Posted by RN320 on December 12, 2006, at 19:53:41
In reply to My Magical Trip To The ER, posted by dbc on December 11, 2006, at 22:11:52
I am so sorry that you had to endure such poor medical and nursing practice in the ER. I had an experience in an ER that almost cost me my life because I was assumed to be nuts. In August, I lost consciousness and fell down my uncarpeted stairs (all eleven of them) face first. When I woke up, my stairway walls looked like a crime scene. I was bleeding profusely from facial wounds and a huge hematoma on my one leg. My back door was open and my nextdoor neighbor was cutting my lawn and happened to walk by as I was coming up the stairs. I got help and my mom drove me to the local ER.
In triage, the minute I started listing my meds and mentioned that I was being treated for drug resistant depression the two nurses rolled their eyes, looking at one another. I was less than coherent at the time and they attributed all of this to mental illness. My Mom had to explain to them that I was actually pretty sharp and that they'd better do something. They kept me out in triage a long time for someone who has just sustained a head injury, lost consciousness and was bleeding like a stuck pig. An ER doc finally came out and the nurses started to talk to him. The only words that I heard were "depression" and "psych meds" and this confirmed that I was already labeled crazy. The doc was pleasant and did a CT scan right away. My injury was severe enough that he decided to admit me overnight. I told him about my cardiac history and that I was currenlty on EMSAM, etc. and he didn't seem all that concerned.
While I was being transported from the ER to an observation unit (unmonitored) I had either a cardiac or respiratory arrest (we'll never really know which happened first because I was not on a monitor as I should have been) and woke up in the ICU with CPR bruises all over my chest. You would think that someone critically ill (as I was very briefly) would be treated as an ICU patient, but I was labeled a head case by the nurses and ICU docs. I was really angry because I'm an ex-ICU nurse myself, and would never have thought that the healthcare profession, who are so educated, could be so stupid and judgemental, leading to gross incompetance. It just speaks volumes to discrimination of people with mental illnesses.
So, as horrible as your story is (made the hair on the back of my neck stand up!) it's totally believeable and again- I'm sorry that you had to go through it. I hope you're feeling better now.
/m
poster:RN320
thread:712783
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061212/msgs/713001.html