As I type this ...

[1StrongBlackMan]

I'm in the ED with Mrs. 1SBM ...actually a second ER.

Mrs. 1SBM has had a headache for the past couple of days. We've been monitoring her BP. Yesterday it spiked to 188/110, before going back to normal. Today it spiked to 190. So off to the ER we go.

We'll see what's up with her; but, her condition is not what this is about ... at the 1st ER, was packed. We waited about an hour (a BP level of 180+ is stroke level; but again, this isn't about my wife). One of the people waiting was clearly in discomfort ... groaning loudly and writhing in pain. He was there before we arrived so who knows how long he had been waiting.

Then, he suddenly began vomiting violently into a bucket ... I would have thought someone on the staff would have noticed and took some kind of action ... nope. After maybe 5 minutes (maybe less ... time is hard to judge when witnessing stuff like that), he fell over onto the floor vomiting still.

Still no one on the staff moved. It wasn't until I went up to the desk and informed them the guy was on the floor in what appeared to be severe distress, did the nurse even look up.

She called someone who sauntered to her desk, then sauntered over to the guy, along with a male attendant. Thy picked the guy up, put him in a wheelchair and disappeared, leaving him in the waiting area.

Mrs. 1SBM and I waited another 10 minutes before leaving for the ER "in our neighborhood" ... the guy was still unattended to when we left.

The experience has left me disgusted ... the staff at that ER, was clearly unconcerned.

[riqster]

1. Sadly typical. Our local ED runs in a similar manner.

I hope your wife is OK, and am glad you are taking steps.

[BronxBoy]

2. Hope the Mrs.

Feels better

[Arkansas Granny]

3. My last experience in an ER waiting room was similar.

It was a holiday weekend, so none of the walk in clinics or regular Dr. offices were open, so it was really crowded.

I had gone in for a foot injury (turned out I had cracked a bone in my ankle). They took my info and vitals and parked me in the waiting room. While I was waiting, an elderly gentleman came in with a couple of family members complaining of chest pains. To my eyes, he looked ashen and weak. I expected that he would be taken back immediately, but he was told to take a seat in the waiting area, as well.

Five hours later I was taken to the back for X-rays. The gentleman with the chest pains was still waiting, but his color had improved and he didn't seem to be in as much distress as before. One hour after that, I was released and as I was leaving, the gentleman with chest pains was still waiting.

I would have thought that a person with chest pains would be a priority over injuries or other conditions that were clearly not life threatening.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. The hospital for the entire county is in my lil rural town.

And I had not had an opportunity to be in the ER since I retired over 10 years ago.
So, when Mr. Dixie suddenly could not breathe well, late on a Friday night, off to the ER we went.
The waiting room is small, seats maybe 30 people, it was bout 2/3 full, at 10 pm.
No one appeared to be in critical condition.
The intake person was in a cubby hole, thick glass in front of her, and NO view of the waiting room at all.
No one could see the patients, no one could tell if a walk in dropped dead.
Since Mr. Dixie was hunched over, barely able to breath, I sat him down, took his info and spoke with the intake woman,
who quite elderly.
And hard of hearing, it turned out.
She was all set to let him wait, while I was very concerned that he might pass out.
So I told her he was a heart patient of Dr.___________ in town, could not breath, I feared he might be having a heart attack.
THAT was the magic phrase.
he was taken into the Exam rooms, and treated for, it turns out, a collapsed lung.
Luckily just one lung, at that point.

Really bothered me, seeing how crowded the ER had become, which was not the way it was 10 years ago.
No triage seemed to be going on, people were walking in and sitting down, invisible to the intake cubbyhole, which was unattended half the time.
The person in the cubbyhole had the magic button that allowed the ER exam area doors to open.
When Mr.Dixie was taken into the exam area, there were no other patients there..I have no idea what they planned to do with waiting room people.

[freshwest]

5. I haven't run into any medical person in the last half year who gave a damn. There are staff who

don't look down from their high horses as they are not 'professionals' and they care.

The 'professionals,' act as if the patients are nothing more than an annoyance they don't want to look at, much less touch them. I've seen this in ER's and seen the doctors themselves, after a sick person waits for hours, yell at these absolute strangers about how they have a high case load or haven't had lunch.

This is what is done to people who are paying to be seen, just IMAGINE those who can't pay anything. It's one thing to be abused and handle it with grace or endurance. When one is seriously ill, one cannot fight back, and they know that. But paying several hundred dollars to get this kind of treatment is like cooperating with the abuse.

I'm glad you were there with your wife, I'm sure they knew you meant business and were ready to deal with their BS. And after all that's happened to her recently, she's stressed and her health is at risk.

((((Mrs. 1SBM)))).

[sheshe2]

6. I am so sorry you and the Mrs had to experince that kind of inaction in the ER.

There is no excuse for that poor man to be left sitting in his own vomit. I understand your disgust.

I was lucky the middle of last year after getting myself to the ER twice in one week. Once, the morning after a bad fall I woke to my knee badly swollen and the nasty cut still seeping blood. I live in the burbs and the hospital is only a few miles away. There was one couple at the desk and when they were done, I gave my history and then admitted to the ER after only 15 minutes. They attended me and did the x-rays. After 3 hours I went home.

Well, of course it got infected and my PC put me on antibiotics. A few days later my first day back at work I had an allergic reaction to the drug. Ummmm, my lips, it looked like botox gone bad. Silly me, I did not go to the ER until the next morning. A few more people in the ER that looked like they had finished treatment. Again I was taken right away, and put on an IV drip for 4 hours, then released.

Maybe it was the fact that it was the burbs and a smallish hospital. Maybe it is because I live in MA. As I said, I was lucky. Your experience proves that hospitals need stop being run like a business, it's only concern is the bottom $$$$$$line. It should be about the patients and quality care.

I hope Mrs. 1SBM got the care she needed at your local hospital. Best to you both.

[840high]

7. Totally disgusting.

[onecent]

8. I became very ill (fetal position) horrid pain in right side for about 6 hours,

it was about 3:00 in the afternoon but I refuse to go to an ER. We have some urgent Care Centers (Many are popping up) and they are part of Mayo Clinic....called Mosaic Urgent Care.

I went to this Mosaic Urgent Care, and was so impressed. They took my ins. card and drivers license, and said, let's get you back in a room right now...I was shocked....even more shocked when the doctor offered me a shot for pain....I believe by then he realized it was gall bladder, (But I hurt on the right side for 6 hours, and the pain would move to my left once in awhile). After resting with the shot he gave me a prescription for pain (although M & M's would have worked better) they are sure NOT GIVING OUT anything for pain anymore.

But told me to come back the the urgent care the next morning and get an ultra sound, I believe it was and he told me I had a huge stone in my gall bladder.

It was a longer story when I got to the hospital 3 days later..ha..they kept me for observation for less that 23 hours and released me on a Saturday night and I was back in the hospital and had surgery Monday LATE afternoon. Moron hospitals.....

Mosaic Urgent Care Centers, keep you coming back to their offices, they have doctors for everything, they also have therapy rooms, free aerobics, a nice small area to get an omelette and a sandwich for lunch..and the one I went to had MRI and C Scans available, as well as one wing for people who were recovering from 1 day or 2 day surgeries.

I will never go into an er again. Hope these are popping up in other areas.

[JustAnotherGen]

11. I went to an urgent care

My first bout ith MRSA (early on a Sunday didn't want to go to ER) and I had excellent treatment there.

Next time I went was for an issue related to my A.S. and they had my husband (reluctantly) take me to the ER. They wanted me to go in an ambulance - but I refused. But they called head to Somerset Med to make sure they knew it was a breathing issue.

Now I know to go get breathing treatments when my rib bones hurt.

[freshwest]

13. Oh sweetie. Thank goodness for Mr JAG.

[JI7]

9. i have read about similar things through the years across the country

[JustAnotherGen]

10. First - I really hope she's okay

Second - shame on them. He was in clear distress. Zero respect for him.

[roguevalley]

12. I am so sorry about this and your wife's pain.

I wish you the best. Yesterday I was in the ER with my sister-in-law who has a wound that won't heal (diabetes) and poor circulation. Her foot was turning purple. She was put into a room where she was six hours before she was seen. I came to make sure she was. A nurse finally noticed me pacing silently outside they came.

She was going to go home without an ultrasound on her leg which I asked for. They found a problem and sent her in today for an angiogram. Some people don't know how to speak up. That man sitting there suffering blows my mind. that is the worst thing I've heard in a while. I've heard of people dying waiting.

Hugs to both of you and I hope you get help and good results soon.

RV

[1StrongBlackMan]

14. Please allow me to thank each and every one ...

for the warm wishes and support. It means a lot.

[kwassa]

15. Just to throw my support in, you are welcome.

My ER story: five years ago I went to a quiet ER on a Sunday morning. No one was there. I had an intense pain in my back, that subsided as I went through the door. I was politely asked to take a seat.

I had these pains for several days before, and mistook them for muscle spams.

Finally, they took me into a room, gave me a routine blood test ... and discovered that I had a heart attack. I had atypical symptoms.

After that, I got pretty good, but not great attention in the hospital. Attention from the staff can be wildly variable. Some were fabulous. I now have a stent in my left anterior descending artery. I have no known risk factors for heart attacks.

I actually had a much worse experience with our local emergency care center with a sadistically indifferent doctor, but that is a story for another time.