in an airplane accident. Three surgeons and I would be so grateful if you were my anesthesiologist🏆🙏 So thankful for your exemplary effort to help patients whom you will never meet, but you ensure that we have the tools wr need to be informed advocates, for ourselves and for others. God's richest blessings.
It's completely and utterly infuriating that something like this could EVER happen in an emergency room. Shameful. Shame on the staff, shame on the hospital's standards.
This past week, my father, 83, who recently had heart valve replacement surgery, fell from a seated position on the side of his bed after having either fallen asleep or passed out. He fell head first into the floor and was bleeding profusely from the nose. After not being able to get it stopped after two hours, my folks went to the ER and because it was so busy, had to stay in the waiting room for over 8 hours. He was taken back for various testing from time to time, but was brought back to the waiting room. The hallways were full with people on gurneys. He was finally admitted and ended up staying for three days total. He had broken his Clivus bone, a rare and dangerous break. I'm so upset that he was unable to get comfortable for so long while suffering pain and fear. We need more medical personnel so badly!!
I watched a man die from a heart attack in the OR waiting area. It was horrible. They didnt have a telemetry unit on him (that was the first thing the doctor asked). Right before he died (he had the blanket pulled up all the way to under his eyes), he pulled the blanket down and kept saying 'help please, can someone help me please'. He was quiet and the nurses ignored him. I was just about to say something and then he let out a blood curdling scream and died... Right after that, they came around and put telemetry units on all of us. That isnt the worst of it... that was the second death i witnessed that day. And then i had to have surgery... i was SO terrified and sad and i still havemt recovered and it's been over a month now... 😢
you can sue for damages of witnessing a death someone else caused. get the ER footage and help from a lawyer. go to a therapist and document everything. demand to see them twice a week, go on meds, request everything
@Brainjoy01 how about I just do what I've been doing and avoid doctors and hospitals at all costs... it's not their fault people died in front of us. I wouldn't sue them for that, but I sure am terrified of doctors and hospitals. Had to have an MRI rece tly and had to drug myself silly to go and I was still scared. I will get over it eventually... I've hired a hypnotherapist to help, but just can't see suing over something they can't controll. People die... you know?
I have both a mental health history and several autoimmune immune disorders. Any time a medical professional can’t run a standard test and get a simple answer, they blame either condition for the problem.
That's awful. I've been there, standing at an ER window waiting while the blood was dripping on the floor from my jeans. That was years ago -- 1970 -- when I was an 18 year old, long haired hippy, and I was visiting New Engla,nd It was a half hour before a nurse walked through and noticed the blood on the floor. I reported my problem, but the bureacrat behind the desk was more interested in her paperwork. I feel for the man in Vallejo. The Bay Area has many problems, and Kaiser-Permante hospitals has been a huge one for over 40 years. Doc, sorry you're having so many technical problems. Sending Good Vibes your way! 💙🧙🏼♂️
I truly feel once its in your charts you have a mental health diagnosis, or worse more than one diagnosis, i feel treated SOOOO differently than what I've seen many others experience
Yes they profile. You could be shot in the chest but if you're obese they say it's your weight. If the pain is so bad you're in a fetal position that's normal menstruation. But mental health is definitely the worst label
Sad but true. I went to an urgent care to be tested for strep throat and treated for a sinus infection and, because I have multiple autoimmune disorders and other health issues, the nurse had the audacity to tell me "you shouldn't come here, you should go to the ER because your health issues are too complicated". My primary care told me I should avoid ERs if possible because it exposes me to a lot more germs and they triage serious injuries ahead of a sinus infection so I'd have an extremely long wait and possibly go home even sicker than I was when I arrived.
@@cail171 depending on who the staff are, there is a possibility of this. It’s unfortunate. Mental health care/understanding seems to be the last frontier
When I was teaching I had a seventh grade student who showed up looking very ill. He said he told his dad he felt bad but he made the boy come to school anyway. I took him to the office and it turned out to be appendicitis.
I went through the same situation with my mom, 19 years ago. She already had cardiac issues, as well as a bypass surgery that had gone wrong. She was having heart attack symptoms, when I finally was able to get her to the ER, due to snow. She couldn't walk(double foot amputee) and was in a wheelchair. We waited for 8 hours, for someone to take her back. There were not many people at all in the waiting area, and every time I went up to ask how much longer, we were told she was next.... At least 3 times. After more than 8 hours, my mom said she just wanted to go home and go to bed. The next morning, I call the ambulance to take her to a different hospital. They immediately took her in, admitted her, and told us it was bad. She passed away that night. I would tell anyone and everyone that you must advocate for yourself. What happened to my mom was negligent, at the very least. I filed a complaint, and they supposedly investigated, only to tell me that they could not find anything negligent in her care. I have no faith in the United States Healthcare System. Thank you, Dr. Kaveh, for all that you do. You helped us to feel heard, and treat us with dignity.
This is so sad. I’m 73 w/female,widow. I have a satellite hospital a half mile from my home. I recently had some chest pain & trouble breathing,that was unlike anything I had ever had before. I suspected it was just heartburn but living alone I was concerned. My late husband was an ER Dr & I was fully aware of what could happen. I drove myself there,walked in & was taken back immediately at which time they started drawing blood,attaching the leads for EKG etc. Most surprising was they didn’t even take my health insurance info.before taking me back. It wasn’t until they had pretty much accurately diagnosed that it wasn’t a heart attack that they sent someone back to the room to get that information. I guess I was really lucky. PS they didn’t know me or my late husband so I wasn’t receiving preferential treatment. My heart goes out to this man’s family. I would say they likely have a good case for a mal-practice suit here.
I was pregnant with an ectopic pregnancy and having a miscarriage and went to the emergency room because I was bleeding excessively. I checked in, and sat down. I was a white lady, 32 years old, and my husband met me there. There were little kids and old people with flu symptoms and they were being seen in this ER. I waited about and hour and checked with the desk again and then about three hours and began cramping terribly. I went back up to the desk and told them I needed to lay down and I understand the doctor isn’t ready to see me but if they don’t have an empty room where I can lay down, i will lay down on that rolling bed in that corner right over there or maybe over there on the floor. I started crying because i was in quite a lot of pain and she said I just can’t help you. Then I went over to the rolling bed and laid down and the hospital staff said I couldn’t stay there. An older lady (white hair grandma) who was also waiting to be seen said “let her lay down and see her before you see me” and other people there waiting started to speak up. I was quiet but crying. I don’t know what my husband was doing - I don’t remember - but he was a captain or major and in uniform so just so you know it doesn’t matter whether you’re an officer or enlisted… They got me into an exam room and the ob gyn doctor came in and said she had been in surgery (not apologizing but explaining). They took me into surgery, said they would try to save the baby but the baby had never made it to the womb and was stuck in the tube. So I had lost a lot of blood in the abdomen - I think it was about 2 liters. I was home, off work, for a month because I had lost a lot of blood and they didn’t want to do a blood transfusion because it was 1992 or 3 and the blood was possibly tainted with AIDS or something like that. But anyway. I’m as white as you can be. My husband was present. We both speak English - this was a military hospital and my husband was an officer. Sometimes demographics don’t matter. We are just gonna have to accept that not everyone in the medical environment knows how to triage or what to do. And some of those people don’t really care.
So sorry you went thru this. Sadly like you and too many others I have my own stories pos and neg (esp during pandemic) incl being ‘admitted’ which meant still being in the ER hallway for 2 days w/same clothes and no change of sheets. What you say is accurate for Canada (for good and bad). I’m guessing other countries too.
Back in the 1980's was having a miscarriage (2nd trimester) and asked for a safe place to lay down. Crickets. Announced loudly that my towel was now blood soaked and unless they really wanted to clean up the mess...yeah, they "found" a bed. Still waited another hour, but at least it was out of the way. And I was an established patient. Nice mess for the er doc, though.
Yes, SOMETIMES demographics don't matter. But unfortunately, many times it absolutely matters. However, because you have never been a "black" woman [person], you will never know the extreme level of regular uncare, disrespect and disregard we experience in not only the medical field[which is extreme] but in pretty much ever sector of the United States Corporation. Saddest part is, do they even know why they "hate" one people so much? They don't! But maybe one day soon[before its too late] they'll get their mind and soul right!!!
@@LuvlyLibra My friend is an ER nurse and unfortunately she said hands down BW are the most rudest and ugliest to them by far! She has been at the ER for 10 years. They try to treat everyone equal. Dont know why but its not OK.
This happened to me at a Kaiser in Manteca, I arrived by ambulance with afib and breathing distress. No pain though. They did a quick BP check and temp check. Yhen they moved me to lobby and i sat there for two hours. I spoke out. Then they moved me to a hallway and left me for another hour. I got up and walked out the doors and they asked me where I was going. I said I'm calling for help since they were not giving it
Afib isn't anything to get excited about and some breathing issues can be a symptom. Afib itself isn't a problem. Treat the side effects with blood thinner and tachycardia, usually with a beta blocker. Drugs can be used to try to control them the symptoms, if necessary. Many are asymptomatic, so do nothing more. Shortness of breath is certainly one of the symptoms, so treat them. None of this is a dire emergency. Scary, the first time, you bet. But, unfortunately, you'll get used to it. I've been all the way down this street. I sat in the ER waiting room for five hours after a near-syncope event. The waiting room was FULL of people coughing their lungs up. Later, my heart stopped for eight-seconds. It bought me a pacemaker.
@@kwilliams2239 Some people with afib do not tolerate it. By its nature decreased cardiac out put thru loss of atrial kick. Usually tolerated controlled rate under 100 beats per minute. I do not tolerate it well when ventricular rate above 140. I do minimum work at that rate and often feel light headed, unstable on feet and short of breath. My mother did not tolerate Afib at all. She would become cold with diaphoresis she was in her 90's
My brother had a friend whose brother was a doctor. He had been trying for years to find a PCP that he felt would actually listen to him. Otherwise, he was largely avoiding going to the doctor… for that reason. The friend mentioned that her brother was a doctor in the area and because he was complaining about abdominal pain for a large portion of a week, she asked her brother to see him. He agreed and examined him **on the doctor’s day off** And spent like an hour getting a history. My brother was floored. An hour from a GP! On his day off! The doctor, palpated his abdomen and although it didn’t hurt that much more in the LRQ, the doctor was shocked to find that my brother’s appendix was huge. He sent him for imaging immediately. And then having everything confirmed he sent him to the ER and told him he needed to be seen right away by the ER doctor and he gave him the codes what to say. And brother got to the ER, and the nurse would absolutely **not** let him see the doctor. WTH?? They apparently sent him home, the doctor who originally saw him called because he saw what had happened in the notes and called him at home, I think, over the weekend, told him he needed to get in there immediately. And he was absolutely livid that they blew him off, even though he had been insisting on seeing someone. Don’t know if that nurse got fired or what but my brother ended up with weeks of antibiotics to get the raging infection under control so that they could actually do the surgery, his body at least had encapsulated the infection though, so they and he got lucky. He did not have a fever and that I think is what messed everyone up initially.
I have personally experienced Kaiser Kare, which is mostly doctor rolling eyes, invalidating, gaslighting, for the past 15 years of my 30 years with them, i.e., I am no longer deserving of the usual level of care as an older person
I was sent to the ER by an urgent care facility. They found that I was severely dehydrated and had diabetic ketoacidosis. They gave me my lab results to give to triage at the ER, but triage ignored them and said "we'll do our own". I went to the waiting room. After several hours, I had labs drawn and a chest X-ray, then back to the waiting room. After about 10 hours, I was getting short of breath and couldn't stand up anymore. I went to the desk (I was in a wheelchair by then) and asked if triage could look at me because I was much worse. They said they don't do that and I will get brought back when its my turn. I was so thirsty, they wouldn't even give me water and there was none available anywhere near the waiting room. Anyway, I was in the waiting room for 16 hours. I lost consciousness and was coded and wound up in CCU for a week. This was two years ago, and I have permanent issues now because of the toll that took on my body. Hospital ERs need to recheck the patients in the waiting room every couple hours at least to see if they are worsening. Complete negligence.
We have only a very small rural hospital where people are born and also die like my husband who recently died from a brain bleed. I just believed that Healthcare is only an industry now and nothing else.
Gaslighting occurs simply because I am a woman. When a doc reads my short med list they are not as concerned. When they read that I take an antidepressant and ADD meds I am discounted as being -whatever.
You should not be shocked. We took my brother to the ER, told them he was having a chest pains, trouble breathing… a heart attack. After about an hour in the waiting room my mother started screaming at them and they FINALLY evaluated him and guess what? He was having a heart attack.
I can give you another example just for myself. My Gallbladder. was on The Verge of rupturing. After waiting, they sent me to my doctor's office. Who turned around and sent me back across the street to the closest hospital to his office and admitted me.This is our healthcare system, it's no good
My latest ER experience was on June 10, 2024. I went in, sat in the waiting room for six hours then was ushered back to an er room. I complained of moderate tingling on the left side of my face when I looked to the right or leaned my head to the right and specifically told the docs that I was a VACTERL birth with vertebral anomalies, i.e. block vertebra, hemi-vertebra and past laminectomy of C3-C5. He was decidedly not impressed with me and said this wasn't an emergent medical emergency. He scheduled me for an MRI six weeks out and that MRI showed new and severe central canal stenosis at C1-C2 with associated myleomalacia (softening of the spinal cord) and now it will take another two weeks to get in to see a doctor and learn whether or not I will require a surgical solution. The stress of that is enormous. The lack of certainty and the ability to reconcile or plan the next year of my life is surreal. I think it's a very indifferent medical system we have in this country. I bet the rich don't have to put up with this crap. Ugh.
I've seen 10 surgeons in Buffalo. Each sent me back to work with a broken vertebrae in my back. It bothered me so bad, I found it myself on an old MRI years latter, using a magnifying glass. They continue to deny pain relief because I distrust their surgery and shots.
BTW, if you are established cardiac patient with the hospital, their ER will treat you differently at check in. I've gone multiple times and given a barrage of tests beyond what was necessary every time I went because I was "in their system as a cardiac patient" so it helps after a certain age to establish yourself with a cardiologist then go to the ER attached to that doc's hospital. Also being established with a cardiologist might give you phone access during an emergency through your doc's office so they can call in to direct your care off hours.
What is happening is that most drs and nurses are in it for a steady paycheck and job security. They do not care about people. They know it is almost impossible for anyone to even get a lawyer to sue for malpractice, unless you're wealthy and have one on retainer. Far too many in the medical INDUSTRY look at patients as if we are inconveniencing them . They look at us with contempt.
As a retired nurse, med care is negligent at best! It's a profit system. Once insurance companies started telling experienced Dr's what they had to do many of the experienced Dr's, nurses and other experienced med personnel either retired early or left the field. Each new story I hear is absolutely terrifying.
One thing I have found is being a woman can be very difficult. If you are in pain and are calm and polite, they don’t take you seriously. If you are crying, they say you are being histrionic. Couple that with being a woman who has depression and anxiety and, depending on who is truly paying attention, you can get written off totally. I was in the emergency room Christmas Eve. I was in terrible gut pain and was throwing up bile. The vomiting stopped but the pain worsened. I couldn’t help but scream, which is unlike me. I was aware I was screaming and trying to stop knowing there were other people who didn’t feel well. I just couldn’t stop screaming. At one point, a young woman came in and demanded to know why I was screaming. I don’t know what she looked like because my eyes were tightly closed. I screamed, “I’m in so much pain!!!” She left and shut the door behind her. Come to find out, I had ischemic bowel and needed surgery. When I asked when the surgery would happen, the surgeon said, “Now.” I am very lucky to be alive. The tissue inside was necrotic. I started to crash while I was on the table so they had to wake me up and finish the procedure 36 hours later. I kind of wish I knew who the young woman was. I wish I could talk with her and encourage her to be more gentle with people who are screaming but not being threatening (I was screaming, “Oh my God!” over and over again. I am sure her job is difficult and the ER was very busy that night. If she had said that she was closing the door but that they were not ignoring me, wouldn’t forget me, something-anything reassuring-that would have been helpful. Instead, silence from her and the door audibly closing was what I got. At that point, I became terrified. I had no way to know her thoughts, and didn’t know if I was being written off or not. All it would have taken to alleviate the terror would be a kind word.
When I was having chest pain, I went to the same day clinic at my doctor' s medical group. They took my blood pressure and did a quick exam and they told me to go to the ER because they couldn't do the necessary tests. I said out loud, "oh no, I'll be waiting for hours". The PA told me to tell them specifically that I was having chest pain. When I got there I checked in and they called me in 1-2 mins. Thank goodness I was OK.
Our local healthcare system decided to “educate” all the doctors offices because we were sending them too many patients. Dude, her blood pressure was 80/60 do not come at me. Read the notes.
Unfortunately this is spot on. I was ER for 7 hours after presenting with a heart attack. 2nd attack, 54yrs old. 1 HR in begged for oxygen and a wheelchair. Told them I would have their kids college fund.(1st attack 32, heart study for plavix)7 hours later emergency surgery,24 days in the hospital, quadruple bypass and new parts. This is normal unfortunately.
My brother had had a Colonoscopy the day before. Woke up bleeding profusely. Went to Hospital where he had the Colonoscopy done, went to the desk, told him the Doctors name & that he was bleeding. They told him they would get to him ASAP, which didn't happen. After 2 more rounds of him going to the bathroom & the desk, he came out of the bathroom and face planted on the floor from loss of blood. Things changed really fast after that. I know of 2 other people this happened to after a Colonoscopy.
My brother-in-law lost balance and couldn't walk without hanging on to furniture. he was home by himself. He phoned for an ambulance but was told to drive himself to the hospital, something he absolutely couldn't do. He phoned his sister to drive him to the hospital.
WHAT??? I didn't even know 911 could tell you that if you are calling to receive emergency care. I've never heard a story like this. That is outrageous!
My husband went to the ER by ambulance with a Gall Bladder attack. He had just before that EKG checks in the ambulance. He is 79. His condition changed in the ER and he became cold and clammy, he was in a wheelchair and couldn't hold his head up. He was delirious and so miserable that he kept looking at me and saying, "it hurts so bad", in a whisper. I reported this to the cage where the staff is supposed to work and they again said they "would tell the Nurse". I told the cage 3 times when things got worse that he was worse. He began to hurt all over, even his chest. He was covered with 2 blankets and I looked for a place to prop his head up on the walls. No second triage, or third-----no fluids for 2.5 hours, at least. This was at the largest hospital in Rio Rancho, NM. I thought that this is illegal. His heart was having many irregular beats when he finally got to the hospital floor. God spared his life from the medical care-less and disorganized!. Neither of the hospitals here have triage in the ER, and patients just suffer, maybe when an ingrown toenail was being treated. Thank you for this information!
Don't diss the ingrown toenail. A diabetic can die from one. If the infection spreads, things get bad. If skin problems, psoriasis, eczema, fungal infection, etc., occur it goes bad quickly for a diabetic or others with additional medical issues. Don't diss the ingrown toenail.
I gave lupus and have had to go to the ER more than once. My family is on STRICT ORDERS; I even have it in my medical directives, I have taken a video of myself saying the following and have sent it to my family. They are under no circumstances to bring me to my local ER which is literally 3 minutes away. They are to bring me to the “good ER” that is 30 min away. I have legally documented that I rather die on the highway than be go to the closest ER.
Dr. Kavey - you are appreciated and I’m sure respected by your patients. By watching your videos I grew up in the early 60’s, GOD forbid how dare I even ask a question, and with my Parent’s with me I never opened my mouth. I’m in my late sixties now, I do advocate, question & do a lot of research. By doing so, I have two Doctors my PCP & my Cardiologist that help me take very good care of me. They both more patients would speak up and be engaging, rather than just listening. THANK YOU!❤
This is awful! I had sepsis once and they let me leave the emergency room then they called me to come back because obviously the culture came back and I sat in the waiting room for about four or five hours. I’m like yeah, sepsis could lead to organ failure really fast, but let’s not hurry. 🙄
Once I had chest pains and drove my self to the ER. As soon as I said chest pains I went in front of everyone and they did the triage. Turns out I was only dehydrated but amazed at the work they did that night.
I have severe Crohns and have had a bowel resection- 1 1/2 feet removed)and because I have a drug history (2 DECADES clean), I have been left in the waiting room for 8+ hours. I live in the BAY AREA and I am terrified to go to the hospital because Kaiser has dismissed me SO MANY TIMES! They think I’m “drug seeking “. I, too, have been on the floor crying in severe pain and was ignored. During a kidney procedure, the people in Kaiser Vallejo drew a penis on me with over 100 “pubic” hairs . I still feel so violated 😭It was on my bikini line so it wasn’t immediately apparent ( also I was so swollen and on pain medication from the procedure.) Thanks for this video ❤
There's many doctors in Oklahoma (not all) that are no good!!!! My first back surgery doctor screwed me up worse than I was originally, which was acute! I had 3 bsd disc's. He would not listen to me. I had to literally get balagurent before he'd do anything (after surgery). He said I had only 1bad disc. I said, no, there's 3!! He finally said OK, go get an xray. Of course I did!!. His words were "well, there is a bad disc but it wasn't there before, it's a different one". No, it's still the same 2. Even after that I still could not walk so he sent me to pain management. He was doing nothing more. Because of him I was flat on my back for 2 years!! I went to another doctor about 2 years later. He even said the previous doctor did not know what he was doing and that he put me through much pain that was unnecessary. Be careful who you go to God bless
Can 100% relate to this. This happened to me & my sister on July 4th last year. My sister slipped and fell the night before and nearly broke her leg and struck her head on concrete payment. The next morning her head hurt so bad she was dizzy and couldn't see straight and asked me to drive her to the E.R. We sat there for 10 hours waiting for help behind the massive crowd of homeless people who pack that ER on holidays to sleep, to the point where some patients had to sit on the floor. After 10 hours, an orderly came out and told us it would be, and I'm not kidding, 13 MORE hours before they'd get to her, despite her having a visible head wound. She asked me to drive her back home and had to wait until the next day when her local doctor's office was open to get help.
I went to the ER after being sick for several days with the flu(?) for difficulty breathing because urgent care was closed (it was middle of night).The doctor berated me - "What are you doing here wasting our time for a (blank)-ing cold? Go home!" No x ray done. She listened briefly to my breathing and apparently thought it was good enough. I went home and had to wait for urgent care to open at 7am. They did an x ray and turned out I had pneumonia, likely due to a secondary bacterial infection from the flu. It wasn't so bad that I was going to imminently die, which is apparently what had to happen before getting treated at the ER. I was going on 60 at the time, and I have COPD and almost died 10 years before from pneumonia because I waited too long to get help. I got a breathing treatment at urgent care, a script for a z-pac and inhaler, and was sent home. Boy, did I write a letter to the hospital administrators with a cc to that doctor, along with copies of my x ray results, treatment, and scripts from urgent care. Didn't hear a word back.
My gran was overweight, diabetic, with high blood pressure, had a previous heart attack, waited 2 hours, and was sent home being told it was indigestion. She almost died of a severe heart attack less than an hour later, and spent weeks in the ICU.
The last 4 times my family used the ER we were in the waiting room minimum of 8 hours for each visit. Once was for a head injury where the victim didn’t know who they were or where they were. I’m scared I might have to go back there someday.
I knew a young man who was in his 30s went to St Mary’s Hospital ER and they believed he was drug seeking but he was having a heart attack. Other people were willing to let him go first but medical staff made him wait. He went into cardiac arrest they tried to revive him a couple of times and he ended up in a coma and sent to a nursing home where he died.
If you think you are having a heart attack, tell them. Tell them you have chest pain, and it's hard to breathe. I went through a period in my life when I would go to ER for panic attacks, thinking the worst and I was seen so fast. Also, if I had to wait, they did an EKG on me before I sat in the waiting room. That's absolutely terrible that man didn't get treatment! Use your phone to google translate. It is upsetting being that the Bay Area is so diverse with many languages spoken and no one helped?!
Problem is, you don't want them to think you are one of these people who come in with a self-diagnosis after having googled their issues. Doctors like coming to their own conclusions.
My sister in law went to her doctor, and due to very high blood pressure, he told her to the ER. She did, and while there, she had a stroke. She walked into the ER of her own accord, and has never walked again. It’s been a year now. So sad. She was having a stroke while sitting waiting. 😢
oh we have them up here in Oregon too, same issues. as soon as i saw the name it all made sense. Honestly I've given up the fight to be heard, I am an obese black woman every aspect of life is a battle and trying to get people to acknowledge you are a human is exhausting. its especially frustrating when its in the mental health department bc unless you are at the extreme end, no one notices, cares, or believes you about your pain.
Your comment brought me to tears. I am so very sorry you have these experiences; I can’t even imagine what that must be like. Please remember we are souls having a human experience and one day when you leave this crazy planet, peace and love will be waiting for you - you will be home again.
I would never wait eight hours in an E.R., there are usually more than one hospital in a Metropolitan area. Go home and call an ambulance! Having said that, I had a NSTEMI heart attack five years ago August 10...they almost sent me home because NSTEMI heart attacks do NOT show up on an EKG. My troponin levels showed I WAS having an attack. He ended up keeping me because of my medical and family history and the troponin results. Ended up having emergency angioplasty. Also, ladies! We don't always have the same symptoms as men. I thought my esophagus had ruptured because the hideous, burning pain in BOTH sides of my chest, I thought I had inhaled stomach acid. The arm pain didn't start until 5-6 hours into the attack. Be aware and self-advocate.
My daughter was hit by a truck on an icy crosswalk in Montreal and waited 14 hours to be seen by a doctor even though she was brought in by ambulance. She was not obviously bleeding, but she had a concussion. She speaks French, but is an Anglo. She was luck she wasn't more badly hurt, but she could have died from internal brain bleed and a nurse wouldn't have checked for hours!
I worked cath lab the last 15 years of my career. This incident occurred quite a few years ago, during the winter, when our emergency rooms were extremely busy, A young woman of 29 went to a ER at a hospital in our city. She had chest pains, sweating. She sat in the ER at this other hospital for 8 hours. She went home. After an hour her symptoms were getting worse. She came to our ER, and immediately was brought to our cath lab, She had a 100% blockage of her Left anterior descending artery. We open it with balloon and stent. She did well and eventually went home. This girl was a diabetic, and we're not sure why the other hospital had her waiting so long, other than they thought she was dealing with a high blood sugar or other diabetic issue.
I had this happen to me in Anniston,Al after I arrived to the ER I told them I thought I was having a heart attack and that I had had four previous heart attacks and I sat in the waiting room for four hours and that's when I walked out and drove a hour to Birmingham,Al VA hospital and was admitted with unstable angina. Had I not have left and it had gotten worse I probably would have died like this poor guy did. I've had two additional heart attacks since and I refuse to go anywhere near the hospital that just left me sitting for four hours. I always go somewhere else and where I live is in the stick's so I had to be flown out and they carried me to a different hospital that was on top of it before I even got there.
I have had Epilepsy for 63 years and been taken to the hospital by friends or by them calling 911 and going by ambulance. when brought in by friends I have actually had a second tonic clonic seizure while in the ER waiting room. I don't know if this is the same everywhere, but going by ambulance has always taken me into the ER immediately no waiting in a waiting room. If you suspect something may be serious, I suggest calling 911, instead of someone driving you.
I have friends who are long time paramedics incl air ambulance. In Canada you’re triaged no matter what by a triage nurse. Too many use an ambulance to get triaged ahead. Some drive in because the wait for ambulance is too long. An ambulance shouldn’t be tied up for this so they’re avail for life threatening emerg or those who truly can’t make it in by car.
@@jmc8076in America we fix that by not making insurance cover ambulance rides. So people with chest pain, broken legs, post ictal, they just drive themselves in and hey, they usually don’t kill anyone else on the way from dying in the car while driving!
@@jmc8076 That is why a said serious. he was talking about someone dying in a waiting room after waiting for 8 hours. If he would of called 911 to begin with, and went by ambulance he most likely would still be alive'
I am disabled, transgender, have chronic pain, and mental health issues. Literally ANY ER I go to unless I am bleeding out of my eyes tells me Im having an anxiety attack or I need to lose weight or my personal favorite they treat me like a drug seeker. Fun fact I have had 2 cancers, covid twice and 2 blood clots all missed by ERs for one reason or another.
I was completely dismissed for a septic infection and was immediately discharged because I had a lighter leash on my purse. Was told " why help you" I just keep a lighter I don't even smoke. History of osteomyelitis and diabetes sent home. Now a year later toe infection went to foot looking at loosing it. Because of a hateful ER Dr
My grandson found the exact opposite problem with "I'm dizzy". He used that excuse for skipping a class. I had a feeling he was lying, so I took him to urgent care. He's a pretty hairy teenager. They did not shave his chest before putting heart leads on and got a wonky result and sent us to the ER for a right ventricular hypertrophy. After 8 hours in the ER, the triage people immediately shaved him and got a better result. After 4 months of waiting to see a pediatric cardiologist, with not so much as a call to set an appt, I took him to my doctor, who is a teaching doctor. My doctor said if he truly had the hypertrophy, he'd be dead by now. It definitely taught my grandson a lesson- 55 minutes of skipping class isn't worth all that.
In the early 2000s, my husband had appendicitis. He had had the pain for a couple of days, and it was getting much worse. He was in the ER waiting room for over 8 hours, and they keep taking less critical cases. I asked the desk when they were going to find him a bed in the ER, and I told them how we would rather have a nice New Year’s Eve somewhere else, and that if anything happened to him, I was going to sue them and the hospital. Suddenly they found a way for him to be seen. The care inside the ER was good, and the care in the hospital after his appendectomy was good, but the triage was a disaster. I was so disgusted at the contempt they had for my husband and me. I am sure part of it is my Kentucky accent. Both of us are white, so being white dies not ensure proper treatment at an ER. After my husband’s experience at that ER, when I was having cardiac issues, I went to another hospital with a good record for cardiac care. I had to wait an hour there, before being seen. A couple of nurses were obsessed with insisting I had used illegal drugs, and when I became angry, the last nurse asked my husband if I was telling the truth. Insisting I used drugs only made my cardiac symptoms worse, so I ended up in the Chest Pain Observation Unit. I still see the cardiologist on call that evening. He believed me, and he had a great bedside manner. There is nothing better than treating a patient with respect and kindness.
I have a calcified aorta and now, RIGHT NOW, I have chest pain. I have had a high white count for three years. I have Sutter Health (after having the best care in the world in Silicon Valley). If Sutter cannot even prescribe my headache medication I certainly have no intention of going there for chest pain. I’d rather just lay in my own bed.
My mom was in triage for 4 hours . Then got into Emergency waiting room on a gurney bed. Then they moved her to a chair where she sat for over 8 hours. She did say something after 8 hours being in a chair that she needed to be in a medical bed in ER. That fell on deaf years., so she has me to take her home, while leaving the doctor saw her leaving and told her , she is very sick. My mom answered I know , but this 80 year old is not sitting in a chair any longer. I took her home , next day I get call that the old age home found her on the floor and she is back in hospital. Go there and she is in ER in hospital gurney bed. We were told she had blood poisoning , she never came home from hospital, after going back she passed away 2 weeks later
@@sabrinabowden-hughes1730 thanks, that happened in 2019. Where I live the the hospital and doctors are a complete joke in my opinion . There probably are some good doctors here, but I have not met any yet.
At my small town hospital when sitting with my very sick mother in the ER,we heard the dr and the nurses betting on what time the elderly man in the next bed would die. The dr was going out for a cigarette, and if the man was dead upon his return,the nurses had to buy coffee and donuts on break, if he was alive then then the dr lost lost the bet and he would buy. This was not a one time incident. They were laughing very inappropriate things. His family sitting with him, and possibly the patient himself, could hear it. When i reported it they claimed it was not wrong bc the drs and nurses cant take things too seriously bc it would cause them too much stress. So its perfectly acceptable. Can u believe that? His poor family.
My doctor once called an ambulance to get me to the E.R. because of symptoms and blood tests. Fortunately it turned out to not be a heart attack. The E.R.'s discharge letter said "walked in by herself to get checked out for chest pain". Either these folks are crazy overworked and burnt out, or they are biased.
A friend of the family died years ago, he was in a car accident, was brought to the ER for a broken arm, kept complaining that he was having chest pains. 6 hrs later they brought him back for xrays and he died on the xray table.
3 years ago, in Fort Myers Florida, I had to wait 22 hours to get into ER from chest pressure, dizziness, lethargic. Finally admitted with Acute Kidney Injury and had to spend 4 days there. It was very serious. I had to fight to stay awake and finally just took 2 chairs and put them together so I could someone lay down. The medical system is horrible.
My friend called an ambulance because i was on the bathroom floor sweating to the point my hair was dripping, absolutely no color, i was awake but could not really communicate, ...she had seen me 5 min before when i woke her up at 6 am to tell her to listen for my son in bed because my stomach was in such pain i was going to be in the bathroom...within 5 min i threw up, got extremely dizzy and all strength left my body, I felt extremely hot so i took my clothes off (although she said i was ice cold) and laid on bathroom floor so i didnt fall, felt the sweat dripping down every part of my body, felt the surge of extreme fatigue, loud whooshing in my ears, i began counting tiles to stay focused because i couldnt tell if i was breathing shallow or fast or slow i could hear her talk to me but i was in a zone and couldnt respond much. This was all in 5 min. By the time ambulance came i was fine mostly. Weak. Pale. But sweating stopped and i was able to talk and relay info. Went to ER...said it was gas. Sent me home. I was 19 yrs old. This happened once before at 17. It scared me to death then but to the T the sequence of events were the same. It happend 7 times total in my life. Each time exactly the same and typically starts before waking or very soon after. My husband witnessed the last one 3 yrs ago. (I am now 47) he was with me when it happend from start to finish which was a first time i had someone with me the entire time. He said based on his training in military and firefighter it appeared to him i was going into shock. But all we were doing is picking up grandsons toys off the floor and i got the familiar stomach pain and i know what that pain means. So he helped me to bathroom. I have IBS-C that started in my 30s so stomach pain is very common in my life but this certain pain is like 10 times worse. Ive had an extreme amount of tests done finally because i finally had a doctor take me very seriously but we found absolutely nothing.
I woke up one day about 15 years ago with extreme chest pain and shortness of breath. Was able to drive myself to the ER and they took me right away! Come to find out.. it was GERD.
One thing that frustrates me the most is if I had to go into the ER to get something for pain because of my sciatic nerve. I have had instances were doctors have automatically assumed that I was drug-seeking without even bothering to look at my medical history where they would have seen that I have sciatica. There's always that stigma that because they have had instances where someone comes in faking a condition and they're actually seeking drugs. It's a situation that makes it bad for everyone. But doctors should never assume that that's the case.
I threw up bile and passed out twice while my kidney was failing. They asked for a urine sample at triage, then sent me back to the waiting room. The sample was mostly bright red blood with large white chunks in it. I was a teen and I just remember realizing how sick you must have to be to actually be an emergency, if peeing blood and vomiting bile, and pain so bad you pass out isn’t enough to see a doctor, everyone else must be dead.
Seems pretty common. Back in 2018 in Chandler, AZ I was brought in by ambulance for left bundle branch block, chest pain, back pain, numbness and tingling in my left arm, a blood pressure over 180/120 and heart rate 170 after chasing my dog for 2 blocks. They immediately did a CT scan with results of a calcium score of 0. I sat in the waiting room for 8 and a half hours of them providing meds to lower my blood pressure and heart rate and it wasn’t coming down so they finally admitted me. A day later in the cath lab the cardiologist found I had an 80 % blockage of scar tissue of the LAD from pediatric cancer radiation treatment back in 1988.
I was sent to the ER from Urgent Care with an EKG showing I had had or was about to have a heart attack. I sat in the waiting room for over 4 hours. I had 2 submassive pulmonary embolisms that caused a heart attack & heart damage & a DVT. The doctors in the ER asked me how I got in there. I said I walked. They said according to your EKG, CT scan & blood work that's almost impossible. And to think not only did I walk in there but I sat in your waiting room for over 4 hours while you had evidence in your hand which is negligence!!!
Glad you're OK 👍
I live in UK 🇬🇧 and my doctor (physician) misdiagnosed my ruptured appendix as constipation. I ended up with peritonitis and septichemia and coma.
#GoodNightNurse! May I ask what part of the world you live in?😨 I live in Southeast Texas and anyone in the waiting room complaining of chest pain gets immediate medical attention FIRST!!
@gloriamaryhaywood2217 I live in Eastern North Carolina. I was trained in the medical profession the same as you said. If they came in a doctor's office & complained of chest pain to immediately call 911. If they show up in the ER with chest pain they immediately go to triage. I walked in with an EKG strip & letter from urgent care only 30 minutes old. The triage nurse repeated the EKG & got the same results. She also did blood work which showed my cardiac enzymes were through the roof! Yet, while they held onto this information, I sat in the waiting room for 4+ hours at the ripe old age of 47. Ridiculous! I could have coded right there in the waiting room & that's EXACTLY what my doctors told me! They said "Any one of those steps you took could have immediately killed you."
@@hollyw3434 Just mind boggling!...truly. Our Health care system is beyond broken. It's verrry Scary to know that we have to trust our Lives to such uncaring and unconscionable health care professionals!😨
@@hollyw3434 that’s crazy God bless and thank God you’re here to type that. Yeah, I’ve been to the hospital for cardiac issues aside from the one time. I went by ambulance if you go in here at least where I live in Southern California complaining of chest pain yeah they’ll get you back immediately to draw blood. Check your Troponin level and do an EKG if the EKG shows you’re in a normal sinus rhythm and they don’t think you’re going to drop dead immediately then it’s back to the waiting room for however many hours. Crazy!
They misdiagnosed my wife. They said she was pregnant. She wasn't. Went to another Dr. And he said she had cysts,8 center meters large. She ended up with Ovarian Cancer stage 4. Thank God we had the right Dr. She is still here today.
Ovarian cancer. I had that, caught early because I was in excruciating pain. This is after I left the closest ER because they didn’t see sudden severe abdominal pain as an emergency. Then the gyn on call said it was basically nothing. I read the radiology report. It had a blood supply. If I hadn’t been a nurse and well aware this doctor was an idiot, I’d be dead. It’s very dangerous to be a woman with pain in the ER.
My family doctor misdiagnosed me. I presented many times. Eventually my husband had to take me to the Notfall Klinik ( I live in Switzerland). Within one hour I had been given a CT scan and a diagnosis. It was crushing. Stage 4 ovarian cancer. Treatment was so swift it left me more stunned. Today I had a CT scan and my routine blood tests. I have an appointment on Tuesday for results. He didn't make me wait. He emailed me as soon as he got the results. Still no recurrence. One year after chemotherapy finished, 15 months after major surgery
That's wonderful, wishing you all the best!!
Centimeters- not "centers meters"
Don't they need a urine or blood test to confirm pregnancy?
2 years ago I had a colon bleed and went to ER on doctors orders. Told them I was sent because of bleeding...10 hours later I called my husband to come get me I was laying on the floor in ER and ignored, I could not advocate for myself too weak...he took me home (one hour drive from host.) called the ambulance, they freaked out when they heard the nightmare I had been though...took me in and ended up in ICU for 4 days hosp for 10 days took 5 units of blood and 4 different procedures to get bleeding stopped!...I'm 74 and have lasting effects due to anemia and losing muscle from bed ridden etc...broken health care system is killing us!!
Crazy!
@@jennyray4698 so similar to what happened to me. I am sorry that you did not get better care. We all need better care. I blame it all on corporate medicine
The healthcare system definitely is chronically understaffed, but two years ago was Covid and everybody was running on fumes even more, but that is really no excuse. You could’ve had Covid for all they knew! How awful I’m so sorry!
Meniers will send you to the hospital and do nothing.My eyes we’re going left and right.Awful floor becomes ceiling spinning like a top.It happened in a dental office and Dr. said that I was just hysterical
@@rosannahutson9757 so sorry. This a cultural problem
Only a doctor would be shocked that something like that was happening in ER. They never see what goes on in the front of the ER.
I’ve never waited less than 3 hours. Some visits over 10. California was the longest wasted time in ER’s. Many non insured people go to Er for issues that a general GP could have handled, if they had insurance. Arizona, Montana, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon. All so full when I have had to go.
😬
@@michelleslifeonrepeat …or if our country wanted us to be healthy.
They should be asking.
Conversations I've had in the ER:
You're too young to be having stroke.
You don't look sick.
Why do you think you have epilepsy?'
Cussing at my invisible veins that are collapsing.
Insisting that I get up on my own, when I have POTS.
And my favorite question: What do you want us to do about it?
ETA: If you are coherent and educated enough to advocate for yourself, the staff will figure it's not really an emergency, because you "seem fine".
Ouch, ouch, ouch…..I’m sorry. Fellow POTS
As a fellow member of society with several shitty chronic illnesses, crap hospital care is why I'm glad that I have about half of the er treatments that I require here at home with multiple doses of each treatment and notes sitting with each treatment that states that I'm to present to er if I have to use those treatments except for if I'm feeling just _slighty_ dehydrated and haven't already ran a bag of saline in the past 7 years. The one that does get me in a interesting situation is my adrenal insufficiency but that is exactly why I have doses of iv hydrocortisone available here at home because in a crisis, my main symptoms are tanking blood sugars (fun times abound when you're under 60 blood sugar wise), low blood pressure and severe abdominal pain about four finger widths below the sternum in the middle- aka, right over the stomach.
But I am at least able to get my emergency treatment requirements on board at home (liter of saline with 10mls of D50W mixed in along with iv hydrocortisone) before making the trip to the er. I'm just lucky in part because of having a port that I can independently access and use for meds but also because my regular providers understand that the vast majority of hospitals around me to choose from are shit and don't listen to the patient when the patient knows what meds they need on board. Frick, my hallway closet looks like a small hospital supply/med room in a hospital and my regular doctors wouldn't have it any other way because they are aware that I can provide better care for myself vs going to the er/hospital as well as keeping them in the loop in case I don't feel er/hospital care is right for me but they do as they can call the hospital to make them aware that I'm going to be coming to them and to call me once they have a place to stick me in, particularly as the hospital knows that they just need a reclining chair in the hallway next to a outlet and I'll be golden with zero complaints about where they stick me.
@08:08, the cheat code there would have been to take him slightly off the hospital property, call 911, they would have to respond and red flags all over should have been going off for a heart attack. I would like to know the whole case, was it 8 hours without a simple EKG, if so that is gross negligence. Crazy thinking, I am not in a major metropolitan area but close enough to one, simply saying chest pain, that gets you a ticket to the front of the line, maybe not to the back, but triage and a EKG, and blood work while being sent back out to wait. If they could articulate that the patient was having chest pain how could it be ignored for 8 hours?
Omg I have had similar experiences! I just posted about my experiences-when calm they think you’re fine and if you cry, you’re overly emotional. Ugh!!!
@yocheved.....I was in the hospital and a dr said no pain meds because I was acting fine. And my complaint of nausea was bs because I was acting fine. While I'm hurling. I told him I got sick again and he rushes to look for puke bag I garbage like I'm lieing. The nurse took it. Crazy. Bood pressure was 250 over 110.
I got a call from lab telling me to go to ER as my hemoglobin was 5.4 and I was critical. I went, was not believed, ignored. After about 3 hours, and the intake was examining her belly button, I called 911 and told the police that I was in danger and the ER would not treat me. She overheard me, panicked and checked my blood, saying oh my god your hemoglobin is 5.4. Several hours later I finally got a transfusion.
As someone with anemia, trying to stay awake and concentrate with hemoglobin that low is nearly impossible. I can't imagine adding that stress on top, so sorry you went through that.
@Gail_Pr468 Holy crap. I *sincerely* hope you were able to sue those morons since they nearly cost you your life. And thank you for the tip: I've been left abandoned in an ER like that before (it's happened twice while there with my injured sister) and it never occurred to me to try dialing 911 from *inside* the ER waiting room. Good move; that saved your life.
I’m so sorry to hear your story. How frightened you must have felt. Thank G-d you’re alive to share your story 🙏💙🙏
Had the same situation,but my hemoglobin was even lower. No veins showing,white colored gums. Things have to change now!
I had a similar situation. I was bleeding through my gums due to low counts due to chemo. I had leukemia. I called my heme/onc and was told to go to the nearest hospital and get checked out as my treating hospital was an hour away. I was made to wait 4hrs only to be lifeflighted to the bigger hospital. The doc chewed out the triage nurse for not taking me seriously. I desperately needed both blood and platelets. Something the small town hospital didn't even have.
The emergency room doctor I had gave me morphine for my severe intestinal pain. Never checked for infection or anything. The pain was unbearable. The morphine wasn’t working. The emergency doctor told me to stop complaining, so “everyone could get on with their lives.”
My sister demanded this hospital take me to a different hospital. She knew something terrible was wrong because I never complain about anything. When I got to the second hospital they realized I needed emergency surgery to remove my colon. I almost died in the first hospital. Thank God my sister was with me! Thank you for your VERY important video! I hope a lot of people see your video because it will save lives! 🥰
That is so disappointing to hear from a doctor, really sorry you had to go through that. Glad your sister stood up for you ,💞
@@zapbutton8553
Thank you, 🦋
8 hs in a ER waiting room after having been there earlier in the day due to severe neck shoulder and chest pain. After blood tests and xrays they send me home with a bottle of pain meds. The pain only got worse and I was back later that night - ended up waiting 8 hours to be seen again. They didn't see me until after the shift changed on the ER desk, my best guess is they thought I wanted more pain pills, I did not, nor did I have a history of pill seeking. When they finally did see me again, and did another chest scan and more blood tests, they had to pack me up immediately and ship me to a neighboring hospital for emergency surgery. Apparently I had a blood infection that developed at the site of a past surgery and infected several bones at the site of the scar. I ended up having 2 surgeries and spending 8 days in the hospital followed by 30 days of IV antibiotics. It was horrible. I warn people now that the only way to arrive at a hospital ER is via an ambulance. Walk ins do not seem to be taken seriously until it is too late.
I experienced similar neglect, and came to the conclusion that you need to take an ambulance to the hospital to get real treatment.
😪🙏
That is horrible sorry you experienced that had the same exact thing happen had to do 6 weeks of antibiotics Iv had to have hardware removed from my foot Dr wanted to amputate my foot but I declined he said their would be a less than 10% chance of saving my foot but I insisted to go on iv antibiotics plus a combination of natural supplements and homeopathic medicine as of now finished my 6 weeks and was lucky enough to clear the infection believe the homeopathic supplements made all the difference.
I agree about the ambulance. It makes a huge difference as to how soon you are seen!
TRUTH!!
I took my sister to supposedly a great hospital in Ormond Beach fl. She had severe abdominal pain. She was bent over gripping her stomach and barely conciouz. I asked for a wheel chair and the man told me to hold her up! What?
I raised my voice when I realized the kind of people I was dealing with. I demanded a wheelchair and an ice pack to keep her from fainting.
When they took her in they gave her an ultrasound and said she was constipated. Shocking to her because that was never her problem. They sent us to the drug store for items to fix that problem but my sister said, no. She knew it was something else. Turns out it was a cyst on her ovary that was about to burst and a twisted fallopian tube. She was scheduled for surgery the next day by her own Dr.
Oh gosh, I had the exact same issue and it is incredibly painful. I would use my iPhone and record these medical “un-professionals” without them knowing. Be sure to make sure it’s a state that allows recording w/o consent from who is being recorded. Could help in a law suit.
@@stephanieviolette593
Titusville here. Was your hospital north of you? Or south of you. Because our dinky hospital (you know the one) almost killed my husband, and left me in the ER with a seriously busted tibia for 30 hours, no pain meds, (can’t take ‘em,) while they waited for a part to come in. What is it about our east coast hospitals??
The fact the family called 911 from the ER and still he was not prioritized; tells me how bad the service was. Hope they sue and get a huge pay off from Kaiser
I had Kaiser for 9 years! This doesn't surprise me! In California, I was told you can't sue your HMO! I found out the hard way!
@@barbaracordell2648
States have also enacted laws which stop victims from suing doctors and hospitals by severely limiting, capping the payout amount.
I recently had a dental problem caused by 2 different dentists not sending me for proper care in a timely fashion.
I have no insurance. I called and told my story to about a dozen legal firms in my area. All refused to take my case. It was going to cost me atleast $10,000 and that's if there were no complications.
I was told that my state--Nevada, has passed bills basically making it so difficult for the victims legally that no more attorneys find it's worth their time & money to pursue.
I guess a dentist could kill you and get away with it where I live. 😫❗️
It seems like gaslighting is a common thing
It is.
Right?? Doctor is trying to gaslight us patient to "speak up" because he doesn't wanna admit it's THEIR mistake for not listening and for neglecting their patients.
It's everywhere
It really is. I wish more than anything that I could bring along a husband or brother (I’m single and don’t have a brother!) to my doc appointments/ER visits because I can tell I am ignored because I am fat, female, middle aged, but not old enough to look like I should really be having heart attacks/cancer/etc. yet. Funny enough, I DID get diagnosed with cancer two years ago. In my early 40s. I was in the ER for 22 hours (never given a room!) before they finally brought me in (looking shocked) to show me a mass on my ovary. Yep…
@@StephanieDefinitelyMany women have related only getting proper attention with a man along. Man doesn’t even have to say anything, just be there, and suddenly they aren’t being dismissed as having “anxiety” and are getting a proper work-up… 🤦♀️
I’ve worked in emergency medicine since the 1970’s. Emergency health care has degraded from wonderful to horrific.
Yes. Tragic.
When I worked in a local doctors office I told people point blank if they had a half hour to spare they should go anywhere else and avoid the local ER.
Why? In what way? Do you know why ER visits are 10-12 hours wait times?
@@JackieDailey because working in hospitals in general and emergency rooms in particular is awful these days. Like seriously every single hospital nurse I’ve talked to has thought about wrecking their car so they don’t have to go to work that day. 12 hour shifts burn you out, there’s never enough people, every day is a nightmare of wondering if this will be the day your staffing situation gets someone killed…
Being skilled at triage is undervalued. It takes someone with guts/balls as often your own team will give you pushback and question your best-effort decisions. I triaged a pt with CC “leg pain” and the physician walked out to my area to dress me down about “what the hell was I doing making leg pain level 2” patient has no pedal pulses, found massive abdominal/pelvic blood clot, immediately to vascular OR. He never came back and apologized. If she had waited hours, she could have had a tragic outcome.
I'm happy I live in Central IL. Last Tuesday 7/9. I was diaphoretic, checked my blood sugar it was 130, so not that. Took warm shower did not tary. Put on shirt underwear and shorts. Thought cereal would be good, took 1 bite knew I shouldn't do, googled women heart attack, called 911, told them I was having heart attack or panic attack. When I was in ambulance they ran EKG, said you are in a middle of heart attack. Then my left arm was squeezing and back started to hurt. Lights and sirens to hospital, Dr was waiting for me, Cath lab and triage people had me up in cath lab in 10 minutes. 100% blockage LAD, 2 stents placed. I was office medical receptionist for 47 years and we had in-service training as women and men's symptoms are different for heart attacks. Thank you for putting out videos to educate the public.
About 40% of the way through, sound was gone
I was driving home from work and started feeling pressure in my chest. Did not feel like the asthma I have had for years. Then I started to have pain in my left arm. I thought “heart attack” just after I passed the turnoff for a hospital. Continued on, said, “if I have one more symptom, I am heading for the hospital near my home.” Just before my exit, my palms got sweaty. I headed toward the hospital, taking the less busy street with ditches to stop my car if I collapsed. Pulled up, told the security guard and then the triage nurse that I was having a heart attack and my symptoms. She got me back for an ECG in minutes. The readout strip was folded quickly and put in a pocket, the tech told me to stay where I was and she RAN down the hall! Soon, I was pushed in a gurney at a very fast pace down the halls into a room where a series of people each did one thing to disrobe me, get me in a gown, ask a question or two, put in an IV, give me oxygen, and so on. It was like a play, each saying their lines or doing their thing and exiting my bedside. A doctor behind a monitor, at a podium received each report from them and directed the whole thing. You could tell they were a team following a protocol and had practiced it until it was perfect. It turns out I had a 90% blockage in one tiny artery around the back of my heart. The surgeon woke me in the cath lab to show me the screen. “See how big your vessels are in your heart? That means there is no plaque build up in your coronary arteries, they are as clean as a whistle, all except this little one here! And it is blocked.” My heart attack had classic male heart attack symptoms. I knew that because I was the cardiac social worker at my first job out of grad school. I am female!
Yes! Thank you for sharing your experience and I'm glad you made it out okay! Please don't stop telling your experience! It could save a life! ❤
I'm a nurse of 28 years and worked 10 of those years in Emergency/Trauma. Women definitely have different heart-attack symptoms sometimes. At times they can be very vague. About 15 years ago I had a lady of 50-something who presented with left wrist pain, mild shortness of breath but her biggest complaint was that she "just feel off/out of sorts." Thankfully she came in as she was in the midst of a full blown heart attack! She only rated her wrist pain as a "5." She ended up having bypass surgery and recovered nicely.
I have been an LN for a very long time. I thought I was having a heart attack & drove myself to the ER. (Yeah I know) when I walked in, I knew exactly what to say. Before I could sit down, they called me back. They did a stat EKG, & with a shocked look on their faces, they told me I had to stay. I did not have a heart attack. It was stress from the recent death of my mom.
I went to the ER a week after having a baby. It was a postpartum hemorrhage. The ER staff put me into a private room in the ER and left my husband and me there alone for approximately 20 minutes-I told my husband to go get someone because I was going to go unconscious. He went out and pitched a fit, a nurse came in and my BP was 60/40. They scrambled to get an IV in as all the veins were collapsing. If I had been by myself, without him there to advocate for me, I would have quietly passed away by myself in that room!
The hospital that is 1 mile from my house used to be the best hospital in the state. It was taken over by Penn Highlands and it's no longer about quality care. Extremely sad.
My daughter had COVID and was puking for weeks. We went to the emergency room one day and we were sitting there (knowing she had COVID) in a normal waiting room for over 9 hours. We went home and went back the next day and another 8 hours and we left. Day 3 we were there over 8 hours and they finally got her back. Her blood work showed starvation levels from all the puking. She has a rare genetic disease and was life flighted. This is how bad she was and we couldn't even triaged the first 2 days. When they admitted her, she was dying. The hospitalist wouldn't call her geneticist ( I don't know why ...ego??) and finally I called and that doctor made it happen to have her life flighted to Pittsburgh and she was better in 24 hours. The damage done I'm so bitter about though.
I come from a family full of doctors and nurses so we are excellent patients. This hospital has went down hill
When I woke up in a hallway after a major car wreck the best care I got was from the state trooper who responded. He held on to my purse and phone and came in as soon as I was awake. Kind and supportive he asked why I was in a hallway? After I answered his few questions he handed me the bag and told me my phone looked OK. As soo as he left I called my brother and while talking to him said loudly I guess I have to call my lawyer. not because of the accident, the hospital. I was in a hall almost two days. I had a broken hip and five back breaks. They tried to get me up on a walker so they could send me home in a Uber. They hadn't even taken X rays. I pitched a fit and got immediate transfer to another hospital 100 miles away. close to my home If the place burned down it would probably save people.
My local hospital was taken over by Penn Highlands too and the quality of care has really gone down hill ever since. I'm sorry that happened to your daughter. I hope she is alright now.
Don't they care for people at all anymore? I don't understand this cruelness.
I'm at the point where I'd literally rather DIE than go to the emergency room because I am on pain management and I am treated like a drug seeker, regardless of why I go in, EVERY time I've gone. The ER dismisses me and once it almost cost me my life. I was so sick and my gut was hurting and they said "you have the stomach flu, go home and come back if you have a fever." I kept telling them no, something is really wrong. They wouldn't conduct any tests. So I went home and my daughter found me at the top of the stairs in the early morning hours on deaths door. My bowel perforated soon after getting home in the late night from the ER and my entire body was septic. I was in an induced coma for 8 days while they cleaned me out, then I had to wait 2 weeks to get stronger and go into surgery to cut away all the torn colon and give me rows of staples. Turns out I had diverticulitis and one was infected and it perforated. They said I was the youngest person they had ever seen with it. That was the start of the downhill medical spiral and it traumatize my daughters seeing me lifeless at the top of the stairs.
I hope you are feeling better now. That's a horrible experience. I was treated like a drug addict and heard them saying there wanted to release me before they even saw me. 8 had 2nd and 3rd degree burns and they were infected. Not only did they treat me badly but they send a nurse in to wrap it with gauze. Gauze is like sandpaper on a burn. I was in horrible pain, worse than anything I've ever felt before and they made it way worse. The next day my doctor took care of the burn but I'll never forget they way they treated me. I put a bad review and tell everyone because it's not just me but my son as well. I just refuse to go in now.
Me too they don't care especially if you are a different race then white
Me too. I’ve found as a nurse who worked in critical care and ER for 40 years. I’m now disabled and chronic pain patient. You must speak up for yourself.
My husband is 65. He was asked, in the ER, if he smoked marijuana. He said that he had tried it as a kid. He was listed as a drug seeker.
@@kristaking1, you do you.
I've always found that the weakest link in hospital care is the first person you talk to when you walk in.
I was in the ER waiting to be seen for hours and while there, a woman was rolling on the floor crying in excruciating abdominal pain and vomiting and she begged for help. She was triaged and sent back to the waiting room. She waited 2 more hours and her husband finally took her to another ER.
I was in extreme pain and so weak I couldn't sit. I actually was so weak I slid off the chair unto the floor and couldn't get up. The nurse came in and told me to get up off their floor.
This happens in my local hospital all the time 😢 they’re so understaffed it doesn’t matter if you’re screaming on the floor
I went into the emergency room for a really bad migraine, usually I can mentally dissociate enough to stay calm because getting emotional makes the pain worse. But at this point, I had tried everything and I literally felt like somebody was driving a drill into my skull and I was screaming and crying and snot running down my face because Valsalva maneuver actually stopped the pain temporarily until I had to stop and breathe. But I was getting exhausted from doing it and the pain wasn’t going away. I sat there, screaming and crying and nose and eyes running all over trying to maintain the Valsalva maneuver - I couldn’t do it. I think it took about a half an hour of this before they find the moved me into a quiet dim room and magically the migraine started to go away.
They gave me a little Dilaudid, which did almost nothing at that point except make me a little nauseated .
I think I have been to urgent care and the ER maybe three times for migraine and after the first time they started treating me like a drug seeker so I stopped even bothering after three times. They came up with this ridiculous protocol of trying to get fluids into you first to see if that helped. And then an hour later maybe they would give you Toradol and if that didn’t they would give you morphine. (the first time, in urgent care, they gave me Demerol and that was wonderful, but they eventually stopped doing that because people were actually seeking it. But I was maybe doing this once a year because the last thing I wanna do when I have a migraine is getting into a car and drive or be driven anywhere and then have to go deal with other people.
So then, when they tried to do the IV they couldn’t get a vein because I was having a migraine and I’m a hard stick on a good day, and they knew this. The guy had to fish around for a vein and then he went to an infant needle and catheter to try and get that thing going. He finally got it in a vein, but could not keep the IV going even with it set to pump the fluid in. I think I got about 200 mL in in four hours of waiting. Eventually, the migraine, kind of started to go away it up and I was climbing the walls. I was so angry. So they gave me Toradol. I wasn’t gonna wait for the morphine because it wasn’t any point anymore. (morphine makes me terribly sick anyway). I’ve never been back. Literally for anything yet, and that had to be 20 years ago. But my migraines are chronic now so…. plenty of other reasons to be gaslit. Overtime, though I think I have finally established with the medical community that I am not anxious to take pain meds. But that I do have an actual chronic condition that makes me non-functional because of the pain or partly functional if I have to take the pain meds.
During that initial couple of years when they were treating me that way at the ER, I eventually quit my job because I just couldn’t function there when I was constantly having headaches and having to take pain meds. (also had undiagnosed endometriosis at the time which was making things worse).
Once I had surgery for endometriosis, I got off all my pain meds for several years because I just didn’t need them , never saw the doctors except maybe once a year except for physicals.
It just really bites that you have to spend so many years to establish yourself as not trying to game the system, in order to get the help you need.
@@paulacoyle5685 how horrible!
@@paulacoyle5685 I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that. Migraines are just the worst... my daughter has severe migraines and she said that magnesium helps somewhat. She's tried just about everything under the sun...
I was very lucky when I showed up with severe sepsis at the emergency room 2 days after gall bladder surgery that my gastroenterologist was working at the hospital at the time. He knew that I had had gall bladder surgery a few days before. He suspected I had a bile leak and was septic. He immediately had me put on fluids and antibiotics. The last thing I remember was going to the operating room get the bile leak fixed and woke up on a ventilator a week later. I was in the ICU for about 3 weeks. Luckily I didn't lose any extremities, only some hair later. The actual surgeon who did the gall bladder surgery was very arrogant and said that I needed to get out of bed and start walking. Never mind that I had lost quite a bit of muscle mass and physically could not walk yet. My gastro was standing behind the surgeon and rolled his eyes. Later he told me that he felt the surgeon was out of his depth when things go wrong and it was going to take some time to get my strength back. I found out later that the mortality rate for this type of sepsis is 72%. Having antibiotics and fluids administered in the first few hours after I arrived saved my life.
Ohhh, that's scary just to read about! I developed Sepsis while undergoing aggressive chemotherapy treatments. It was a rough ride, a very frightening experience, and yes, I truly felt that I could easily die from it as I was Sooo very sick!! Yes, getting medical treatment in as short amount of time as possible is Everything!!! It's most assuredly THE thing that Saved Your Life!!🙏
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 I really didn't realize how close to death I was until about 2 weeks after I was off the ventilator. I've asked my husband what happened while I was unconscious, but he can't really talk about it yet. Hope you have success from the chemo, best wishes for the future.
@@allieg4011 Oh, I've been in remission now going on almost 10 years! But thank you all the same. 😊
Its so unfortunate every time I hear a nurse or a doctor say something along the lines of “You’re too young to be having (insert whatever symptom you’re telling them you are experiencing) “.
My boyfriend went to his doctor with chest pain down the left side and what felt like bad heartburn and other symptoms. He was a diabetic and his glucose had been in the 600s. They took his bloodpressure and told him he was too young to have a heart attack and sent him home. He passed away a few hours later of a massive heart attack at 39.
😢 So sorry.
I am so sorry for your loss. That’s insane that they ignored his glucose being at 600!!! He OBVIOUSLY needed medical help immediately!
My partner died in his early 40
The answer was
Who thought it could happen
He’s to young
Yup, i had called 911 when my hubby suffered seizures in the doctor's waiting room. A lot of the patients help to hold him down. The EMS came & was shocked & asked where are the nurses, i said behind the glass window just watching us like a side show. Sad but true.
Yes. I have epilepsy, and a woman was having a seizure. I called for a nurse, who told me I was making it up for attention.
I'm glad you called 911 for help. In most doctor's offices, the 'nurses' behind the glass are not nurses. They're receptionists, CNA's, medical techs. However, anyone of them should have been able to come out and assist you and your husband!
@@PanamaRoseexactly, the people up front are not nurses and the vast majority of the time are not medical personnel at all.
Please do not hold down someone who is having a seizure. Make sure they are on the floor or away from objects that could hurt them, holding them down is very dangerous not only to the one having the seizure.
EMS should know better that there are no nurses at the doctor's office and you shouldn't assume that just because pl wear scrubs or work at a doctor's office, they are qualified to help you in urgent situations
Even as an employee in a Trauma Level I hospital and college of medicine, I had an abdominal issue, requiring 17 hospitalizations and 16 central lines. Finally, the Chair of Radiology, who was a dear friend, did the studies himself and discovered a deep incisional hernia. I was inpatient nine days because I needed IV iron infusions abd four units of blood transfusions. My blood type is AB negative with hard to match antigens. Blood had to be flown from another hospital five hours away. Almost two weeks later, I was admitted for abscesses in my right lung, liver and diaphragm. The lung abscess caused anorexia and I lost 35 lbs in two weeks. The ID team could not find one antibiotic, so they had three, to which I was allergic and needed lots of Benadryl. My dearest friend was the Director of Critical Care Medicine/Pulmonology and was urged to do a bronchoscopy. He found a very thin airwave in my right lung, so there was hope, despite the risks involved. During my third week of hospitalization, the Chief Surgical Resident came to see me and confided in me that he may have not "adequately irrigated the surgical field during the abdominal case." I told him that God alone knows, that we are a teaching hospital and just be thorough next time...and I have every confidence he will. I hold the Attending accountable (also a friend and I was the organist/music director in his church!) Needless to say, I have a permanent power port. I had cancer after that illness...chemo attacked my right kidney...it was more painful than 26 hours of labor and the pain was not adequately controlled for a 10-day inpatient stay. I was on the chemo floor if another hospital. A medically qualified friend recently stated, "Our health system us in a world of hurt." Your timely commentary proves her point. I have FIVE surgical procedures planned over the next 12 months for repair of my entire right leg/ankle/foot injured in an airplane accident. Three surgeons and I would be so grateful if you were my anesthesiologist🏆🙏 So thankful for your exemplary effort to help patients whom you will never meet, but you ensure that we have the tools wr need to be informed advocates, for ourselves and for others. God's richest blessings.
Ive had 8 relatives die of heart attacks hours after being sent home from ER.
“You have acid reflux.” 🤦♀️
my mother died of a heart attack , after visiting E.R and gernal physician 😭 miss her every second
That’s horrible. 8????
This makes me so sad!
They are disgusting and need to be held accountable...
You would think that one of you dumbbells would have learned from the first one.
Wow! That’s terrible!
It's completely and utterly infuriating that something like this could EVER happen in an emergency room. Shameful. Shame on the staff, shame on the hospital's standards.
This past week, my father, 83, who recently had heart valve replacement surgery, fell from a seated position on the side of his bed after having either fallen asleep or passed out. He fell head first into the floor and was bleeding profusely from the nose. After not being able to get it stopped after two hours, my folks went to the ER and because it was so busy, had to stay in the waiting room for over 8 hours. He was taken back for various testing from time to time, but was brought back to the waiting room. The hallways were full with people on gurneys. He was finally admitted and ended up staying for three days total. He had broken his Clivus bone, a rare and dangerous break. I'm so upset that he was unable to get comfortable for so long while suffering pain and fear. We need more medical personnel so badly!!
Yall should have sued them for medical malpractice!
@@starrleo12 But what is the malpractice? I don't think there is any - just a terrible, miserable extra long time in ER.
Sounds like they need more rooms
They could admit out the halls then
Same thing in local Rochester ny hospitals
24-48 hr ER stays.
I watched a man die from a heart attack in the OR waiting area. It was horrible. They didnt have a telemetry unit on him (that was the first thing the doctor asked).
Right before he died (he had the blanket pulled up all the way to under his eyes), he pulled the blanket down and kept saying 'help please, can someone help me please'. He was quiet and the nurses ignored him. I was just about to say something and then he let out a blood curdling scream and died...
Right after that, they came around and put telemetry units on all of us. That isnt the worst of it... that was the second death i witnessed that day. And then i had to have surgery... i was SO terrified and sad and i still havemt recovered and it's been over a month now... 😢
I'm so sorry you had to witness such a horrible thing ❤
you can sue for damages of witnessing a death someone else caused. get the ER footage and help from a lawyer. go to a therapist and document everything. demand to see them twice a week, go on meds, request everything
I am so sorry.
@Brainjoy01 how about I just do what I've been doing and avoid doctors and hospitals at all costs... it's not their fault people died in front of us. I wouldn't sue them for that, but I sure am terrified of doctors and hospitals. Had to have an MRI rece tly and had to drug myself silly to go and I was still scared. I will get over it eventually... I've hired a hypnotherapist to help, but just can't see suing over something they can't controll. People die... you know?
I have both a mental health history and several autoimmune immune disorders. Any time a medical professional can’t run a standard test and get a simple answer, they blame either condition for the problem.
Same. They will watch us die waiting.
My young, vibrant mum had a heart attack in ER from being in extreme pain too long.
😭
That's awful. I've been there, standing at an ER window waiting while the blood was dripping on the floor from my jeans. That was years ago -- 1970 -- when I was an 18 year old, long haired hippy, and I was visiting New Engla,nd It was a half hour before a nurse walked through and noticed the blood on the floor. I reported my problem, but the bureacrat behind the desk was more interested in her paperwork. I feel for the man in Vallejo.
The Bay Area has many problems, and Kaiser-Permante hospitals has been a huge one for over 40 years.
Doc, sorry you're having so many technical problems. Sending Good Vibes your way! 💙🧙🏼♂️
Oh yes. I've known people stuck with going to Kaiser. The only thing worse I can think of is prison medicine.
Why does it have many problems? What’s going on there that isn’t in other places?
Kaiser of California was previously fined by the state for systemic issues that lead to aneurysm patients dying in their ER waiting rooms.
I truly feel once its in your charts you have a mental health diagnosis, or worse more than one diagnosis, i feel treated SOOOO differently than what I've seen many others experience
Yes they profile. You could be shot in the chest but if you're obese they say it's your weight. If the pain is so bad you're in a fetal position that's normal menstruation. But mental health is definitely the worst label
Sad but true. I went to an urgent care to be tested for strep throat and treated for a sinus infection and, because I have multiple autoimmune disorders and other health issues, the nurse had the audacity to tell me "you shouldn't come here, you should go to the ER because your health issues are too complicated". My primary care told me I should avoid ERs if possible because it exposes me to a lot more germs and they triage serious injuries ahead of a sinus infection so I'd have an extremely long wait and possibly go home even sicker than I was when I arrived.
Yes, I've seen this with my sister. Also, I'm fat, and get treated horribly for that too.
@@dawnhoughton4533 I'm sorry for that. It's happened to too may people I know
@@cail171 depending on who the staff are, there is a possibility of this. It’s unfortunate. Mental health care/understanding seems to be the last frontier
When I was teaching I had a seventh grade student who showed up looking very ill. He said he told his dad he felt bad but he made the boy come to school anyway. I took him to the office and it turned out to be appendicitis.
Thank God you were there to help him.
I went through the same situation with my mom, 19 years ago. She already had cardiac issues, as well as a bypass surgery that had gone wrong. She was having heart attack symptoms, when I finally was able to get her to the ER, due to snow. She couldn't walk(double foot amputee) and was in a wheelchair. We waited for 8 hours, for someone to take her back. There were not many people at all in the waiting area, and every time I went up to ask how much longer, we were told she was next.... At least 3 times.
After more than 8 hours, my mom said she just wanted to go home and go to bed.
The next morning, I call the ambulance to take her to a different hospital. They immediately took her in, admitted her, and told us it was bad. She passed away that night.
I would tell anyone and everyone that you must advocate for yourself. What happened to my mom was negligent, at the very least. I filed a complaint, and they supposedly investigated, only to tell me that they could not find anything negligent in her care. I have no faith in the United States Healthcare System.
Thank you, Dr. Kaveh, for all that you do. You helped us to feel heard, and treat us with dignity.
I’m very sorry for your loss.
This is so sad. I’m 73 w/female,widow. I have a satellite hospital a half mile from my home. I recently had some chest pain & trouble breathing,that was unlike anything I had ever had before. I suspected it was just heartburn but living alone I was concerned. My late husband was an ER Dr & I was fully aware of what could happen. I drove myself there,walked in & was taken back immediately at which time they started drawing blood,attaching the leads for EKG etc.
Most surprising was they didn’t even take my health insurance info.before taking me back. It wasn’t until they had pretty much accurately diagnosed that it wasn’t a heart attack that they sent someone back to the room to get that information. I guess I was really lucky. PS they didn’t know me or my late husband so I wasn’t receiving preferential treatment.
My heart goes out to this man’s family. I would say they likely have a good case for a mal-practice suit here.
Sad for family. Condolences to the family and friends
I was pregnant with an ectopic pregnancy and having a miscarriage and went to the emergency room because I was bleeding excessively.
I checked in, and sat down.
I was a white lady, 32 years old, and my husband met me there.
There were little kids and old people with flu symptoms and they were being seen in this ER.
I waited about and hour and checked with the desk again and then about three hours and began cramping terribly. I went back up to the desk and told them I needed to lay down and I understand the doctor isn’t ready to see me but if they don’t have an empty room where I can lay down, i will lay down on that rolling bed in that corner right over there or maybe over there on the floor.
I started crying because i was in quite a lot of pain and she said I just can’t help you.
Then I went over to the rolling bed and laid down and the hospital staff said I couldn’t stay there. An older lady (white hair grandma) who was also waiting to be seen said “let her lay down and see her before you see me” and other people there waiting started to speak up. I was quiet but crying. I don’t know what my husband was doing - I don’t remember - but he was a captain or major and in uniform so just so you know it doesn’t matter whether you’re an officer or enlisted…
They got me into an exam room and the ob gyn doctor came in and said she had been in surgery (not apologizing but explaining).
They took me into surgery, said they would try to save the baby but the baby had never made it to the womb and was stuck in the tube. So I had lost a lot of blood in the abdomen - I think it was about 2 liters.
I was home, off work, for a month because I had lost a lot of blood and they didn’t want to do a blood transfusion because it was 1992 or 3 and the blood was possibly tainted with AIDS or something like that.
But anyway. I’m as white as you can be. My husband was present. We both speak English - this was a military hospital and my husband was an officer.
Sometimes demographics don’t matter.
We are just gonna have to accept that not everyone in the medical environment knows how to triage or what to do.
And some of those people don’t really care.
So sorry you went thru this. Sadly like you and too many others I have my own stories pos and neg (esp during pandemic) incl being ‘admitted’ which meant still being in the ER hallway for 2 days w/same clothes and no change of sheets. What you say is accurate for Canada (for good and bad). I’m guessing other countries too.
Back in the 1980's was having a miscarriage (2nd trimester) and asked for a safe place to lay down. Crickets. Announced loudly that my towel was now blood soaked and unless they really wanted to clean up the mess...yeah, they "found" a bed. Still waited another hour, but at least it was out of the way. And I was an established patient. Nice mess for the er doc, though.
Yes, SOMETIMES demographics don't matter.
But unfortunately, many times it absolutely matters.
However, because you have never been a "black" woman [person], you will never know the extreme level of regular uncare, disrespect and disregard we experience in not only the medical field[which is extreme] but in pretty much ever sector of the United States Corporation.
Saddest part is, do they even know why they "hate" one people so much?
They don't!
But maybe one day soon[before its too late] they'll get their mind and soul right!!!
Agreed. because you're white doesn't mean you get special treatment. I have seen the opposite happen many times.
@@LuvlyLibra My friend is an ER nurse and unfortunately she said hands down BW are the most rudest and ugliest to them by far! She has been at the ER for 10 years. They try to treat everyone equal. Dont know why but its not OK.
This happened to me at a Kaiser in Manteca, I arrived by ambulance with afib and breathing distress. No pain though. They did a quick BP check and temp check. Yhen they moved me to lobby and i sat there for two hours. I spoke out. Then they moved me to a hallway and left me for another hour. I got up and walked out the doors and they asked me where I was going. I said I'm calling for help since they were not giving it
We had Kaiser in Denver, CO. Worst system of anti-care we ever dealt with.
Afib isn't anything to get excited about and some breathing issues can be a symptom. Afib itself isn't a problem. Treat the side effects with blood thinner and tachycardia, usually with a beta blocker. Drugs can be used to try to control them the symptoms, if necessary. Many are asymptomatic, so do nothing more. Shortness of breath is certainly one of the symptoms, so treat them. None of this is a dire emergency. Scary, the first time, you bet. But, unfortunately, you'll get used to it. I've been all the way down this street.
I sat in the ER waiting room for five hours after a near-syncope event. The waiting room was FULL of people coughing their lungs up. Later, my heart stopped for eight-seconds. It bought me a pacemaker.
@@denisefrickey5636 I've heard really bad things about Kaiser.
@@kwilliams2239. Same here. I have horror stories from experiences I had at Kaiser.
@@kwilliams2239 Some people with afib do not tolerate it. By its nature decreased cardiac out put thru loss of atrial kick. Usually tolerated controlled rate under 100 beats per minute. I do not tolerate it well when ventricular rate above 140. I do minimum work at that rate and often feel light headed, unstable on feet and short of breath. My mother did not tolerate Afib at all. She would become cold with diaphoresis she was in her 90's
My brother had a friend whose brother was a doctor. He had been trying for years to find a PCP that he felt would actually listen to him. Otherwise, he was largely avoiding going to the doctor… for that reason. The friend mentioned that her brother was a doctor in the area and because he was complaining about abdominal pain for a large portion of a week, she asked her brother to see him. He agreed and examined him **on the doctor’s day off**
And spent like an hour getting a history. My brother was floored. An hour from a GP! On his day off! The doctor, palpated his abdomen and although it didn’t hurt that much more in the LRQ, the doctor was shocked to find that my brother’s appendix was huge. He sent him for imaging immediately. And then having everything confirmed he sent him to the ER and told him he needed to be seen right away by the ER doctor and he gave him the codes what to say. And brother got to the ER, and the nurse would absolutely **not** let him see the doctor. WTH?? They apparently sent him home, the doctor who originally saw him called because he saw what had happened in the notes and called him at home, I think, over the weekend, told him he needed to get in there immediately. And he was absolutely livid that they blew him off, even though he had been insisting on seeing someone. Don’t know if that nurse got fired or what but my brother ended up with weeks of antibiotics to get the raging infection under control so that they could actually do the surgery, his body at least had encapsulated the infection though, so they and he got lucky. He did not have a fever and that I think is what messed everyone up initially.
I have personally experienced Kaiser Kare, which is mostly doctor rolling eyes, invalidating, gaslighting, for the past 15 years of my 30 years with them, i.e., I am no longer deserving of the usual level of care as an older person
I was sent to the ER by an urgent care facility. They found that I was severely dehydrated and had diabetic ketoacidosis. They gave me my lab results to give to triage at the ER, but triage ignored them and said "we'll do our own". I went to the waiting room. After several hours, I had labs drawn and a chest X-ray, then back to the waiting room. After about 10 hours, I was getting short of breath and couldn't stand up anymore. I went to the desk (I was in a wheelchair by then) and asked if triage could look at me because I was much worse. They said they don't do that and I will get brought back when its my turn. I was so thirsty, they wouldn't even give me water and there was none available anywhere near the waiting room. Anyway, I was in the waiting room for 16 hours. I lost consciousness and was coded and wound up in CCU for a week. This was two years ago, and I have permanent issues now because of the toll that took on my body. Hospital ERs need to recheck the patients in the waiting room every couple hours at least to see if they are worsening. Complete negligence.
@@mixedbouquet1 that sounds like provable negligence in a court of law to me.
We have only a very small rural hospital where people are born and also die like my husband who recently died from a brain bleed. I just believed that Healthcare is only an industry now and nothing else.
It's worse than that. In what other industry can you be totally incompetent and still get paid, or treat your customers in a psychopathic manner?
No audio!
@leahparker9033 true!
Sorry for your loss. xx
I am so very sorry for your loss.🙏
Gaslighting occurs simply because I am a woman. When a doc reads my short med list they are not as concerned. When they read that I take an antidepressant and ADD meds I am discounted as being -whatever.
I’ve heard about this. I’m so sorry you went through this.
You should not be shocked. We took my brother to the ER, told them he was having a chest pains, trouble breathing… a heart attack. After about an hour in the waiting room my mother started screaming at them and they FINALLY evaluated him and guess what? He was having a heart attack.
Ugh, I'm glad you weren't sent home with "you shouldn't google symptoms of a heart attack"
I can give you another example just for myself. My Gallbladder. was on The Verge of rupturing. After waiting, they sent me to my doctor's office. Who turned around and sent me back across the street to the closest hospital to his office and admitted me.This is our healthcare system, it's no good
😢😢
I had a similar problem like this with Kaiser...
My latest ER experience was on June 10, 2024. I went in, sat in the waiting room for six hours then was ushered back to an er room. I complained of moderate tingling on the left side of my face when I looked to the right or leaned my head to the right and specifically told the docs that I was a VACTERL birth with vertebral anomalies, i.e. block vertebra, hemi-vertebra and past laminectomy of C3-C5. He was decidedly not impressed with me and said this wasn't an emergent medical emergency. He scheduled me for an MRI six weeks out and that MRI showed new and severe central canal stenosis at C1-C2 with associated myleomalacia (softening of the spinal cord) and now it will take another two weeks to get in to see a doctor and learn whether or not I will require a surgical solution.
The stress of that is enormous. The lack of certainty and the ability to reconcile or plan the next year of my life is surreal.
I think it's a very indifferent medical system we have in this country. I bet the rich don't have to put up with this crap. Ugh.
So the doctor was right in that it wasn't an emergency?
But it was something that needed to be seen asap by your pain management or ortho doctors?
That poor man , that should never have happened to him.
I've seen 10 surgeons in Buffalo. Each sent me back to work with a broken vertebrae in my back. It bothered me so bad, I found it myself on an old MRI years latter, using a magnifying glass. They continue to deny pain relief because I distrust their surgery and shots.
BTW, if you are established cardiac patient with the hospital, their ER will treat you differently at check in. I've gone multiple times and given a barrage of tests beyond what was necessary every time I went because I was "in their system as a cardiac patient" so it helps after a certain age to establish yourself with a cardiologist then go to the ER attached to that doc's hospital. Also being established with a cardiologist might give you phone access during an emergency through your doc's office so they can call in to direct your care off hours.
What happened to triage in a busy ER? It's a JCAHO requirement to prevent this type of tragedy. At least it used to be. I'm a retired RN.
What is happening is that most drs and nurses are in it for a steady paycheck and job security. They do not care about people. They know it is almost impossible for anyone to even get a lawyer to sue for malpractice, unless you're wealthy and have one on retainer. Far too many in the medical INDUSTRY look at patients as if we are inconveniencing them . They look at us with contempt.
As a retired nurse, med care is negligent at best! It's a profit system. Once insurance companies started telling experienced Dr's what they had to do many of the experienced Dr's, nurses and other experienced med personnel either retired early or left the field. Each new story I hear is absolutely terrifying.
One thing I have found is being a woman can be very difficult. If you are in pain and are calm and polite, they don’t take you seriously. If you are crying, they say you are being histrionic. Couple that with being a woman who has depression and anxiety and, depending on who is truly paying attention, you can get written off totally. I was in the emergency room Christmas Eve. I was in terrible gut pain and was throwing up bile. The vomiting stopped but the pain worsened. I couldn’t help but scream, which is unlike me. I was aware I was screaming and trying to stop knowing there were other people who didn’t feel well. I just couldn’t stop screaming. At one point, a young woman came in and demanded to know why I was screaming. I don’t know what she looked like because my eyes were tightly closed. I screamed, “I’m in so much pain!!!” She left and shut the door behind her. Come to find out, I had ischemic bowel and needed surgery. When I asked when the surgery would happen, the surgeon said, “Now.” I am very lucky to be alive. The tissue inside was necrotic. I started to crash while I was on the table so they had to wake me up and finish the procedure 36 hours later. I kind of wish I knew who the young woman was. I wish I could talk with her and encourage her to be more gentle with people who are screaming but not being threatening (I was screaming, “Oh my God!” over and over again. I am sure her job is difficult and the ER was very busy that night. If she had said that she was closing the door but that they were not ignoring me, wouldn’t forget me, something-anything reassuring-that would have been helpful. Instead, silence from her and the door audibly closing was what I got. At that point, I became terrified. I had no way to know her thoughts, and didn’t know if I was being written off or not. All it would have taken to alleviate the terror would be a kind word.
Unfortunately, that young woman was likely a sociopath. Talking with her wouldn't have helped.
When I was having chest pain, I went to the same day clinic at my doctor' s medical group. They took my blood pressure and did a quick exam and they told me to go to the ER because they couldn't do the necessary tests. I said out loud, "oh no, I'll be waiting for hours". The PA told me to tell them specifically that I was having chest pain. When I got there I checked in and they called me in 1-2 mins. Thank goodness I was OK.
Our local healthcare system decided to “educate” all the doctors offices because we were sending them too many patients. Dude, her blood pressure was 80/60 do not come at me. Read the notes.
@@FireandbubblesMaybe they should promote healthy living if they want less patients, not punish offices for sending them cases SMH
Unfortunately this is spot on. I was ER for 7 hours after presenting with a heart attack. 2nd attack, 54yrs old. 1 HR in begged for oxygen and a wheelchair. Told them I would have their kids college fund.(1st attack 32, heart study for plavix)7 hours later emergency surgery,24 days in the hospital, quadruple bypass and new parts. This is normal unfortunately.
My brother had had a Colonoscopy the day before. Woke up bleeding profusely. Went to Hospital where he had the Colonoscopy done, went to the desk, told him the Doctors name & that he was bleeding. They told him they would get to him ASAP, which didn't happen. After 2 more rounds of him going to the bathroom & the desk, he came out of the bathroom and face planted on the floor from loss of blood. Things changed really fast after that. I know of 2 other people this happened to after a Colonoscopy.
this is from the cvdshot....more than you know
I’ve had many in my life and no incidents but do your research on GI doc and hosp or clinic. Choose carefully.
Care to elaborate how Covid shot causes colon bleeding?
My brother-in-law lost balance and couldn't walk without hanging on to furniture. he was home by himself. He phoned for an ambulance but was told to drive himself to the hospital, something he absolutely couldn't do. He phoned his sister to drive him to the hospital.
Wow
WHAT??? I didn't even know 911 could tell you that if you are calling to receive emergency care. I've never heard a story like this. That is outrageous!
My husband went to the ER by ambulance with a Gall Bladder attack. He had just before that EKG checks in the ambulance. He is 79. His condition changed in the ER and he became cold and clammy, he was in a wheelchair and couldn't hold his head up. He was delirious and so miserable that he kept looking at me and saying, "it hurts so bad", in a whisper. I reported this to the cage where the staff is supposed to work and they again said they "would tell the Nurse". I told the cage 3 times when things got worse that he was worse. He began to hurt all over, even his chest. He was covered with 2 blankets and I looked for a place to prop his head up on the walls. No second triage, or third-----no fluids for 2.5 hours, at least. This was at the largest hospital in Rio Rancho, NM. I thought that this is illegal. His heart was having many irregular beats when he finally got to the hospital floor. God spared his life from the medical care-less and disorganized!. Neither of the hospitals here have triage in the ER, and patients just suffer, maybe when an ingrown toenail was being treated. Thank you for this information!
Don't diss the ingrown toenail. A diabetic can die from one. If the infection spreads, things get bad. If skin problems, psoriasis, eczema, fungal infection, etc., occur it goes bad quickly for a diabetic or others with additional medical issues. Don't diss the ingrown toenail.
I gave lupus and have had to go to the ER more than once. My family is on STRICT ORDERS; I even have it in my medical directives, I have taken a video of myself saying the following and have sent it to my family. They are under no circumstances to bring me to my local ER which is literally 3 minutes away. They are to bring me to the “good ER” that is 30 min away. I have legally documented that I rather die on the highway than be go to the closest ER.
Dr. Kavey - you are appreciated and I’m sure respected by your patients. By watching your videos I grew up in the early 60’s, GOD forbid how dare I even ask a question, and with my Parent’s with me I never opened my mouth. I’m in my late sixties now, I do advocate, question & do a lot of research. By doing so, I have two Doctors my PCP & my Cardiologist that help me take very good care of me. They both more patients would speak up and be engaging, rather than just listening. THANK YOU!❤
I’m from Vallejo and I used to go there. I’m glad you are talking about advocating for yourself
Doctor, thank you for helping us and teaching us how to advocate for ourselves the best way ❤
This is awful! I had sepsis once and they let me leave the emergency room then they called me to come back because obviously the culture came back and I sat in the waiting room for about four or five hours. I’m like yeah, sepsis could lead to organ failure really fast, but let’s not hurry. 🙄
Lacking is an understatement. The rate of incompetence among doctors, nurses, and residents is staggering.
Once I had chest pains and drove my self to the ER. As soon as I said chest pains I went in front of everyone and they did the triage. Turns out I was only dehydrated but amazed at the work they did that night.
I have severe Crohns and have had a bowel resection- 1 1/2 feet removed)and because I have a drug history (2 DECADES clean), I have been left in the waiting room for 8+ hours. I live in the BAY AREA and I am terrified to go to the hospital because Kaiser has dismissed me SO MANY TIMES! They think I’m “drug seeking “. I, too, have been on the floor crying in severe pain and was ignored.
During a kidney procedure, the people in Kaiser Vallejo drew a penis on me with over 100 “pubic” hairs . I still feel so violated 😭It was on my bikini line so it wasn’t immediately apparent ( also I was so swollen and on pain medication from the procedure.) Thanks for this video ❤
@@kristiemarsh49 I only wish that I were surprised. Somewhere in medical school, they extract humanity and replace it with superiority.
A nurse taught me how to talk to Drs to get referrals, additional tests, and good diagnoses. FINALLY!!
How?
Do tell!
Twice in my life it took 'causing a scene' in a hospital to actually prevent death.
There's many doctors in Oklahoma (not all) that are no good!!!! My first back surgery doctor screwed me up worse than I was originally, which was acute! I had 3 bsd disc's. He would not listen to me. I had to literally get balagurent before he'd do anything (after surgery). He said I had only 1bad disc. I said, no, there's 3!! He finally said OK, go get an xray. Of course I did!!. His words were "well, there is a bad disc but it wasn't there before, it's a different one". No, it's still the same 2. Even after that I still could not walk so he sent me to pain management. He was doing nothing more. Because of him I was flat on my back for 2 years!! I went to another doctor about 2 years later. He even said the previous doctor did not know what he was doing and that he put me through much pain that was unnecessary. Be careful who you go to God bless
Who was your doctor and what hospital.
This happened to my 50th year old brother: heart attack at Veterans hospital in the ER 😢
Can 100% relate to this. This happened to me & my sister on July 4th last year. My sister slipped and fell the night before and nearly broke her leg and struck her head on concrete payment. The next morning her head hurt so bad she was dizzy and couldn't see straight and asked me to drive her to the E.R. We sat there for 10 hours waiting for help behind the massive crowd of homeless people who pack that ER on holidays to sleep, to the point where some patients had to sit on the floor. After 10 hours, an orderly came out and told us it would be, and I'm not kidding, 13 MORE hours before they'd get to her, despite her having a visible head wound. She asked me to drive her back home and had to wait until the next day when her local doctor's office was open to get help.
I went to the ER after being sick for several days with the flu(?) for difficulty breathing because urgent care was closed (it was middle of night).The doctor berated me - "What are you doing here wasting our time for a (blank)-ing cold? Go home!" No x ray done. She listened briefly to my breathing and apparently thought it was good enough. I went home and had to wait for urgent care to open at 7am. They did an x ray and turned out I had pneumonia, likely due to a secondary bacterial infection from the flu. It wasn't so bad that I was going to imminently die, which is apparently what had to happen before getting treated at the ER. I was going on 60 at the time, and I have COPD and almost died 10 years before from pneumonia because I waited too long to get help. I got a breathing treatment at urgent care, a script for a z-pac and inhaler, and was sent home. Boy, did I write a letter to the hospital administrators with a cc to that doctor, along with copies of my x ray results, treatment, and scripts from urgent care. Didn't hear a word back.
My gran was overweight, diabetic, with high blood pressure, had a previous heart attack, waited 2 hours, and was sent home being told it was indigestion. She almost died of a severe heart attack less than an hour later, and spent weeks in the ICU.
The last 4 times my family used the ER we were in the waiting room minimum of 8 hours for each visit. Once was for a head injury where the victim didn’t know who they were or where they were. I’m scared I might have to go back there someday.
I knew a young man who was in his 30s went to St Mary’s Hospital ER and they believed he was drug seeking but he was having a heart attack. Other people were willing to let him go first but medical staff made him wait. He went into cardiac arrest they tried to revive him a couple of times and he ended up in a coma and sent to a nursing home where he died.
That's terrible!
If you think you are having a heart attack, tell them. Tell them you have chest pain, and it's hard to breathe. I went through a period in my life when I would go to ER for panic attacks, thinking the worst and I was seen so fast. Also, if I had to wait, they did an EKG on me before I sat in the waiting room. That's absolutely terrible that man didn't get treatment! Use your phone to google translate. It is upsetting being that the Bay Area is so diverse with many languages spoken and no one helped?!
How did you recover from panic attacks ?
Problem is, you don't want them to think you are one of these people who come in with a self-diagnosis after having googled their issues. Doctors like coming to their own conclusions.
My sister in law went to her doctor, and due to very high blood pressure, he told her to the ER. She did, and while there, she had a stroke. She walked into the ER of her own accord, and has never walked again. It’s been a year now. So sad. She was having a stroke while sitting waiting. 😢
I’m so sorry.
oh we have them up here in Oregon too, same issues. as soon as i saw the name it all made sense. Honestly I've given up the fight to be heard, I am an obese black woman every aspect of life is a battle and trying to get people to acknowledge you are a human is exhausting. its especially frustrating when its in the mental health department bc unless you are at the extreme end, no one notices, cares, or believes you about your pain.
Your comment brought me to tears. I am so very sorry you have these experiences; I can’t even imagine what that must be like. Please remember we are souls having a human experience and one day when you leave this crazy planet, peace and love will be waiting for you - you will be home again.
@@stephanieviolette593Beautifully said!❤
I would never wait eight hours in an E.R., there are usually more than one hospital in a Metropolitan area. Go home and call an ambulance! Having said that, I had a NSTEMI heart attack five years ago August 10...they almost sent me home because NSTEMI heart attacks do NOT show up on an EKG. My troponin levels showed I WAS having an attack. He ended up keeping me because of my medical and family history and the troponin results. Ended up having emergency angioplasty. Also, ladies! We don't always have the same symptoms as men. I thought my esophagus had ruptured because the hideous, burning pain in BOTH sides of my chest, I thought I had inhaled stomach acid. The arm pain didn't start until 5-6 hours into the attack. Be aware and self-advocate.
My daughter was hit by a truck on an icy crosswalk in Montreal and waited 14 hours to be seen by a doctor even though she was brought in by ambulance. She was not obviously bleeding, but she had a concussion. She speaks French, but is an Anglo. She was luck she wasn't more badly hurt, but she could have died from internal brain bleed and a nurse wouldn't have checked for hours!
I worked cath lab the last 15 years of my career. This incident occurred quite a few years ago, during the winter, when our emergency rooms were extremely busy, A young woman of 29 went to a ER at a hospital in our city. She had chest pains, sweating. She sat in the ER at this other hospital for 8 hours. She went home. After an hour her symptoms were getting worse. She came to our ER, and immediately was brought to our cath lab, She had a 100% blockage of her Left anterior descending artery. We open it with balloon and stent. She did well and eventually went home. This girl was a diabetic, and we're not sure why the other hospital had her waiting so long, other than they thought she was dealing with a high blood sugar or other diabetic issue.
I had this happen to me in Anniston,Al after I arrived to the ER I told them I thought I was having a heart attack and that I had had four previous heart attacks and I sat in the waiting room for four hours and that's when I walked out and drove a hour to Birmingham,Al VA hospital and was admitted with unstable angina. Had I not have left and it had gotten worse I probably would have died like this poor guy did. I've had two additional heart attacks since and I refuse to go anywhere near the hospital that just left me sitting for four hours. I always go somewhere else and where I live is in the stick's so I had to be flown out and they carried me to a different hospital that was on top of it before I even got there.
I have had Epilepsy for 63 years and been taken to the hospital by friends or by them calling 911 and going by ambulance. when brought in by friends I have actually had a second tonic clonic seizure while in the ER waiting room. I don't know if this is the same everywhere, but going by ambulance has always taken me into the ER immediately no waiting in a waiting room. If you suspect something may be serious, I suggest calling 911, instead of someone driving you.
I have friends who are long time paramedics incl air ambulance. In Canada you’re triaged no matter what by a triage nurse. Too many use an ambulance to get triaged ahead. Some drive in because the wait for ambulance is too long. An ambulance shouldn’t be tied up for this so they’re avail for life threatening emerg or those who truly can’t make it in by car.
@@jmc8076in America we fix that by not making insurance cover ambulance rides. So people with chest pain, broken legs, post ictal, they just drive themselves in and hey, they usually don’t kill anyone else on the way from dying in the car while driving!
@@jmc8076 That is why a said serious. he was talking about someone dying in a waiting room after waiting for 8 hours. If he would of called 911 to begin with, and went by ambulance he most likely would still be alive'
I am disabled, transgender, have chronic pain, and mental health issues. Literally ANY ER I go to unless I am bleeding out of my eyes tells me Im having an anxiety attack or I need to lose weight or my personal favorite they treat me like a drug seeker. Fun fact I have had 2 cancers, covid twice and 2 blood clots all missed by ERs for one reason or another.
Wow. I’m so sorry.
19 hours a man waited in the ER when he died in
Parkland Hospital in Dallas, TX , a few years back.
That's Horrific
I was completely dismissed for a septic infection and was immediately discharged because I had a lighter leash on my purse. Was told " why help you" I just keep a lighter I don't even smoke. History of osteomyelitis and diabetes sent home. Now a year later toe infection went to foot looking at loosing it. Because of a hateful ER Dr
My grandson found the exact opposite problem with "I'm dizzy". He used that excuse for skipping a class. I had a feeling he was lying, so I took him to urgent care. He's a pretty hairy teenager. They did not shave his chest before putting heart leads on and got a wonky result and sent us to the ER for a right ventricular hypertrophy. After 8 hours in the ER, the triage people immediately shaved him and got a better result. After 4 months of waiting to see a pediatric cardiologist, with not so much as a call to set an appt, I took him to my doctor, who is a teaching doctor. My doctor said if he truly had the hypertrophy, he'd be dead by now. It definitely taught my grandson a lesson- 55 minutes of skipping class isn't worth all that.
In the early 2000s, my husband had appendicitis. He had had the pain for a couple of days, and it was getting much worse. He was in the ER waiting room for over 8 hours, and they keep taking less critical cases. I asked the desk when they were going to find him a bed in the ER, and I told them how we would rather have a nice New Year’s Eve somewhere else, and that if anything happened to him, I was going to sue them and the hospital. Suddenly they found a way for him to be seen. The care inside the ER was good, and the care in the hospital after his appendectomy was good, but the triage was a disaster. I was so disgusted at the contempt they had for my husband and me. I am sure part of it is my Kentucky accent. Both of us are white, so being white dies not ensure proper treatment at an ER. After my husband’s experience at that ER, when I was having cardiac issues, I went to another hospital with a good record for cardiac care. I had to wait an hour there, before being seen. A couple of nurses were obsessed with insisting I had used illegal drugs, and when I became angry, the last nurse asked my husband if I was telling the truth. Insisting I used drugs only made my cardiac symptoms worse, so I ended up in the Chest Pain Observation Unit. I still see the cardiologist on call that evening. He believed me, and he had a great bedside manner. There is nothing better than treating a patient with respect and kindness.
Why did they think you used illegal drugs?
I have a calcified aorta and now, RIGHT NOW, I have chest pain. I have had a high white count for three years. I have Sutter Health (after having the best care in the world in Silicon Valley). If Sutter cannot even prescribe my headache medication I certainly have no intention of going there for chest pain. I’d rather just lay in my own bed.
My mom was in triage for 4 hours . Then got into Emergency waiting room on a gurney bed. Then they moved her to a chair where she sat for over 8 hours. She did say something after 8 hours being in a chair that she needed to be in a medical bed in ER. That fell on deaf years., so she has me to take her home, while leaving the doctor saw her leaving and told her , she is very sick. My mom answered I know , but this 80 year old is not sitting in a chair any longer. I took her home , next day I get call that the old age home found her on the floor and she is back in hospital. Go there and she is in ER in hospital gurney bed. We were told she had blood poisoning , she never came home from hospital, after going back she passed away 2 weeks later
I'm so sorry
God b with u!
@@sabrinabowden-hughes1730 thanks, that happened in 2019. Where I live the the hospital and doctors are a complete joke in my opinion . There probably are some good doctors here, but I have not met any yet.
It’s commonly known, chest pain and trouble breathing bumps you in the line… helping the algorithm
At my small town hospital when sitting with my very sick mother in the ER,we heard the dr and the nurses betting on what time the elderly man in the next bed would die. The dr was going out for a cigarette, and if the man was dead upon his return,the nurses had to buy coffee and donuts on break, if he was alive then then the dr lost lost the bet and he would buy. This was not a one time incident. They were laughing very inappropriate things. His family sitting with him, and possibly the patient himself, could hear it. When i reported it they claimed it was not wrong bc the drs and nurses cant take things too seriously bc it would cause them too much stress. So its perfectly acceptable. Can u believe that? His poor family.
That's horrible!
My doctor once called an ambulance to get me to the E.R. because of symptoms and blood tests. Fortunately it turned out to not be a heart attack. The E.R.'s discharge letter said "walked in by herself to get checked out for chest pain". Either these folks are crazy overworked and burnt out, or they are biased.
omg. The quotes.
A combination of all these things.
A friend of the family died years ago, he was in a car accident, was brought to the ER for a broken arm, kept complaining that he was having chest pains. 6 hrs later they brought him back for xrays and he died on the xray table.
3 years ago, in Fort Myers Florida, I had to wait 22 hours to get into ER from chest pressure, dizziness, lethargic. Finally admitted with Acute Kidney Injury and had to spend 4 days there. It was very serious. I had to fight to stay awake and finally just took 2 chairs and put them together so I could someone lay down. The medical system is horrible.
My friend called an ambulance because i was on the bathroom floor sweating to the point my hair was dripping, absolutely no color, i was awake but could not really communicate, ...she had seen me 5 min before when i woke her up at 6 am to tell her to listen for my son in bed because my stomach was in such pain i was going to be in the bathroom...within 5 min i threw up, got extremely dizzy and all strength left my body, I felt extremely hot so i took my clothes off (although she said i was ice cold) and laid on bathroom floor so i didnt fall, felt the sweat dripping down every part of my body, felt the surge of extreme fatigue, loud whooshing in my ears, i began counting tiles to stay focused because i couldnt tell if i was breathing shallow or fast or slow i could hear her talk to me but i was in a zone and couldnt respond much. This was all in 5 min. By the time ambulance came i was fine mostly. Weak. Pale. But sweating stopped and i was able to talk and relay info. Went to ER...said it was gas. Sent me home. I was 19 yrs old. This happened once before at 17. It scared me to death then but to the T the sequence of events were the same. It happend 7 times total in my life. Each time exactly the same and typically starts before waking or very soon after. My husband witnessed the last one 3 yrs ago. (I am now 47) he was with me when it happend from start to finish which was a first time i had someone with me the entire time. He said based on his training in military and firefighter it appeared to him i was going into shock. But all we were doing is picking up grandsons toys off the floor and i got the familiar stomach pain and i know what that pain means. So he helped me to bathroom. I have IBS-C that started in my 30s so stomach pain is very common in my life but this certain pain is like 10 times worse. Ive had an extreme amount of tests done finally because i finally had a doctor take me very seriously but we found absolutely nothing.
I woke up one day about 15 years ago with extreme chest pain and shortness of breath. Was able to drive myself to the ER and they took me right away! Come to find out.. it was GERD.
One thing that frustrates me the most is if I had to go into the ER to get something for pain because of my sciatic nerve. I have had instances were doctors have automatically assumed that I was drug-seeking without even bothering to look at my medical history where they would have seen that I have sciatica. There's always that stigma that because they have had instances where someone comes in faking a condition and they're actually seeking drugs. It's a situation that makes it bad for everyone. But doctors should never assume that that's the case.
I threw up bile and passed out twice while my kidney was failing. They asked for a urine sample at triage, then sent me back to the waiting room. The sample was mostly bright red blood with large white chunks in it. I was a teen and I just remember realizing how sick you must have to be to actually be an emergency, if peeing blood and vomiting bile, and pain so bad you pass out isn’t enough to see a doctor, everyone else must be dead.
As retired nurse i need care....disgusting !! Medical has gone to hell
Ditto!
Broke my arm the nurse in ER poked my break 10 times said it's in my head.
The medical field has turned into a nightmare especially in the hospital. This is unforgivable!!!!!!!!
Seems pretty common. Back in 2018 in Chandler, AZ I was brought in by ambulance for left bundle branch block, chest pain, back pain, numbness and tingling in my left arm, a blood pressure over 180/120 and heart rate 170 after chasing my dog for 2 blocks. They immediately did a CT scan with results of a calcium score of 0. I sat in the waiting room for 8 and a half hours of them providing meds to lower my blood pressure and heart rate and it wasn’t coming down so they finally admitted me. A day later in the cath lab the cardiologist found I had an 80 % blockage of scar tissue of the LAD from pediatric cancer radiation treatment back in 1988.
Wow! God definitely was watching out over u!